Feature: Clean Up Your Portraits With Gradient Backgrounds

The world of photography is strange. It's a wacky, wonderful place where some people have trees growing out of their heads, while others suffer the seemingly painful experience of having dogs and cats popping out of their ears. This all happens, of course, because we are so wrapped up in getting people to pose for the camera that we neglect to consider the background. Did you think about how distracting all those rock band posters would be when you photographed your kids in their room? Probably not--but when you finally have a chance to relax and look at the picture, you notice all kinds of distractions in the background.

This week we're going to eliminate those annoyances from your digital photos once and for all, by cutting your subjects out of the original picture and pasting them into a new image that's nothing more than a relaxing, Zen-like splash of color: no trees; no pets; no Def Leppard posters.

Create a Background

Let's get started by opening a portrait that has an annoying background. You can use my sample image if you'd like; just download the file and save it to your hard disk.

Our goal is to cut Kris out of this picture and paste her into another scene, so we need to know how large the image actually is. In Paint Shop Pro, you can choose Image, Image Information from the menu to find out that it's 512 by 640 pixels.

To create a new image to those specifications, choose File, New from the menu and input 512 and 640 into the Image Dimensions field, making sure that the units are set to pixels. You can ignore the Resolution box; that's important only if you are specifying an image size in inches. Click OK and you'll see a blank image appear. If it has a strange, checkerboard pattern, don't worry--that just means it is transparent because we haven't painted it a specific color yet.

Make a Gradient

Now it's time to add a subtle background on which to place our portrait. I like gradient fills for this sort of thing. To create one, start by selecting the Flood Fill tool, which looks like a paint can spilling paint.

Look at the rainbow-hued color palette on the right side of the screen and click the right arrow in the Foreground button, which is just under the color palette. You should see four options: Choose the second one, Gradient.

Make sure that the Background button (it's right under the Foreground button) is set to a solid color; that's the first option, which looks like a paint brush. Set the color to white by right-clicking in the very right edge of the color palette, where the colors all fade to white.

Now click the Foreground button and the Gradient dialog box will pop up. There are a lot of gradient styles to choose from, but my favorite is the good old Sunburst. To choose it, click the third icon from the top in the Style list on the right side of the dialog box. Then click the arrow next to the big drop-down box on the left side of the Gradient dialog box that displays all the gradient options. Choose the second one, #2 Fading.

While still in the Gradient dialog box, you should see a preview of a circle that gets progressively darker toward the center of the image. We want just the opposite, so click the Invert Gradient box. Finally, click OK to close this dialog box.

Now it's time to add the gradient to our blank image. The Flood Fill tool should already be selected, so just click in the blank image to fill it with the gradient you just selected.

Don't like the color? Choose Edit, Undo from the menu and choose a different color by clicking anywhere in the color palette. When you're satisfied, it's time to move on to the portrait.

A New Home for Your Subject

This is the part that takes practice, patience, and nimble fingers. You need to select the subject and copy it from the original image. There are several tools you can use, but my favorite is the Freehand selection tool, which looks like a lasso. Before we begin, we need to set it to Smart Edge mode. To do that, make sure the Tool Options dialog box is open somewhere on the screen. If it isn't, right-click on the toolbar and choose Tool Options from the menu. Then, in the Tool Options dialog box, choose Smart Edge from the Selection Type list.

Now we want to outline the entire subject. To do this in the sample image I've provided, place your cursor on one of the two spots where Kris's sweater intersects the bottom edge of the photo, then left-click. Stretch the little rectangle upward as far as you can while keeping the edge of the sweater within the box. Left-click where the sweater starts to curve, and stretch the box upward again. You'll see that you've used Smart Edge to precisely outline the subject's outline--with Paint Shop Pro doing most of the work for you. When you've worked your way around the subject, choose Edit, Copy from the menu.

Now return to the gradient image and choose Edit, Paste, As New Selection from the menu. Kris will appear in the image; just drag her around until she is positioned properly at the bottom of the frame, then left-click to "drop" her in that position. Save the image with a new name, and you're done. (Don't worry if you still see a bit of checkerboard in Paint Shop Pro. When you've saved the file and opened it again, you'll find it's gone.) My version came out like this.

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