For this tutorial I'll be cutting this picture: Start off by opening a new document, make sure its set on TRANSPARENT. Paste the picture you want to crop on the document. Then, go to FILTER, and click EXTRACT. Your screen should look like this: (with whatever pic you're cropping.) Click Z on your keyboard and zoom in one part you want to start out with. Click on the highlighter tool (on the top). And change the brush size to whichever is appropriate to you and check the box Smart Highlighting. Now start highlighting around the player (try to be as close as possible, but not over the picture, the smart highlighting should automatically sort of stick to the player.) Zoom in and highlight if you have to and maybe even change the size of the highlighter to get in very tight spots. Make sure you get a rough outline to crop out the majority of the background (we will take care of the excess later.) Sometimes you may accidentally highlight over the object/person, press Ctrl+Alt+Z to undo and you can even erase the accident, too. Make sure you did leave any minor holes out. Pick a color for FILL on the right side (I chose blue) and then click on the Fill tool (under the highlighter) and fill the inside of thing you are cropping. By the end of the highlighting process, it should look roughly like this (NOTE-DO NOT CLICK OK YET, OR YOU WILL HAE SPENT A LONG TIME OUTLINING AND IT WOULDN'T HAVE CUT ANYTHING!!): (If on the fill there is some fill on another part where you don't want it part of the cropped picture, then there must be a minor mistake, so check and zoom that you have outlined it everywhere and there is no small holes.)Then, click ok. You can see there is minor excess left. Make a new layer and pick a light color that the thing you are cropping doesn't have, I picked light green (if you want, you can choose a different path and pick a dark color if the majority of your picture is light and a light color if the majority of your picture is dark, it helps pick out the background easier for some) and I filled the document. Then, you put the fill layer under the cropped image. You should be able to see the excess and unwanted background on the image. Click the cropped picture layer and get the eraser tool and zoom and start erasing. I'll start with the top to the bottom. Pick an appropriate size for the eraser and use a small size one for small spots (like for the outline). Start erasing the unwanted background, make sure to zoom out for the full image to see for other extra background. If I have a pretty big image, I usually start out with a size 9 or 5 eraser. It helps to have the original picture out that you are cropping just in case you become puzzled at one point on whether one part of the picture is either part of the background or part of the picture. I like to maximize the screen of the cropping so theres more room to erase but if there is unreachable spots like on the sides, try to minimize so you can zoom in on it easier. Remember to use the undo command in case of mistakes. After you finished, it should look like this: Perfect and clean!Well, you're practically done, delete the fill layer and save as PSD. (If you want to make it a PSD for others to use). Note: This PSD is in the Sports Dome PSD Gallery!
