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This lesson demonstrates how to extract backgrounds from photographic elements using the Extract Filter, History Brush, and Eraser Tool. The rose image and lilac background, can be found Here. Unzip the file and open the images onto Photoshop’s workspace, ready to extract.
Extracting Hair
I find utilising the Extract Filter and History Brush Tool, is the best way to remove intricate areas (such as hair) from their backgrounds.
Notes
Extracting backgrounds from elements is not a precise science. Undoubtedly, you will require considerable patience and lots of time - individual elements have different needs, and require slightly different settings and levels of concentration. For this lesson I am extracting a rose from a white background, and the high contrast makes this an ideal image for first time extractors.
When extracting high contrast elements, The Magic Wand Tool is equally useful, and perhaps quicker, than the Extract Filter. However, if you have never used the Extract Filter, and want to road-test it - the rose is a perfect photograph to practise with.
When extracting people - or animals, from backgrounds, (although it has a learning
curve), I have found the Extract Filter - coupled with the History Brush and Eraser Tool, produces an accurate result.
After you have extracted your element, and placed it onto a new background - spend a little time ensuring the lighting and shadows correspond.
With practise, you will acquire the necessary skills to extract backgrounds from people (or animals), as I have done with myself and Sacha, below. Sacha being long haired, and her thin leash, made the extraction especially challenging, however, I was able to whisk ourselves from an extremely cold Tynemouth sea front, (left) to the beautiful Langdale Pikes - Cumbria - England, without leaving the house.
 
Undo and Navigation Steps
Two ways of undoing steps are from the top menu, Edit then Step Backwards. Alternatively, click a previous snapshot in the History Palette.
Navigate (zoom in and pan) your image using the Navigator Palette,
or the Zoom Tool. 
Activate The Hand Tool by tapping the Spacebar, keeping the Spacebar pressed, pan your image in the usual way. 
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From the top menu, choose Window, and ensure there is a tick before History.
Your rose will be open ready to extract - minimise the lilac background image, ready to use later.
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Important!
If you need to Resize - or Crop your rose image, wait until the end of the lesson before doing so. Resizing it before the end, prevents the History Brush from performing.
Tip
From the top menu, choose Image then choose Duplicate, and minimise the duplicated image, for later use. 
You are looking to surround the element you wish to keep, (for example, the rose ), with the Highlight Tool, then fill inside the highlight with a colour. Therefore, it is important that you leave no gaps, in the highlight. However, there are easy steps (within the Extract Filter dialogue box) that will rectify gaps, later.
Extract Filter Notes: Depending on your image, you may need to adjust the brush’s
size, as you work - a quick way of doing this is to press the left-side, or right-side bracket key, of the keyboard. Additionally, (beginners) release the left-side mouse button regularly, this enables you to step back one place and remove your last highlight application, by pressing Ctrl and Z. To remove more than one (highlight) application, from the left-side menu of the Extraction Tool dialogue, click the Eraser Tool (or E from the keyboard), and remove all, or part of the highlight.
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Depending on the colour of your image, you may need to change the highlight’s colour.
Tip
Zoom into, and navigate your image using the following Hand and Zoom tools.
To zoom out of the image, click the Zoom tool and Alt, simultaneously.
Note: When you have erased all of the highlight, the Highlight Tool is automatically activated, and is ready to use again.
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To begin, from the top menu, choose Filter then choose Extract. In the subsequent Extract Filter dialogue box, click to activate the Highlight Tool, this is situated on the left-side.
If you are working with my rose, set the following Extract attributes - if not, set your own choice of attributes.
Contrast Notes
If your image has a high contrast, such as the rose and white background, then choose Smart Highlight. If however, your image’s contrast is poor - such as the picture of myself and Sacha, then do not use Smart Highlighting. 
Now, from the Extract Filter dialogue box, hover your cursor over the edge of the rose (or your element), and position the circular icon, so the bottom perpendicular line touches the edge of the rose (or element) - as shown below.
Then left-click and drag the cursor around the edge of the rose. Because Smart Highlighting is active, and the contrasts is good, Photoshop makes it (relatively) easy to trace the rose’s contour. If you are not utilising Smart Highlight, apply the highlight in the same way, however, your cursor has no perpendicular guides.
Should the following happen, and the highlight transcends areas it shouldn’t.
Press Ctrl and Z to go back one space, or activate the Eraser and remove parts of the highlight.
 
Continue applying the highlight around the rose, being careful to leave no gaps - if you notice gaps when you have completed the highlight, simply reapply the highlight to fill them. When you have completed this step, your image will resemble the following.
 
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Look carefully, and ensure the rose is completely surrounded with the highlight, and there are no gaps. Then from the left-side Extract menu, click the Fill Tool.
Now, left-click inside the highlight. Note: If your image has more than one highlighted element, (such as the photograph of myself and Sacha), click inside each highlighted element, separately. Your rose should now be masked (filled) with a blue tint.
Note
If your image and its background fills with colour, as shown below.
It means there is a gap within the highlight. 
However, simply activate the Highlight Tool, and bridge the gab.
Then activate the Fill Tool, and fill inside the rose. 
To see how your image will look without its background, click the Preview tab.
 
Don’t worry if part of your rose (or the image you are working with) is missing, you can remedy that later. You are now ready for the next stage, therefore, click OK.
Your image will open in Photoshop - with its background extracted. Now, reopen the duplicated rose image, and place it to the right.
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Then from the toolbar, activate the History Brush. 
And set the following attributes into its Options bar.
It is time to paint back areas that were accidentally removed by the Extract Filter, using the History Brush. Therefore, from the top menu, choose View then choose Zoom In, (repeat this if necessary). I repeated this once. Now, navigate your rose, searching for missing elements. Due to the high contrast of my rose image, the Extract Filter has worked quite well - however, photographs with less contrast, will have more elements missing, such as the image of myself and Sacha.
Note
After extracting the background from myself and Sacha - above - parts of myself, Sacha, and her leash, were erroneously removed. On that occasion, the History Brush was hugely instrumental, and very successful in reconstructing the missing elements.
As you can see from the screen capture below, there is a small area of foliage missing from the rose image.
To paint back the missing foliage, pass the History Brush Tool over the empty pixels, as shown below. This paints back the missing foliage.
 
To demonstrate how the History Brush works, I have repainted too much of the original image - as you can see by my example above-right, the original white background has been returned.
Here is an example of painting back elements that have busier backgrounds.
Now, adjusting the size of the brush as necessary, carefully, and slowly, paint back the missing elements - returning as little of the white background as possible. If you become over zealous, click an earlier snapshot in the History Palette, or Step Backwards, then reduce the size of the History Brush and paint back the original image.
History/Art History Warning Dialogue
If the History Brush (or Art History Brush) displays the following warning
dialogue.
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It means the height, or width, of the image you are working with has been altered. Just one pixel of difference will stop both brushes from performing. The Crop Tool, Image then Resize, and Rotate Canvas commands can confuse the History and Art History Tools. To rectify the problem, (from the History palette) drag the source state icon to a point before you changed the image’s size. Sometimes, Stepping Backwards (if the problem is recent) can quickly remedy the problem. Note: Selecting View then Zoom
in, does not effect the History’s Brush’s state, and can be implemented.
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Don’t worry if you paint back too much background - the Eraser Tool will help.
Activate the Eraser Tool - Tutorial. 
Set the Opacity to 100%, and with a small (hard brush), left-click to remove the white background.
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From now on, work between the History Brush and Eraser Tool - painting back the rose, then tidying up the image. Navigate your image, and ensure there are no missing elements - and the white background is not visible. Use the duplicated (original) image as a comparison guide, and when you are happy with your image, it is ready for a new background.
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Maximise the lilac background, then activate the Move Tool.
Now, double-left-click the lilac background, and drag it onto the rose image. Then in the Layers palette, drag the rose layer above the lilac background layer, and reposition the background with the Move Tool. To keep the History Brush active, it is important to drag the background onto the rose, and not the rose onto the background. Additionally, do not reposition (or resize) the rose. If the History Brush is to operate, the rose must remain in its original position.
 
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If you can see some of the white background surrounding the rose, then activate the Eraser Tool and (with a very small brush), zoom into your rose, and remove
(the white). If necessary, work between the History Brush and the Eraser Tool, tidying the image.
 
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When your rose is complete, apply a filter to the lilac background - I applied the Twirl Filter.
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Then activate the Crop Tool. 
And crop the rose and background to size. Or resize your image.
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From the top menu, choose Layer then choose Flatten Image, and link Here to save your work.
I finished by applying a Perspective Shadow. 
Wendi E M Scarth. Top of Page - Home.
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