Cleaning an Image

by Maureen Williams

There are a number of tutorials available on the internet to show you how to clean an image but these are the basic steps I use. This picture was cut from some old wrapping paper and has very simple lines for you to start with. Practice cleaning images as this will be a crucial step in a lot of future projects in this group

Right click on the image and select Copy. 

Open PSP, right click and select Paste as New Image. Alternatively, you may prefer to save the image to your hard drive.

If you save the image to your hard drive, open your image in PSP. Shift D to copy the image and then close your original. You should always work on a copy rather than your original image so if you make an irretrievable mistake you can scrap what you are working on and reload the original.

In the Layer Palette right click on the Background Layer and Promote to Layer.

Select the Lasso Tool set to Point to Point, with Antialias checked. Note: There are many ways to achieve something in PSP, same as in egging. This is how I do it but you may find a different way which you prefer.

Select a starting point (I started at the boy's chin) and take small steps to go around a section of the outline of the image. Think of this as tracing around the little boy. Then take your cursor out into the image background and come back to meet up at your starting point. Right click inside the "marching ants" - these are the little dotted lines around the selection. Hit your Delete key and the outline area disappear leaving the just the checks of the layer background. If you don't see the checks but instead the area fills with colour you forgot to Promote the Layer before you started.

Don't try to go all around the image in one go - sometimes PSP gets finicky and will join up your lines just to annoy you. If this happens just Click on Selections, None or CTRL D to deselect the area and start again.

 Work right around the little boy in this manner, removing a border right around the image. Don't forget to save your work as you go, just in case the system locks up - as will happen when you least expect it!

You may find it easier to click on the Zoom Tool (the one that looks like a magnifying glass) to make your working surface larger. If you make a mistake in the placement of the cursor the Delete key will undo your last step. Don't worry too much about being absolutely precise at this stage - we will tackle any touch ups later. The main thing is not to bite into the image we want to keep.

Once you have cleaned a border around the image, use the Lasso tool to encircle the little boy, being careful not to touch any of the outer section of the wrapping paper background. Right click to join up the outline and do a single left click in the centre of the image. You will see the marching ants have now outline the little boy. CTRL C to Copy and CTRL V to Paste as a New Image.

You should now have a new image of the little boy with a transparent background (showing as the little checks of the work surface in PSP. (I did another screen shot of this but forgot when I transferred it to jpeg format it puts in a white background! LOL)

Once you have your cleaned picture as a new image, click on the Create Layer icon (far left) in the Layer Palette (or go to Layers, Create New Raster Layer) and create a new layer. Drag this layer to the bottom (or click on Layers, Arrange, Send to Bottom)

Flood fill this new layer with a bright colour that isn't in your image. Don't worry - this is only a temporary layer to help with the final clean up. (Yeah, I know - you need sun glasses!) Now comes the detailed cleaning around the edges.

Make sure you are on your Image layer (layer 1 in the layer palette) and zoom in so you can see the individual pixels. I used 4:1 then select the Eraser Tool set to 1. Now go around the edge of your image and any of the creamy colour of the original background will show up against the bright colour you have chosen. Click on any stray individual pixels to erase them until you only have the outline showing. If you make a mistake just Undo (this key is your friend!)

Once you are happy with your cleaning you can now delete the bright colour layer (Layer 2) as it is no longer needed. You can now save your image as a .psp file or export it as a tube if you want to use it again later.

I hope you've been able to follow this mini tutorial.
 If you have any problems don't hesitate to email me.