How do you cut out background ?

On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 23:26:18 +1000, "varietyshows"
<varietyshows@bigpond.com> wrote:

>
>Hi Gang ,
> Am real new to this ......
>After the back ground is cut out....... what do you do next? Want to save
>it as a JPEG and want to use that picture in future to overlay on another
>photo .
>(Can not get rid of the white background after the cut away.)
>
>HELP !
The term background has some specific and sometimes confusing meanings
in Photoshop.
You will notice that when you open a jpg that the pic is on a "layer"
that isn't really a named layer, but is instead called "background".
The short of it is that jpgs can't have transparency (when saved), so
erasing will reveal the background color (which can be changed by
setting the background color in the tool bar to something other than
white).
So to deal with this, change the background to a named layer by double
clicking on the background in the layers pallette, and renaming it.
Or, simply duplicate the background "layer" (by dragging it into the
new layer icon at the bottom of the layers pallette), hide the
background, and work on the dup layer. You will know this is working
if you see the checkerboard pattern revealed when you erase (making
sure you have hidden the original "background").
Save as a psd. The layer structure will be maintained, and you will be
able to drag the extracted image into a different file, with
transparency intact.