Photoshop/101basics/The Basics/Workspace/menubar/filter/extract

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Extract Filter

In this chapter, I'm going to explain everything about filters, what they do and how to use them.

Applying a filter to an image is one of the coolest features in Adobe Photoshop, filters are used to add special effects on your images, and it helps in editing photos as well.

The filter I'm going to talk about is the extract filter.

Extract: this feature is one of the most helpful features of Photoshop, if you have a very complicated picture like a tree that has a lot of branches and leaves and you want to separate it and cut it out from it's background it's almost impossible to do that by using the lasso tool, the magic wand, or even the quick selection tool. The easiest way to do that is by using the extract filter.

The extract filter gives you magical results but how does it work? Well it's simple really; the whole idea comes from taking the difference in contrast between the pixels in (the image) and the pixels in (the background) in the selected area.

How to do that:

1. Go to the menu bar >> select file >> then choose open to bring an image to Photoshop.

2. Now that you have an image in Photoshop, go to the menu bar again and select filter >> Extract or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Ctrl+X

3. When you do that the extract dialog box will open, containing the picture that you want to extract.

4. Now you need to start by selecting the highlighter tool (marker) and draw an over lapping line between the image and the background, make sure that the line surrounds all the image you want to extract. The default color of the highlighter is green, of course you can change that color and also can change the size of the brush you are using.

5. Now that you highlighted the image, go ahead and click inside the image that you want to be extracted, the default fill color is blue, you can change that color as well.

6. Now click on the preview button to see the result which usually is accurate, if not you can use the following tools to fix the image. They will open automatically to select them when you click on the preview button, these tools are:

1. Clean up tool: makes the image (Mask) transparent, it's like the eraser tool that you use on an image.

2. Edge touch up tool: I call it the pixel magnet you can see the effect when you hold down Ctrl and click and drag on the image, you'll see that if you are dragging towards the image, the tool will drag the pixels in just like a magnet on iron.

3. Eraser tool: this eraser tool is different than the eraser tool you use outside the extract dialog box, when you select that tool, you'll notice that the highlight (green line) appears, giving you the ability to erase and edit unwanted parts to get better results.

For now that's all you need to know about the extract filter. Later I'm going to explain the more advanced options inside the extract filter.

Let's take a look on the extract Filter window and the options inside it:

click to see a larger view of the extract window.

The tools are :

-Edge Highlighter Tool : this is the marker tool that you should color edges of the area you want to extract with.

-Fill Tool : This tool fills the inside of the highlighted area.

-Eraser Tool : It erases the highlight or fill in the extract window.

-Cleanup Tool : after you preview your extract, you can use this tool to delete some parts that were not deleted with the extract filter

-Edge Touchup Tool : this tool works on the edges of the extracted area.

-Zoom tool : it enlarges areas.

-Hand Tool : Drag through the image.

Reset : This brings you back to the original image before applying anything on it, but keeps you in the extract window

Preview : this shows you how the extract is done, and you can go back if you don't like the result.

Tool Options :

Brush Size : This determines the Highlighter Brush size

Highlight : This determines the color of the highlighter

Fill : this determines the color of the fill.

Smart Highlighting : when checked it makes the highlighting process easier for it makes the highlighter stick to the color where you first began.

Extraction :

-Textured Image : you can check this option if the image you're working on has a lot of texture.

-Smooth : This determines how smooth is the extracted edges would be (the outline), the more the value, the more blurry the edges are.

-Channel : this option should be set if the extracted is applied on a channel based image.

-Force Foreground : you can check this option if the image you're working on is not clear

Preview :

-Show : this options allows you to shift between the original image, and the extraction result.

-Display: This gives you the option to display the extracted result over a grey, transparent or colored background.

-Show Highlight : This would make the highlight visible/invisible.

-Show fill : This would make the fill visible/invisible.