# Extract a shape? **URL:** \ **Category:** design\ **Created:** [April 5, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521 "2006-04-05T18:12:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thats\_all\_folks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@thats\_all\_folks](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thats_all_folks)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/1 "2006-04-05T18:12:46Z")
Just wondering how some extracted and shape from an image. Meaning from the example image I provided, I would like to make the “minute man” a solid colour, I was always taught to use the wand tool or the pen, but I remember reading a while back that you can change modes to extract the shape. Do most use the extract filter? Cheers ---
**Author:** ![bwh2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@bwh2](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/bwh2)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/2 "2006-04-05T18:43:32Z")
bump up the contrast, use the magic want do select the whitespace around the man, delete the whitespace, color fill the man. ---
**Author:** ![thats\_all\_folks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@thats\_all\_folks](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thats_all_folks)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/3 "2006-04-05T18:58:31Z")
That works, what do you do use for color images? ---
**Author:** ![bwh2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@bwh2](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/bwh2)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/4 "2006-04-05T19:01:43Z")
actually, i typically don’t apply them method i mentioned above. rather, i usually drop that onto a lower layer in illustrator, freehand, fireworks, just some vector based program so that i can trace over it. works nicely for when you have to resize. ---
**Author:** ![thats\_all\_folks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@thats\_all\_folks](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thats_all_folks)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/5 "2006-04-05T19:11:43Z")
good call!! I’ll have to give that a shot to!!! ---
**Author:** ![DDD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc348/32.png) [@DDD](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/DDD)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/6 "2006-04-05T19:16:17Z")
You can use the channels pallete as well to make a mask. ---
**Author:** ![thats\_all\_folks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@thats\_all\_folks](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thats_all_folks)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/7 "2006-04-05T21:04:43Z")
How do you use the channels, if to long to explain due have a tut that you know of??? ---
**Author:** ![iLikePie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85f322/32.png) [@iLikePie](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/iLikePie)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/8 "2006-04-05T22:56:54Z")
you mentioned at the start you thought about using blending modes - that can kinda work, especially if it’s just for quick stuff. if you can get your image background to white (instead of yellowish) then you can set the mode to “multiply” and whatever is underneath will show through. Note that you aren’t actually getting rid of the background (so for example if you wanted a clean b/g for use on a website you’d need to go in and actually delete stuff) but for things like colorising a sketch you’ve done, you can put your new layers UNDER the line art layer which is set to multiply, works fine. in regards to using channels as masks, check this tutorial… > **[Learn How to Use Channels in Photoshop to Remove An Image Background](https://www.thoughtco.com/remove-a-background-in-adobe-photoshop-4072079)** > > Here are some easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions how to use a Photoshop Channel to remove an image's background. incidentally, to save everyone time you could have gone to google, searched for “channel mask” and clicked on the FIRST entry that came up… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![thats\_all\_folks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@thats\_all\_folks](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thats_all_folks)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/extract-a-shape/184521/9 "2006-04-06T01:25:37Z")
Thanks for the link that was helpful!!! Cheers