figure selection

[RioGrande]

Hi guys, need some help...

I have a picture with some palm trees (the palm tree picture attached).
I need to use only the palms from the photo for a collage.
The problem is that I need these palms to be white in my collage.

So, I've selected the palms, change the color in white (the test image attached). To do my work easy I try to use the eye dropper tool-> Select - > Color Range and try to select the white color from the image.
The problem is that doesn't work, is not selecting all my white palm trees form the photo (you know why?)

Do you know a fast and precise method to select the white palms from the picture? (I think at lasso tool or layer mask, but is not a fast way for me, neither precise- )

Thanks in advance
Wish you all a nice day

 

[Sierraccr]

I would use any of a number of techniques that we might use for cutting hair.

I personally like the channels methods for a picture with a relatively solid background. Here's a demonstration:

http://www.tutvid.com/tutorials/photoshop/tutorials/selectionHair.php

 

[RioGrande]

Thx a lot for your reply, Sierraccr.
Nice tutorial. It feels good to learn new things

 

[ChrisHPZ]

I would use any of a number of techniques that we might use for cutting hair.

I personally like the channels methods for a picture with a relatively solid background. Here's a demonstration:

http://www.tutvid.com/tutorials/photoshop/tutorials/selectionHair.php

I've learned a lot from Nathanel myself. Though he hasn't published anything new in awhile lately. The last time I saw anything from him was a video about his nephew. But he is good at what he does.

 

[Sierraccr]

I love the way he explains things.

I saw something about him taking more time to do video editing and effects. His old vids are still good, tho, especially for people just starting out!

 

[ChrisHPZ]

Yeah I've been getting into video with After Effects myself. Though my stuff isn't really video work, it's more like animation on steroids. I love how After Effects makes some things easier to do that would otherwise be darn near impossible with Actionscript. And using After Effects kind of gives me license to break all the rules such as file size and stuff like that. In an animation class in college, one of my classmates had the nerve to say that a good animation is a file that's less than 1MB in size. He would have had a heart attack to know that some of mine are more than 100MB's.

 

[Sierraccr]

AfterEffects is my next thing to learn. I do a lot of short vids and MovieMaker has its limitations.....

Sorry for hijacking your thread, RioGrande!