Extracting and Clear Objects

Happy Friday! A friend of mine asked me to write her a quick tutorial on how to extract glass objects so it shows through at the bottom. So here is my humble little tutorial.

I'm sorry I did not get a chance to clean up more. I should have taken another screen shot but I am at work right now (with no PS!). :)


So here is the photo she sent me. She wanted to extract this cutie pie but have the bowl be transparent, so it would look more realistic.



I did these quick steps. It literally took two minutes. I didn't clean the bottom of the bowl but you get the idea. Also, my screen shot layer numbers do not match up with this tutorial but if you follow it, it should be fine.

1. I extracted the baby using the quick selection tool, made two copies of him, layer 1 and layer 2.

2. I hide the original layer (the unextracted photo) as well as the top most layer (layer 2).

3. I then erased the parts that are supposed to be clear from layer 1. In this case, I just did a quick erase of the top parts of the bowl. If this was done correctly, I would also erase the bottom parts where it is supposed to show through.

4. Then I show layer 2, add a layer mask to it, make it all black (which hides everything), then just paint back the parts that are supposed to be clear (in white), and then lowered the opacity.

And here it is. That little background is from Lorie Davison's Birds, Bees, and the Big Balloon from Scrapbookgraphics.com.