The Polygon Lasso and the Gradient Tool The Polygon Lasso...One Aspect, Removing a Background. The Polygon Lasso Tool is the perfect tool for many selecting applications. I use it constantly. In this lesson we will learn how I did the picture on the front page of my brother's website (it may or may not be on the front page at this moment). It was done from a scan that had already been messed around with quite a bit and the original photo isn't available for a new scan. From my viewpoint, it was kind of crappy to start with but looked like it would work and, boy howdy, it just goes to show. Start by clicking (here) to get the picture you're going to work with. This is a picture of the sculpture "Persephone" (Persefony) in his shop. I love this picture cuz it brings back memories. I've sat and carved at the bench in the background. However, the background is very distracting and needs to be removed. First lets open the "02.jpg" picture. Now, hold the "Shift" key and tap "L" until you find this tool . Set its options (Click "Window, Options") to Feather "1" Anti-Aliasing box "Checked". Make a copy of the background layer by dragging it to the "New Layer" icon (I always work on a copy). Press "Tab" to hide your tools and palettes. By grabbing the borders, make the work area as large as possible while still leaving a little room around it (going to full screen doesn't work for this). Press "Tab" again to show your palettes and find the "Navigator" palette (Window, Navigator). Press Ctrl+spacebar and using the selected area below, click your mouse to enlarge. Go to 800% in the navigator. This is going to be huge. So, here we strart by clicking your Lasso Tool. But here is whats important. Notice that the background and the sculpture blend naturally in the JPG. You want to stay away from the background as much as possible without losing any of the subject. With the Feather set to 1 and the Anti-Aliasing turned on (from step above), the subject will re-blend itself into any new background you give it. So, we must eliminate the current background completely. Click here. Notice that I'm tracing just inside the fuzziness and avoiding how it blurrs into the background. Just keep going and finding your way. Don't worry about mistakes. Sometimes it may be helpful to press Alt+Spacebar and mouse click to zoom out and see where you are. Press Ctrl+spacebar and click to zoom back in. When you've gotten all the way around to the other side and are coming down the side of the table, don't try to click along the bottom edge. This tool can be clicked outside the work area and it will still create an anchor point for the selection. So, go ahead and click outside the picture to get your bottom edge. Come back up and meet with your start point. A special note here. If you've missed the edges and gone outside or inside the intended selection, its quite easy to fix. If you're outside the borders press Alt and click to use the lasso as a subtraction tool. If you're inside press Shift to make it an addition tool. Now, save your selection. You'll need it again (Alt+S,S). When the Save Selection dialog box comes up, name your selection "1". It will put an alpha channel in your Channels Palette. We're going to do two versions of background treatment using this selection. Each produces a very nice effect. I used version 2. Version 1 You should still have your selection in place, if not, hit Alt+S, L and load "1" from the Channel dropdown menu. Now click Select, Inverse (Shft+Ctrl+I). This reverses the selection and now your background is selected. Now would be a good time to make one more copy of the Background Layer in your Layers Palette. That way you can save both versions in one file. Drag your Background layer to the New Layer icon as you did before. In your Layers palette, click the "Eye" icon next to the topmost layer to hide it and Background copy 2 (the second one down) should be the one selected. Click Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur and set the radius to about "20". Click OK. Hit Ctrl+D to deselect. Presto, Version 1. Version 2 Click the top layer in your Layers palette. This will select it and bring it back into view (don't worry, version 1 is still there). Click Alt+S, L and reload selection "1" from the Channel dropdown menu. Click Layer, New, Layer Via Cut (Shft+Ctrl+J). This yanks the selection out of the background and pastes it into a new transparent layer. Click on the old background layer to select it. Hit the "D" key to make sure your foregound color is set to black in the toolbox. Hit Alt+Delete (Backspace) to fill the layer with black. Now click on Layer 1 (the top one) to select it and click the New Layer icon (don't drag to it, just click it). This will make a new transparent layer. The Gradient Tool Hit the "G" key to bring up the Gradient Tool. In the tool options select the gradient "Foreground to Transparent" and set it to "Linear". Starting just above the bottom edge of the picture, click and drag (holding the Shift key for a straight vertical line) to the bottom edge of her leg and release. Voila! Now, for the bonus. To start with, I could have applied the gradient to the layer with the sculpture and gotten the same effect. But the way that I set it up in the Layers palette, I've created 4 versions of the picture when I was only going for 2. By placing the gradient in its own layer I can turn it on or off on either of the 2 pictures. Plus every bit of it is in one file! Any reference to "Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop or probably even the word Adobe" on this site, is in direct reference to trademarks owned or registered by Adobe Systems Inc. (worldwide). I am not affiliated with Adobe Systems Inc. and they may even ask that I stop doing certain things that I do.