Kinda Confused!

okies! here is what i am confused about! how do you take a image and remove the background without messing up the image itself! like take my picture and remove the background and put another awesome looking background?
this is the pic i am trying to redo!


thanx,
Amy

Well, for starters, if thats you, then you are very attractive.
Right, to the problem:
Go to toolbox, find the lasso
click and hold down your clicker on the lasso, a box will appear, select polygonal lasso.
Then use this to select yourself (or whatever you want to select) then copy and paste it onto your new background.
Hey presto! Hope this helps!

Edit: I just remebered, don't direct link images, it steals bandwidth and it annoys the guys on 56k modems.

No...no...bad matt. Don't use the polygonal lasso tool for extracting complex shapes like people. Use the pen tool. Play around with the pen tool until you feel you know how to use it. If you master the pen tool, you're doing good, as it's a very powerful tool. Much more accurate than the polygonal lasso :rolleyes:

LoL....yes thats really me! i have more pictures if you don't believe me! but i am still kinda confused! :(......don't think i am stupid or anything ....... i just never have done this before :D

Pen tool is the way to go yes...but it's asking quite a bit to expect a PS newbie to master the pen tool. I used Photoshop for years before I even touched the pen tool. I know people that have still never touched the pen tool. Especially if someone has never messed with Illustrator or other vector programs, then the pen tool is going to be frustrating, confusing, and alien.

But don't let me scare ya away from it. By all means give the pen tool a go. Just don't feel defeated if you don't "get it" right away. Some people comprehend it pretty quick and others just can't grasp it how it works. But don't give up on it. It sinks in eventually. ;)

Ahhh...I saw a video that described how to trace objects with the pen tool...he used a butterfly as an example. It was a pretty good tutorial that would help you. Let me try to find it, or if anyone knows which one I'm talking about, please link to it.

For all you photoshop gurus: Can't you also Mask the layer too? That's been known to work well right? ...sorry that's what ive been doing for a lot of those things.

But maybe you might wanna be more experienced in the program before trying that?
just a question.

Hope it all works out for ya Amy, and your picture turns out great!
hope to see your work on here if it does ;)

Galaphile: That's the reason I suggested using the poly-lasso, because I realised she's new to this and thought the pen tool would be kinda tricky. I've been using the pen tool for a while and I still get it messed up.

Sparkles: By all means try the pen tool, but don't expect to understand it at first, oh and I beleive thats you, but if you're willing to give out more photo's then thats ok with me ;).

I would never use the polygonal lasso to extract people from images, there's too little room for error. As Amrose said, using masks and the paintbrush tool is probably the easiest, visible way of cleanly extracting it (for a PS newbie). If in a case where you can use the polgonal lasso to extract an object from an image, use the pen tool. You can mimic the plotting of points done with the p. lasso tool as well as easily correct mistakes.

ok i am not sure how to even use the pen tool! i did try it but i just don't get it! hmmm the polgonal lasso tool too confuses me! maybe i need somebody to show me......:( but i don't have nobody to show me :(