This is my friend's dog Max. I want to make my friend a birthday card with Max on the front with a Birthday Hat on his head. But I need to pull just Max out of this picture. I had one of the best teachers in the world when I started with PSP many years ago and she taught me this technique to make tubes with difficult backgrounds. I have yet to find another technique that produces the great results this one does. It does take time and patience though, but you will love your results I guaranty!!!

I am only going to make my tube of Max's head and shoulders, and because his coloring is so close to the sofa color it is almost impossible to use the background eraser, so this technique will give us the best results from this type of image. Open the picture of Max in PSP, Open another transparent image 500 x 330, Select the Max image and Hit CNTRL + C to copy, Select the empty image and Hit CNTRL + E to Paste into the image. Center it into the image and close the original. With the Zoom tool zoom in to about 200 or 250% get close enough to be comfortable.

Now we are going to make the outline selection a little bit at a time. Take your Freehand Selection Tool, Point to Point, 0 Feather, 3 Smoothing, Anti-Alias checked, and starting on the outer edge of the subject, draw a line around the subject from point one to the first curve or corner, it could be 1/4" or 1" but don't make it more than that, by sight. See Below. Then bring the line out to the edge of the photo to make a pie cut and click delete. (Just to help with the demonstration I have added a red layer below)

Now continue around the outline of the part of the image you want to tube. Until you are back to your starting point. Don't worry if it is not a perfect outline the next step will clear that. Here is what I have after going all the way around the outline of Max.

As you can see my outline is not perfect but this is the part where we step above the average tuber, and we take it to the next level. Remember be patient and take it slowly. (Have you saved your image yet? Now would be a good time, you don't want to loose all this work!)

Ok lets take the Freehand Selection Tool again, (some call it the Lasso) and with very small sections select the outside edge for a short ways getting as close to the outline of the subject as possible, and cut back out into the transparent area. This time we are going to Cut the edge, Go to Edit / Cut or simple click CNTRL + X now before you do anything else, while the area is still selected click inside the selected area.

This brings the selection right up to the edge of the outline and click Cut again and this cleans up all the extra pixels that the naked eye misses, and makes your tube much cleaner. Keep Going around the whole image again, a little bit at a time. Yes, I know it is tedious, but I am telling you get amazing results without all the jaggies you see on some tubes!

Finally testing your tube by filling a lower layer with a dark and then a light color will show off any strays that you may have missed, if you find them just cut around them as above. And you now have a great tube!