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This is post production question so an in camera effects with a very shallow DOF will not be much use as I have plenty of photos to rescue.

I have received a lot of rejections regarding framing from SS so i thought i would try to isolate some of them.

Does anyone want to spare any tricks and tips for isolation on photoshop, I have had some mixed sucess with isolation of both hard and soft objects (road signs and faces)

Hi everybody, just joined this great forum. Here is some tips for isolation I have found usefull

I agree that pen(path) tool is the best way to do isolation(if you use photoshop). There is also a bonus because the clipping path is stored inside the JPEG file. Some sites (like bigstockphoto) have option to mark that clipping path is included. This may incrase your image sales.

You can also use channels try to isolate the background, but this is little bit harder to do(select high contrast channel and use channel mask). Very good book about the isolation (and other advanced concepts) is Katrin Eisman's book

Photoshop Masking & Compositing
New Riders Publishing
ISBN#: 0-7357-1279-4
October 2004

www.photoshopdiva.com

i have used this method with reasonable success.  It works good for both easy and hard to isolated images.

zoom in 200%
use the polygon lassoo tool and go around your image. don't be TOO picky, but a little picky.. move your image when you have to by pressing the space bar and dragging the image to where you need to be
after you image is circled
select > modify > smooth > 2pixels
select > modify > contract > 2pixels
select > feather > 2 pixels
Ctrl +Shift + I (inverse selection)
create a new layer
paint bucket whatever color you want on the background.

i can't take the credit for this, as soeone on the shutterstock forum mentioned this, but it was so long ago i have no idea who it was :S. it works well though.

Tried the new technique (polygon,smooth,contract,feather,inverse,duplicate) which I admit certainly looked better StockXpert accepted, Shutterstock rejected them for noise issues. Still waiting on the other sites.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help

well depends on how much time you have.  If you have endless time, the method i explained earlier in the post works fine, it will just take forever to select all the small parts.

Otherwise, you may be stuck, unless you shot on a white or contrasting background.

THanx Leaf, you really helped me a lot by just posting how to isolate images successful. Because of that I am working much more with PS and it is fun! That Image is one of the results

I rarely bother to isolate, because it's often difficult to get it done properly without spending a lot of time. I'm not going to waste half an hour isolating some stupid object, only to get it rejected.

I am quite experienced in isolating as an illustrator, but my style allows a more cut and paste look, so I don't need to be so picky as I expect the approvers often will be.

what did you isolate on that penguin shot?  Did you put a blue sky in?

Yes I put the blue sky in.. yes penguins are easy youre right. I wouldn`t dare to isolate a hairy dog