What's the best way to crop a object out of a image without losing no detail to it?

Like so:

Before crop:


After crop:

The most painstaking method I can think of would probably be to use the magnetic lasso tool, and then erase anything leftover manually (Wouldn't suggest it for this kind of thing though).

I prefer to use Pen Tool because you can easily shape the cutting line on the node using ALT or CTRL and then drag the node.

Yea, the thing I am trying to do is crop out cars out of images for people but can't figure out how to do it good

You want to use different methods of cutting depending on the object,
angular surfaces is best with the polygonal lasso tool
bumpy surfaces like hair, grass etc I prefer just using lasso tool
if the contrast between the object and background is big enough magnetic lasso tool is good.
You can also put the image you want to cut out on its own layer and erase around the object.
If the background is close to one color you can use magic wand or select color-range and delete the color.

If you are using photoshop using quick selection tools like magnetic selection or magic wand you might want to use refine-edge to get the finish you are looking for.

you can add and remove from selection using ctrl(+) and alt(-) key, this is often nessesary when using polygonal and lasso tool seeing as you might not get it right on the first attempt.

IMO masking is the best way, but there's no shortcuts, it's going to take time and you're going to have to manually clean up edges.

If you're just going to use selections, then IMO use polygon and lasso, don't use magic want or magnetic. You will have to do the fine edges manually anyway. Just do as much as you can, then zoom in and do some more.


In my photoshop shift is + and alt is - (which I thought was standard?), so not sure what's with that. PSCS6 x64 portable here.