Selecting a subject and t-shirt ready

[grinolot]

What is the best way to select the dog and prepare it properly (size, file format, etc.) to be printed on a t-shirt?

I was going to use the Freehand Selection Tool and Smart edge selection type.

[Jean-Luc]

The problem is the background.
No automatic selection will do it perfectly: the tool is unable to understand the image and will not make any difference between subject and background.

I suggest you try the Freehand tool in Selection Type: Edge seeker and Smoothing lower than 10.

Another method is to use the Eraser tool and erase manually the Background.

If you post here the cropped dog in its original size, I'm sure one will do it easily...

[ehume]

I'm wondering about the source. I shoot in raw, so I would brighten the entire pic, then export it to a TIF. Then I would pick it up in PSP; the dog is less likely to be as bright as the surroundings and easier to select. The new dog image could then be darkened to taste.

[hartpaul]

If all you want is the dog then why include all the extra -sky, water etc in your posted image.
How about you crop the dog from your full image with about 10% extra all around it and then post that image.
Then others can test their theories on a decent image of your dog and post their results with the directions.

[ehume]

If all you want is the dog then why include all the extra -sky, water etc in your posted image.
How about you crop the dog from your full image with about 10% extra all around it and then post that image.
Then others can test their theories on a decent image of your dog and post their results with the directions.

I think OP was showing us the original picture, asking us how to select just the dog so he could put the dog on a T-shirt without having to use the lasso. As one who has lost the capacity to place a lasso, I can understand this issue: he wants PSP to do the work for him, Fair enough, IMO. PSP has the smarts.

[hartpaul]

The point remains .
The OP asks "what is the best way to select the dog" . The location, appearance of the original picture is irrelevant, and the OP does not even mention the lasso tool.
Can you ehume advise him on the best way. Can you take that small image and successfully extract the dog. I find that any process of extracting a part of an image is made more successful with larger images than smaller images.

Th OP has posted an image (good) but it is 427 x 600 and too small to do any tests on extracting just the dog with any common method.
That is why I have asked for a larger cropped image of just the dog so that tests can be made to see if a current selection method or a combination of masks , channels and selection tools will work "best"

[ehume]

The point remains .
The OP asks "what is the best way to select the dog" . The location, appearance of the original picture is irrelevant, and the OP does not even mention the lasso tool.
Can you ehume advise him on the best way. Can you take that small image and successfully extract the dog. I find that any process of extracting a part of an image is made more successful with larger images than smaller images.

Th OP has posted an image (good) but it is 427 x 600 and too small to do any tests on extracting just the dog with any common method.
That is why I have asked for a larger cropped image of just the dog so that tests can be made to see if a current selection method or a combination of masks , channels and selection tools will work "best"

My first thought was that he needed to post the raw, if it exists. My second thought was that the current image was what was captured. It didn't occur to me that there might be a bigger image out there.

I think I have exhausted my ideas when I suggested lightening up the scene so that PSP could see the contrast between the dark dog and everything else. I think your larger-image suggestion is a good one.

[hartpaul]

Yes even if he had shot in Raw it would be too large to post either as the raw or tif file unless they used dropbox or some other file sharing app.
Often removing the extraneous and cropping what is needed allows a larger image to be posted so we could have the dog in an 800 x 800 cropped image. Much easier to test.