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Cutting Glass from a White Background in Photoshop

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Have you tried shooting glass products on a white background? Shoot it too dark and the glass looks muddy grey, shoot it too light and it is impossible to cut out the product from the background. This tutorial will show you how to find those edges for selection using the new Dehaze tool in Adobe Camera Raw (or Lightroom)

Below we have a product shot in Photoshop CC 2015 that needs to be cut from the background.. and as you can see, the back edge of the dish has all but vanished into the white background.

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The first step is to create a duplicate layer using Cmd J (or Ctrl J in Windows) as seen below

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Next we open this new layer in ACR by choosing the menu option Filter and choosing Camera Raw Filter (Shift Cmd A or Shift Ctrl A). Normally we would do this with a smart filter, but as this is only being used temporarily there is no need.

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Once in Abobe Camera Raw, navigate to the “fx” button indicated in the screen below

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Move the Dehaze slider all the way to the right.. This will pull an detail out from the back of the glass where contrast is minimal.

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Do not worry that the product now looks dirty as we won’t see this in the finished cut out.

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Next step is to create a new levels adjustment layer as demonstrated below

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We will now further enhance the contrast by bring the highlights to the left and the black to the right and adjusting the midtones to show even more detail at the edges of the glass product.

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As you can see below the glass dish is now much better defined against the background. At this point I used the pen tool to draw around the now visible edges of the product. You can use your favourite selection methods or search for selections in Tipsquirrel

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with your selection active (as seen above), choose our original (bottom) layer and click on the Add Layer Mask tool at the bottom of the layers panel

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Turn off the layers above the original layer and you have now created a nice clean cut out around your glass!

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Adding a simple white layer beneath the original image shows what the image would look like on a website. There is enough definition to see the product without looking grey and muddy

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I hope you have found this tutorial useful and as always, any questions please leave comments below

About Scot Baston (31 Articles)
Scot Baston is a Commercial & Wedding Photographer that lives on the south coast of Devon, that inspires much of his work. Whether it the technical or emotive sides, Photography is a passion that continues to challenge and inspire.

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