After we awarded Cheryl Molennor’s photo of an egret against a black background 1st Place in our October 2009 Your Best Shot competition, we got a rush of letters. So many of our readers wanted to know how she got the background in her image that we decided to find out, and asked Molennor if we could use another of her egret photographs to teach her technique. When she shoots a white bird, Molennor exposes it to preserve its highlights and allows the background to go dark. Then she uses a combination of selections, Curves, and dodging and burning in Adobe Photoshop CS3 to make the background appear black. But, since we want as many of you as possible to try it at home, here’s a Photoshop Elementsbased technique that will achieve the same result. It’ll work in Photoshop CS3 or CS4, too.
Step 1 To darken the background but leave the subject alone, we’ll have to begin by making a selection of the bird. We’ll use the Quick Selection tool to do this. Type the A key to get the tool. Then start painting on the bird until it is nearly all selected. This first go-round is rough, so don’t worry about doing it perfectly.
Note: For more details and tips on making selections using the Quick Selection tool, especially in Photoshop, revisit September 2009’s "Digital Toolbox."
