By Sonja Shea

Removing with the Background Eraser

Previously you saw how to use the Eraser tool to erase part of an image, which allowed the underlying, or background, color to show through. Paint Shop Pro Photo XI has another Eraser tool, the Background Eraser tool, which works much like the regular Eraser tool but includes options to determine which pixels get erased.

The Background Eraser works more from the center of the brush and erases around a specific area, which can give you much smoother edges.

For example, if you have a photograph of a flower and some leaves and you just want the flower with out the leaves or anything else in the background, the Background Eraser is the tool to use. Think of it as an eraser with a brain.

When you select the Background Eraser tool (thirteenth down on the toolbar), the tool options palette displays essentially the same options as the regular Eraser tool in addition to those listed below.

• Tolerance - Determines how closely pixels must match the sampled point. The range is 0-200. With lower settings, only pixels with very similar colors are erased. With higher settings, more pixels are erased. If the Auto Tolerance checkbox is marked, this options becomes available and the Background Eraser determines the tolerance based on pixels in its path, changing as the tool moves over different parts of the image.
  
• Sampling - Determines how the tool decides what pixels to erase. Choices are Once , Continuous , Backswatch , and Foreswatch . Once samples at the center of the brush where you first click, and it erases all matching pixels for the duration of the stroke. Continuous samples at the center of the brush at every step and erases matching pixels. Backswatch erases all the pixels matching the current background color in the Materials palette. Foreswatch erases all the pixels matching the foreground color in the Materials palette.
  

• Limits - Determines whether erased pixels must be adjacent to each other. Choices are Contiguous , Discontiguous , and Find Edges . Find Edges restricts the erasing according to the image's edge information.
  
• Use All Layers - Samples data from all the layers merged together, although only pixels on the current layer are erased.
  
• Ignore Lightness - Mark this checkbox when the colors in the object you want to isolate are strongly saturated and the background layer is unsaturated.