Change background to White..

I'm a newbie, could anyone help me change the following pic's background to White ?? what method are you using? Hope you could write down the procedures how you did it..
Thanks in advance!


http://www.universalny.com/others/dragon.jpg


ok, I gave up on that one, it's driving me nuts.. I guess i need more practice on it...

here is what i've done for another pic.. as you can see the Edges are very UGLY,, anyone have a better way to change the background color? I used the basic Brush, and Paint bucket.. as you know, that's what a newbie first do.. thanks again for your advice
http://www.universalny.com/others/wire_before.jpg

http://www.universalny.com/others/wire_after.jpg

For the first one just press CTRL + L. and adjust the sliders to make the background white.

For the second one, you just need to learn how to make good selections. there are good selection tutorials on www.teamphotoshop.com

A quick and dirty way would be to open the histogram (levels) and set the background as a white point. Probably shift some of the other colours a tad too, but.....

I said it was quick and dirty

ok, here is what I did.. what do you think? Any comments appreciated.. thanks! :D

if you are satisfied with that...than it's OK, and more important if that is what you needed.

looks smooth

thanks.. but sounds like there is something more I need to do with this pic... what is it? hehe, if you dont mind point it out.. I'd like to learn.. Thank you so much for your time!

ermm... just off the bat (and without trying it)

duplicate the picture and change the top layer blend mode to screen and then lower the opacity, hopefully this will bring it back into line with the original colours.