How to eliminate the background in a photo

I was asked a couple times how I eliminate the background in a photo. It sure looks nice to do this when you take a shot of whatever craft you made with some ugly background like a messy room or something that could distract viewers' attention from the craft itself. The photoshop work for it is really simple! Many photoshop books have different methods for it, but I've come to find that this way that I am going to show works the best for me. So this is how I do.... In Adobe Photoshop CS series, there is Polygonal Lasso tool that allows you to make a selection in a photo which makes a straight line from a point to point. By making a point to point far away you can make a straight line whereas clicking many times on the line gives you more control in shaping the line. (Gosh, it's so tough to describe this. I'm sure you know what I mean once you try!) When the first point and the last point are in the same spot, the selection is made. You'll see the selection line being active. If you click Ctrl+Alt+D, this little window will be displayed. I usually set Feather Radius to be 1 pixel. The higher number you choose, the more blur the selection becomes. Just 1 px blur makes the finished cropped picture more realistic than the one feather radius not applied. Copy. Ctrl+N and OK. Paste. Ta-da!! You can just save this file in the format of Jpeg or Gif and upload on Flickr or blog or whatever. It's quite simple, isn't it? I know there are a ton more technical ways to do this with photoshop, but I'm pretty satisfied with this easy simple way;) ------------------------------------------------------------- Started working on a new project! I like the fabric chosen for this project, so I am excited! Doesn't it make a big difference when you really like the fabric you chose for some project and when you are working with fabrics that you actually don't enjoy that much? When you are making a gift or something, you might consider the preference of whoever you are giving your craft to, and you might have to choose fabrics you don't like as much. In other times you are absolutely free in your selection of fabrics and are able to pick whatever you like. It gives me a healthier crafting time when it's a latter case. And this time, I was able to come up with fabric choices that I love and I know who I am making this for will also love. I love it when this happens!! Thanks for reading!