To illustrate, Extract Object is used to select the flower on the left hand side of the photo (shown right). Often, this type of selection would be done with the Lasso or Path tools, which are generally used to make freehand selections of complex shapes. Although these tools are excellent for such tasks, and have the advantage of being editable, they can be relatively time consuming and fiddly to complete. As the object we want to select has a rather good separation from the photos background elements, the Extract Object Tool will be a quicker option on this occasion.

Step 1: Draw Boundary

First, open the image in PhotoImpact, then select the Extract Objects option (Menu Bar-Object-Extract Object). The dialog box shown right appears. The cursor changes to a brush shape, which is then used to draw an enclosed boundary around the object. Before doing this, you may need to change the colour and thickness settings of the brush. The default brush colour is red, but as the object being selected is also red, I double clicked the Color box and selected a blue colour from the 'Colour Picker' box. This gives a better contrast between the red flower and the boundary line drawn around it.

The appropriate brush size will be dependent on the file size being edited. For relatively large files, for example, 3000 by 2000 pixels, a setting of about 70 to 80 will probably be sufficient. For smaller file sizes, such as those used on a webpage, a setting of about 10 to 15 will probably be sufficient.

If you make a mistake while drawing the boundary line, either click the 'Clear' button to start again, or alternatively, click the Eraser button and delete the areas you wish to correct. When the boundary line has been drawn, click Next (or Extract Object).

Step 2: Set Extraction Detail Level

After drawing the boundary line, move the Extraction Detail slider to the required setting (between Low and High). You will probably get a better selection using the High setting, but this is trial and error to some extent.

Incidentally, when drawing the boundary line in Step 1, it is possible to make more than one selection area if required. Click the cursor outside of the object being selected (in this case, outside the flower boundary line). This removes the unselected area, which will now show as a transparent background. If you inadvertantly clicked in the wrong area and the object you wanted to select has disappeared, simply click the Invert button in the dialog box, and the correct selection will show.

Step 3: Make The Extraction

Click the Extract button, and after a few seconds, the boundary line will disappear leaving the current selection displayed. If the selection looks alright, click the OK button to finish the extraction process.

Until the OK button is clicked, the current selection can be edited where necessary. If the object being selected from the image was clearly defined and well separated from the backgound, you will probably have a good selection first time round. If the degree of separation between the object and background was less well defined, its likely that some refinement of the selection will be required.

Step 4: Refining A Selection

If your selection at stage 3 is unsatisfactory, click the Refine Object button, and you will be able to amend the selection. In the example shown right, there is still some detail showing from the background which needs to be removed.

First, set the background colour, if necessary, so there is a good contrast between the selection (double click the Background colour box, and select a suitable colour). The transparency of the background colour can also be adjusted if this helps, by entering a number between 0 and 100. In the example shown right, the background colour has been set to black, and transparency to zero.

To edit the selection, toggle between the brush and eraser tools (highlighted red, above) to paint in, or remove, details as required. There are three settings to consider: the size of the brush (or eraser), along with the transparency and softness of the brush/eraser being applied. All of these will vary depending on things like file size, degree of accuracy required, and level of separation between the selected object and image background. A 'trial and error' approach is probably the best way for learning what settings suit which circumstances.

The Finished Selection

After clicking OK to complete the process, the Extract Object dialog box will close and the new selection object appears as a layer above the base image, identified by a dotted line (see right). At this stage you are now able to edit the object using any of PhotoImpacts editing tools. In this example, the flower was copied and pasted into another image (see below, left).

Saving The Selected Object

If you are likely to need the object again in the future, either for further editing or for use in another image, you can save a copy to the EasyPalette. Ensure that the object is 'selected', then select Object>Copy to Object Library, from the Main Menu bar, and add the required details (see right). Click OK to complete.