subject: How To Key Out The Backgrounds In Adobe Photoshop [print this page] The revolutionary green screen technology has enabled the photographers to take convincing and attractive pictures of their subject by just making them stand in front of green screen backgrounds. The illusion that they create actually looks natural and this is the reason behind the popularity of this wonderful technology. The basic principle of this form of photography is to replace the green background with the one desired by the photographer or the subject. The method of doing this is called Chroma keying.
The typical workflow of this process starts with clicking the pictures of the subject using the components of a green screen background kit. Once you have taken a perfect shot, you have to import it into any green screen editing software such as 123 video magic or adobe Photoshop, subtract the green background, and add anything that you wish. Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to do this.
1. Copy the picture on your computer and open it in Photoshop.
2. From the select menu, choose the color range feature and then the eyedropper tool. Adjust the fuzziness slider to about 30. You also have to select the invert checkbox, gray scale from the selection preview popup, and the selection radio button.
3. Use the eyedropper tool to select the green area in your photograph. When done, you can see the green area as white and the rest portion as black. If you still see some green patches, select them manually by holding the shift key and clicking on them. Make sure that your selection is perfect.
4. Once the entire green component of your picture is selected, click the OK button. If there are any problem areas, use the lasso tool to add or subtract from the selection.
5. To remove the green area, press the delete button or select the clear option from the edit menu.
6. After the green backdrop is deleted, you will see a slight halo around the edges of your subject. To fix this issue and clean up the edges, select 'Layer>Matting>Remove White Matte' or 'Layer>Matting>Defringe.
7. The keying process is now complete. You have a blank background that can be substituted by any background you want. Drag it and place it in a new layer behind the currently edited layer.
8. Give a final touch to your picture by reducing the noise, blurriness, etc.
This process will work with Adobe Photoshop CS and is very similar to the other versions such as CS2-5, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0.
