CS3 HELP PLEASE

[FUJI]

Some processes in CS3 I have the hang of, but, no matter how I try I just cant get a clean edge blur around complicated shapes like this:

The other day a genuin Romany piper turned up in town complete with piebald horse pulling a traditional Bow-Top caravan.....I took a seies of shots:

But I had no way of choosing a neutral background, just the everyday main street with vehicles flashing by every few seconds.

You can see that I have attempted a magnetic mask.....tried the lassoo.....to isolate then Gaussian blur the offending background.......I do have a pen tablet attached to the Desktop PC, but even with that following an edge precisely isn't easy....even for an artist:

N.B. The pic is completely unprocessed except for the blur mask exactly as I drew it:

Anyone have an easier method please?

View LARGE to see what I mean......Click on pic:

CHEERS!

FUJI

[Black Pearl]

Create a duplicate layer.

Blur the background one.

Erase the top one to let the blur show through.

You can zoom right into the edges and erase them with a small soft edged brush.

If you make a slight mistake you can hit undo.

but.....

It can take a while if its a tricky outline.

[FUJI]

Thanks BP, I will give that a go later.

FUJI

[fuzzyedges]

If you do as BP says use a mask before you start erasing then its easy to restore mistakes

Also make the top layer slightly translucent then you can see the bottom layer and the edges you wish to keep

By zooming in you could do no worse than using the pen tool to trace edges bit by bit and select 5 to 10 pixel before deleting

[Phil]

We do have a Tutorials Section for anyone wanting to help ;)

[Guest]

In some situations you can select using a threshold adjustment. Not this time though.

I assume when you draw round him you are using the magnetic lasso?

If you do as BP suggests I suggest you mask rather than erase, it gives more flexibility to correct.

[Black Pearl]

I don't actually use Photoshop anywhere near its potential so forgive a simple question:

What and why a Mask?

[Phil]

Could you post the original at around 2000 pixel width?

[FUJI]

Will do PHIL.....as soon as I fire up the desktop PC later on.

FUJI

[Phil]

Might as well get the tutorial section started :)

[colinb]

Fuji make sure you are using the Polygonal Lasso tool and adjust the edge feather to 1 or 2 pixels ( if you are not sure where/how I could post a screen shot later tonight as I'm about to go out for the rest of the day).