Photoshop

[ck1]

I've got some photos of some white plastic containers that I need to put on my website, I took them against a white background which has turned out more grey than white. I've got a trial version of photoshop that I was hoping to use to extract the main picture from the background but because they're both similar colour I'm struggling to get the main picture isolated from the background. Is there an easy way to do this?

[Buenchico]

Select the lasso tool.

Very carefully draw around the outer edge of the group of containers.

Right-click and select 'Feather'. At this stage a bit of guesswork comes in because I don't know the resolution of your image but I suggest choosing 10 pixels for the 'feather' option for a first attempt. (If you don't feather the edge you'll get a result that looks like you cut out the main image with scissors and glued it onto a background).

Right-click again and use 'Select Inverse'.

Now you can play with the background as much as you like (making it lighter, darker or a completely different colour) as much as you like without altering the main part of the image.

When you're satisfied, right-click again and choose 'Deselect'

[EDDIE51]

Is it not easier to take another photo against a dark background?

[Gromit]

As beuenchico says, but when you secect inverse, go to paths and make a clipping path. This draws a container that isolates the image only, no background.
Next you go to save for web devices.
Here you need to save as a .png file.
This preserves the transparency around your image.
So when you upload it to your site, you can change the background colour where you place your image.

[ck1]

Great I'll try that - when you say play with the background, how do you do that?

I have taken pictures with a dark background too, same problem though

[Buenchico]

>>> when you say play with the background, how do you do that?

With my version of Photoshop, you'd need to go to the 'Image' menu and then look at the options under 'Adjust'. 'Color Balance' and 'Brightness/Contrast' are probably the most useful to you.