Paint Shop Pro Background Erasing (I am thick)

Thanks Purple Jackdaw and Mischievous for trying to help me.

Unfotunately I'm thick and can't get the hang of getting rid of the background of photos. I can export to tubes okay (cheers PJ ) but how do you erase the background so that it doesn't erase the figure you want to keep? When I use background eraser it doesn't disginguish between background and figure. Also how do you erase the background so when you export it to a tube it becomes transparant?

I had a play with the magic wand too but ho ho ho - is this meant to be easy?

CONFUSED!

Any help or tips with erasing background so I can just have my main figure against any coloured background I choose or so I can export the figure into other photos (I want Loki playing with Unicorns too ) would be GREATLY appreciated.

see the small can on the left what is markt bring it to the picture and press the left mouse button

Ok, my way is simple!

open your picture that you want to take your object from.

Next select the lasso tool and go into that tools options and make sure it is set on point to point...

Then just click all the way around the object you want to remove from the background

Once the whole object is selected copy it

then if you want a plain background, set the foreground colour to what you want the colour to be and then select the whole picture and delete that will leave you with the colour you want

then just paste your object back into the picture

that is all I did.

If you want a gradient background then select the picture after copying your object choose the flood fill tool and go into it's options and chose which gradient or pattern you want then fill your picture with it, then paste the object into that

If you want a pic like Bev did, find yourself a pic that you like and save it. Do all the steps above to where you copy the object then open your image that you want to put the object on, then paste it on to the picture (you can chose to paste it either as a new selection or layer depending on what you want to do next...If you want to carry out further work on the object like shadows etc then best paste it as a layer so you can work on it separately from the background.

It sounds so complicating but really just keep messing about and you will just get there in the end.

Here are some tutorials...they are for different versions of paintshop but the basics apply to any of them...

I can't remember if any of them cover what you want to do but trying some of the techniques help you to understand just how psp works and so then it gives you an idea of what you can try

http://www.mardiweb.com/web/
I use that one alot, it taught me lots of stuff it is for psp 5, 6 and 7

http://www.psptoybox.com/tuts/psp7/aged.htm
Not what you want to do but it's something I had a go at just to see if I could do it and it helps you to understand different techniques and apply them to your own work

Other than that just search paintshop pro tutorials and see what comes up

Don't get frustrated at first it takes a while to get the feel of how to use psp.

I'm making a new website for keena & takoda using it to do my graphics etc it will be done soon and I'll show you...It is looking good right now even if I do say so myself...lol

Let us know how you get on, just try something easy at first

Fred where is the lasso tool on your psp? your buttons are different to mine...You probably have a newer version...lol

On my psp I think I just call it the lasso actually I think it's actually called 'Freehand'...All psp's will have it I guess it will just have a different icon!

So LS if you can't see a lasso...lol...look for another tool called 'freehand'!

that is pSP7.0 the other is the new 8.0

Yep that one looks like mine...lol

How many versions do you have fred...lol?

What is V.8 like? Is it better?

Of course mine doesn't have the foreign language, now that would confuse me...LOL

i have PSP 4 to 8 i have used it most of the time it is one of the simple programes i also have the photo shop but that is not so good as the PSP8 i would say it can do most things what you need to do it is better than the PSP7 though

the programs are built all the same even in Chinese they are all the same to use

Been kicked off onto the laptop, which doesn't have PSP.

But I think it's V8 anyway.

Thanks Fred- I can't see a can ... unless you mean a TOUcan? Okay it's probably a parrot but I told you I was thick

Thanks Mys - I've copied your advice and will give it a go. But like I said-I am thick with a cap T so I will probably be back tomorrow . I think I have a lasso.