A lot of people have problems with masking trees. All those leaves are a lot of work, they think.
I promise you I can show you how to do this in just 3 minutes and put a new background behind it along the way!
First we need 2 sources:
For the tree we use: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1184924
and as a new background: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1211288
Open up Photoshop and resize both images to the same width, we'll start working on the tree image.
We'll be using a tool which is hardly ever used: the "Background Eraser Tool".
On top you're able to change some settings:
1. take a nice big soft brush, I used one with a 2013 diameter
2. set the sampling to contigious
3. set limits to discontigious
4. the tolerance high: 40 (we can do this because the blue background behind the tree has a nice contrast with the green tree, if the contrast isn't that high you must set the tolerance lower)
5. check the Protect Foreground Color box
6. we've checked the Protect Foreground Color box so we must select a foreground color; click on the foreground color > the color Picker menu will open > now use the color picker to select an average green in the tree. This will protect this color and it will not be erased later on.
Now the funpart starts.
Because we use a big brush you'll probably just see the cross in the centre of that brush, that's OK because that's just what we need. Start clicking on the blue and you'll see all the blue disappear, do this also on the other colors which are left (some whites and other light colors.
Check between the leaves for some left over spots of blue and remove them the same way.
You'll be left with just the tree and the grass. To show you below there's twice the same tree, once a black background and once a white background.
If you just wanted to mask the tree: CONGRATS, YOU ARE DONE!
I'll add a new background to this as well, as a bonus ;)
Add the sky as a new layer below the tree.
If you look closely you'll there's still some white lines surrounding the leaves. That's why I'll show you as well on how to remove those.
In the layers pallette: select the layer with the tree and right click on it. A new menu will open and select "Blending Options" on top. This will open a new window.
All we are going to do is set the "Blend Mode" to "Darken Color" and click "OK"
There's some rubbish coming through the grass, just select your layer with the sky and gently erase them.
Now all you have to do is finetuning your image, use a smal soft blur brush and blur the edge of the grass and new sky (be sure you have checked the "Sample All Layers" box on top) and so on.
That wasn't that hard, was it?
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Great tutorial!!
prtty good tut
(5 years and 1170 days ago)
great tutorial
in which version do u have "darken color" option?? i think i dont have that option since i have photoshop cs2
I'm sorry Nisha, I'm using CS3 and CS4 and both have that option; never realised CS2 doesn't, but that part is just an extra and has no influence on the real goal of the tutorial: the masking of the tree itself
Oh this is really helpful, thanks rob i always have some trouble with trees lol
(5 years and 1170 days ago)Anyway its a great tutorial Rob i have tried masking trees before but i dont get to mask properly ....so i dont use trees in my images LOL hopefully now i am sure that i will be able to mask trees...GREAT TUTORIAL 
Great job.
(5 years and 1166 days ago)
Thanks...great tut
(5 years and 1166 days ago)I was gonna say you have no idea how much time this saves and how many more options are available now because of it...but obviously you do!!! Thank you SO much! Love the steps, the clarity, the arrows, very well written and great example!!!
(5 years and 1166 days ago)
This is great! I have to try it.
(5 years and 1166 days ago)
Nah, I sez to myself. It can't be that easy. So I tried it. Then I found a different tree and tried it again. Then I found a drippy willow tree with little tiny leaves and tried it again. It really is just that easy. Thank you so much for this time saving, frustration saving tutorial. You and it are wonderful.
(5 years and 1165 days ago)
Handy tut and well explained....good job
thank you so much! this is incredibly helpful!
(5 years and 1165 days ago)
After such a tutorial I shall quit 3D and go back to Photoshop, LOL. Royal !
(5 years and 1165 days ago)I'm new at this and i found rlly easy and quick..
thank you for this gr8 tut...
I'm new at this and i found rlly easy and quick..
thank you for this gr8 tut...
Simple but High quality
(5 years and 1157 days ago)Well done tut. Thanks!
(5 years and 1156 days ago)This is amazing
This is not only brilliant but beautifully explained. Many thanks!
(5 years and 1152 days ago)how the hell to i change the background
(5 years and 1152 days ago)thanks....=)
(5 years and 1150 days ago)expert!!!!!!!!!!
(5 years and 1149 days ago)thanx ......ur amazing
(5 years and 1148 days ago)
Mine worked better without going to the darken mode, but this tutorial will still be one of the most useful for long-term application that I've come across. Oh, and I had never used the erase background tool before. Nice job!
(5 years and 1145 days ago)This saved me so many hours.
THANK YOU!!!!
Wow!
VERY impressed! Thanks for the arty! (:
i realy appretiating ur steps . give more information about photoshop for us...
(5 years and 1144 days ago)Great. Can this also work with hair? I'd love to crop portraits and paste onto diff backgrounds but the hair is always difficult.
(5 years and 1143 days ago)@Guest: In theory it should be working with hair too, just play with the tolerancelevel and maybe a smaller brush.
Thank you all for the really nice comments!
wov. Nice tutorial. U are great robvdn
(5 years and 1143 days ago)great it is just what I wanted. Thank for your share !
(5 years and 1142 days ago)Excellent tutorial, mate! Thanks for sharing it.
(5 years and 1140 days ago)awsome thanks alot
(5 years and 1139 days ago)Es un gran trabajo
(5 years and 1139 days ago)Thank you sooooo much. Time saver woo hoo!
(5 years and 1139 days ago)Step 8
(be sure you have checked the "Sample All Layers" box on top)
??? where is that Sample all layers option?
@up: its next to blending mode and strenght, its a checkbox.
really nice tutorial, awesome trick cheers!!!!
interesting but oddly in CS4 with me using th esame settings as you describe it does not work and I still had to click on each and every individual piece of blue in the tree and then later on, when adding the background, it appeared that in the sky, some part sof blue were only parttly removed (i.e. made somewhat translucent). What actually worked much faster was to go to 'Select' and use "Color Range" and then with the +sampler click on a few pieces of blue and white. Click OK and delete or mask everything that is selected--> done
(5 years and 1122 days ago)
Excellent and fabulous tutorial *clap*
(5 years and 1122 days ago)damn, that's a nice tut
(5 years and 1121 days ago)Really great tutorial. Thanks for sharing.
(5 years and 1111 days ago)This is very useful and informative. Thanks.
Regards,
photoshop masking
http://www.sblgraphics.com/photo-masking_service.aspx
Man, I've never used the erase background tool! Very useful tutorial. Thanks for sharing.
(5 years and 1098 days ago)Thanks a lot, There are options we never use. Even if we needed many times in the past. Sorry with my poor english.
Thanks again
pls i dont get it right can some one teach me how better to do it !!!!helP helP SOS
(5 years and 1094 days ago)Cool and fantastic!!! Thanks a lot for your tutorial.
(5 years and 1093 days ago)calculations...source 1 green, source2 blue, check invert. blend mode subtract gives you a perfect mask to select.
(5 years and 1090 days ago)
Great tutorial,helps a lot....
(5 years and 1088 days ago)great
(5 years and 1044 days ago)great
(5 years and 1044 days ago)super... tutorial
நல்லா இருக்கு...
Super.....
(5 years and 1020 days ago)Trees Are pretty
Go Green
nice job, one the better tuts ive seen.....ive seen alot
(5 years and 1005 days ago)This works great on lightning
(5 years and 1002 days ago)Wow! Just stumbled on this site and this looked like an interesting tute to check out. I'm amazed at how easy it makes the task. I'm sure this same technique can be used in other applications such as masking hair from a blue/green screen shot.
(5 years and 969 days ago)very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MD HANZALA
I'm new to photoshope and not famliar with much, but how did you blend the two pics?I'm stuck at step 5. Thanks
(5 years and 954 days ago)can anyone help me with step 7? I cant figure out how to clear up the bottom? Thanks
in CS4 i used exatly the settings as described, still there is a LOT of the old background left on my tree and at step 6 , when using blending mode "Darker color" about half my tree goes away and the new background totally takes over + at step 8 there are no checkbox for "Sample All Layers" beside the blending mode, any ideas what im doing wrong ?
(5 years and 951 days ago)
Thanks for sharing....
(5 years and 943 days ago)This was AMAZING! Nice and easy. Saved me about 2 hours of cleanup.
(5 years and 918 days ago)Brilliant tutorial - thank you!
(5 years and 864 days ago)thx dude!
(5 years and 850 days ago)Good work
(5 years and 821 days ago)What fun that was XD thx so much it came lovely
(5 years and 818 days ago)Thank u sir. i got how cut tree very easy..Thank u very much...Thank u..
This is really helpful, thanks rob i always have some trouble with trees lol. Thank u very much thank a lot, thanks.....thanks....... and again thanks. rajeev
(5 years and 793 days ago)u r genius
wow, how can not i think that?
(5 years and 731 days ago)Wow. Something I was trying to do for a hour done in 5 mins! Thanks!
(5 years and 718 days ago)will this work with photoshop elements 7
(5 years and 692 days ago)
Wow, I wasn't aware of this feature thanks for sharing.
This will surely reduce lots of time
Also works in Paint shop Pro
(5 years and 673 days ago)really, U R A BOSS. tHaNkS a LoT.............
(5 years and 657 days ago)O thxz sweetheART you are a diamond ;~} Valz
(5 years and 624 days ago)The masking come out very nice!!
(5 years and 588 days ago)fantastic work.thank you....................
(5 years and 578 days ago)thanks a lot dude... was searching for dis frm a long time... finlly got it..
Great tutorial thanks!
(5 years and 200 days ago)im using ubuntu. so i work on gimp - trying to figure out an equivalent order of commands for this - any help anyone?
Thank u for sharing
(5 years and 96 days ago)thank you very much!
(5 years and 93 days ago)Thanks for this great tut... very easy and helpful
Good Shit, Dawggie 
Amazing Tutorial.
You sir, just made my day! ;-{)
(4 years and 259 days ago)Totally Kick ASs Nice TUTORIAL
well done tutorial
(4 years and 226 days ago)Imressive!
Thanks!
The result doesn't withstand close scrutiny.
(4 years and 89 days ago)
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you're a genius!
(5 years and 1171 days ago)