Help trying to remove background - a repetitve task for a single image

[luminous]

Below is a picture of a rally car part for protecting an area of its suspension. The picture was taken with the part sitting on a cardboard box, and I am trying to remove the cardboard from all the inner elements. (please no comments about the part being on a cardboard box, this has already been mentioned to the photographer....)

The remove background tools are not working well for me, so I was creating paths, making a selection and then clearing the background. There are many identical areas within the image where the background is to be removed, but I have no idea how to go about this repetitive task.

As you can see in the image attached I have cut the image out, and also cut out one of the sections. Now I am stuck...

Should I be making a clipping mask and copying my selections somehow?

[dv8_fx]

You can use the wand tool set at low say 8.....

[luminous]

I've just given that a go, tried various settings from 4 through to 20. It does "sort of" work, but its nowhere near as precise as making a path to select the area. I'd like to achieve a better result than the wand is giving me with this image - unless you are better at using the wand! I even tried refining edges and anti-alias.

Can you think of a way to work with the path that I already have so that it can be duplicated and "dropped ontop of" the other areas that need to be cleared?

[dv8_fx]

I don't usually use the path... tedious is the word for it .... unless I have to. Its not like vector path of Corel Draw.

Another way is to use the quick mask mode. It's my favorite.

. Select a brush the size of the slots ... Do your first click at one end , hold down the Shift and click on the other end. this will make one straight line..... When done on all, simply exit the mode, CTRL+SHIFT+I to invert the selection and delete the cardboard..

hope this helps....

[luminous]

Super, thanks for that idea. I am still trying to get my head around masking. I will try that and post back :-))

As for the pen tool, yeah it is tedious if you have to do the same thing many times, but I have started to use it quite a bit. Took less than 5 mins for all the work done so far. That is until I got stuck and spent about 2 hours messing around with paths, etc etc. I like learning new ways to do stuff, only way I am going to get better.

Thanks for your help

[luminous]

The result of your help

I did a little burning at the top of the image to help with the over exposure. Probably not done that well compared to the experts around here, but, well, have to start somewhere

[dv8_fx]

lol.... which is why I said... very tedious...

Always bear in mind... there are sometimes many ways to do a a single task in PS. It's a matter of choosing which one best suits you and the task at hand.