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I am having hard time removing background from this image. I tried using Magic Eraser and also Background eraser tool. Both of these do not work perfectly.

The reason could be the fact that lower portion of this bottle is of glass and it "blends" with the surrounding.

Is there an easier way to remove background in such cases?

Please let me know.

Thanks!

enter image description here

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2  
Did you take the photo? – e100 Nov 21 '11 at 15:50
The reason I ask is that a 'greenscreen' technique - taking the photo against a coloured background - should make extraction more straightforward. – e100 Nov 22 '11 at 14:28

6 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

The way I deal with glass is to cut out the glass section using the polygonal select tool and remove it to its own layer. From there I drop the opacity in layers panel to 20% and bump up the exposure buy a little, drop the offset by quite a lot and increase gamma correction quite a bit too. This give a nice transparent effect which isn't perfect but is usually good enough.

Example, original on left, altered on right:

enter image description here

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That was a great explanation. Thanks! – Evik James Nov 21 '11 at 21:19
3  
In a case like this, changing the blend mode of the glass to Overlay works very well. Adjust it first using Levels until the grey background is exactly RGB 128,128,128 and the grey will disappear completely. – Alan Gilbertson♦ Nov 21 '11 at 21:57
up vote 5 down vote

use Scott Brown's enhanced method: instead of dropping opacity of "glass" layer, play with its blend modes and levels. hard light seems to work well

enter image description here

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Very nice work! – Evik James Nov 21 '11 at 21:19
up vote 1 down vote

There's no easy way to do this. At best, you could carefully erase the entire background from the edges of the images via various tools, but as you state, since it's glass, you'll still see the background color behind the glass, which will likely look funny if you then place this image on any other background.

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up vote 0 down vote

In previous versions of Photoshop there was an extract tool. Now you can use the 'Quick Selection' tool and 'Refine Edge'. Because your image is close to the background you can only do so much with the quick selection tool. So select the 'Refine Edge' option and first change the 'View Mode' to show on black. Then check the 'Smart Radius' and adjust the value, all time view your image to check if you're improving or not really having an effect! You can then use the 'Refine Radius' tool to paint over the edges you wish to subtract. Again in this image I think you might need to use the Pen tool and improve the lines.

HTH.

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up vote 0 down vote

Copy the image to a new layer. I find it easier to turn off the original layer, also, while I work.

With the new layer picked, go to IMAGE/ADJUSTMENTS/LEVELS. Adjust the sliders to get the most contrast you can get in the image. I could get every edge except some of the right lower edge of the bottle to have pretty defined edges.

Using the magic wand, select and remove everything you can without running into the bottle. After that, zoom in and clean up with the eraser. Once you are satisfied, select the white area you created, maybe put a very small feather on the edge, turn on and select your original layer, and hit DEL.

Voila.

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up vote 0 down vote

http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/iStockGlassMask_SM.mov

Adobe tut..it would help you really. :) cheers

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Hi Arundesign, welcome to GD.SE! We generally post some extra information in a link, in case the link disappears. Do you think you can add some detail to your answer? For example, what does this tutorial do? What program does it use? What are the main steps? – Yisela♦ Apr 16 at 5:00
While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. – Scott Apr 16 at 9:09

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