background eraser and stucco HELP!

[DeeZee]

I have a photo that my neighbor took of her son in which he is wearing the same outfit his brother wore at the same age with his father's alma mater football jersey... so this is an important picture! Anyway, her older son had a professional portrait taken, and I'm trying to mimic the effect. The photographer adjusted his lights and background to make it look pure white behind him.

So here's my dilemma. I'm trying to erase the background in this shot using the background eraser, but he's standing against a glossy stucco wall which LOOKS white but has tons of shadow from the gloss. The background eraser isn't doing so great around his little head (the body is fairly easy since it's bright blue). I'd love to maintain his little cowlick as well, but I can't manage it right now. I tried going in and manually erasing the left over pixels, but it looks jagged around his head.

Any suggestions? I'm using a tutorial to try to increase my skill level but not getting very far with this one at all.

I blocked out his identity but hopefully you can see my dilemma here....

[Emma]

use the Lasso, freehand. Ereasing this way is gonna take forever and not give good results.

One you have your selection, feather it (Select>Feather or Select>Modify>Feather). Then go to Select>Edit Selection in PSP or Quick Mask mode in PS or Selection Brush Tool in PSE and clean it up with the brush.

take a look here, the third image with the red overlay on it
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/tutorials/photo_depth.shtml

aafter cleaning it up, Select>Invert and delete

let us know how it goes, or if anyone has a preferred way

[DeeZee]

Thanks Emma, I will try that tonight after I get the kiddos in bed. The tutorial I was trying to use had a camel and the man supposedly used the background eraser to isolate even the hairs on it's chin easily and in a little time, so I guess I thought that was the best way to do it. Your way sounds much easier!

[Emma]

The background eraser is very good, and will work as he said. But I like to just cut off all the excess and then go in with it just for the detail work. Get as close as you can with the lasso and Quick Mask PS/Edit Selection PSP/Selection Brush PSE, then switch to Background Eraser and clean it up that way. As always, many ways to go about it. For a high key look, getting a detailed, clean edge is essential because everything shows up against that white background! Nothing brings out bad extractions more than plain white.

Patience, patience. Practice a few times and get good at it. Then start over and do it again. Don't try to hit a home run your first time at bat. Don't think of junking it and starting over as a waste of time, but rather as a free lesson you didn't have to pay a tutor for :)