Cutting an image out of a photo

[John Hartline]

I have a picture of someone standing in front of a background that I am not interested in. I have traced the person and now want to "cut out" the person and place on another background. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks for any help.

[John Hartline]

Thanks Beth. When I try to select the person and then edit copy and paste into my new background, the entire original photo is what gets pasted into the new photo. Any ideas how to "trim" the selection of just the person?

[Beth Haney]

What method are you using to select the person from the main image? There are many people on the forum much better/experienced at this than I am, but I generally use the Lasso Tool. Once you've used it to select the person, you should have your selection totally encircled by those (in)famous marching ants, you can then either copy/paste or drag it into a new image.

Since the Lasso is rather hard to control, I normally make my selection and then drag it onto a new blank canvas, with a transparent background. From I use the eraser to get the rough spots removed. Then, once it's all trimmed up, I move it to the background I've chosen.

The hardest thing for me to remember about using the Lasso: If, as you're selecting, you need to shift the image in a window or just move the mouse around on the pad, you can "suspend" the action of the tool by holding down the space bar. If you let up on the mouse without doing that, you'll wind up with a really weird shape!

I just did a quick selection and verified that the instructions I gave work. (I began to have this horrible feeling I'd steered you wrong.)

If you still can't get this to work, repost and give us a step by step of what you're doing and the point at which you're running into trouble. With luck, you'll get someone to respond who's much better at this than me! :)