Subject Selection

Question

I have tried extracting a portion of a photo using a variety of methods, e.g. mag lasso, magic wand, and others but simply cannot get any kind of accurately defined edges. For the most part, just about all my edges look like I've chopped out the subject using a meat clever.
For example, I've taken fairly close up pictures of flowers, however behind the flowers are the background lawns, or houses or something that distracts from the flower. So I've tried to extract the flower, stem, and leaves using the mag lasso, picture select, and magic wand. The result is almost always chopped up subjects and/or critical missing portions.
Same goes for animals and people. There is inevitably something missing, e.g. our shaggy dog always gets an unwanted "haircut" in PSE6.
What am I doing wrong and how can I fix this, for that matter is there a fix?
PS, I would be happy to email or attach some of my sample pictures if that would help with tips/advice.
Thanks,
Ken

Answer 1

Ken W.,
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=12Xvt0LOdpQUptihQ4DJ3seTM6mfkY1
I spent a few minutes on this picture.
1. I duplicated the background layer, worked on the background copy layer, then shut off the visibility of the background layer
2. I got rid of the black with the magic wand tool. My usual setting is Tolerance=32, and in this case I unchecked contiguous, as I wanted to fetch all the black
3. I eliminated the grass with the magnetic lasso tool set at Feather=1px, width=3px, edge contrast=3%, frequency=57. I eliminated each segment of grass separately & sequentially, then got rid of the marching ants by Select>deselect. I worked under magnification.
4. I inserted a blank layer between the background and background copy layers, filled it with white for contrast in this exercise, not for aesthetics.
5. As you will see, I applied the smudge tool to the leaf at the upper left, but I don't like the result, but it gives you an idea about the use of the other tools available for refinements.
I like to use the magnetic lasso tool. Other people like to use a mask for detailed selections, as one can toggle between black/white to hide/show in making the selection. The magnetic lasso tool is a bit tricky to use. I place my wrist down firmly, and move the mouse with fingers. One can lay down additional selection points with a left mouse click, and one can back-track and remove a fixation point by hitting the delete key. When one works near an edge of the picture at the interface with the work space, there may be a sudden jump of the picture. One can avoid this annoyance by moving the picture away from the edge of the work space with the hand tool.
HTH,
Ken L.