Hamish
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I got bored too...I'm working night shifts at the moment and got bored last night. I didn't have my laptop to mess around with, so I posted a photo on a retouching forum to see what people could do with a photo of mine. Here is what they came up with. I sooooooo wish I could do this in photoshop although the extraction must have taken ages.
Original
Photoshopped
It's impressive but not as good as Mike D's effort. 
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dandantheadminman
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me like
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Tom
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haha at first i didnt see the second picture so i thought they resized a bmx or mtb into a tiny bike
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Roo
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How did you do the cutting out?
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Hamish
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I didn't do the photoshopping, Roo. I posted the image in the retouching forum at dpreview and a guy there played with it. This is his description of his workflow:
" For those interested, below is a summary of the workflow I used in CS2 on this image:
- Created a duplicate layer and hid it from view, turning it on when needed for reference. NOTE: Make sure you are not working your extraction on a Background layer. If necessary convert the Background layer to a new layer. The simplest way to convert the Background layer is to double the layer in the Layer tools pallet and then click the OK button in the resulting New Layer window that pops up (this will rename the Background layer to Layer 0).
- Zoomed in to 300%--I used the Polygonal Lasso to extract along the clearly defined lines (the easy stuff). Where the extraction path is unclear or complex, I don’t waste time here, I give it a wide berth (a few pixels) with the selection. The steps below will clean it up quicker. NOTE: I am much quicker and more precise using the mouse with the Polygonal Lasso tool than a pen and tablet.
- Zoomed to 600%, still using the Polygonal Lasso: Cut the background out of the wheels and some of the other interior areas of the image.
- Still zoomed at 600%, switched to Magic Wand tool for a couple of minutes. With the tolerance set very low, about 5, I was able to quickly clean up some of the more complex edges avoided in the first step.
- Still at 600%, I switched to a Wacom tablet pen and the Eraser tool with the diameter set at 1-pixel and 100% for the final clean up around the more complex areas, in this case just the area around the rider’s head.
Below are a few tips on things I’ve adopted in my workflow that are key to minimizing the time it takes to do a clean extraction:
- Use the Pan tool (hold Spacebar and click and drag with mouse or pen) to move your canvas while zoomed in and using selection tools.
- When working with the Polygonal Lasso, do the extraction in 2-minute segments---don’t try to circumvent the entire image in a single selection. This tool is very unforgiving when you try to work at high speed in that if you accidentally close your selection boarder with an inadvertent double click there is no way (that I know of) to step back to the state you were in before the double-click. This can result in a lot of wasted time.
- When I have several extractions to work on in a single session, I will adjust the double-click sensitivity of my mouse to the shortest elapsed time possible---this allows me to quickly click along the extraction path without inadvertently closing the selection boarder.
And finally, a comment on blending the extracted image with the new background: Sometimes cutting away a feathered edge selection one or two pixels in width will greatly improve how well the selection will blend. I normally duplicate the extracted layer, feather and cut the edge, and turn the un-feathered layer on and off a few times to see if you need any of the un-feathered edge detail restored. If so, I do this using a mask selectively brush back in the edge areas that need the detail.
Depending on the complexity and how important the cleanliness of the end result is, I combine the use of masks with above techniques for a non-destructive version of the edit, thus allowing me to easily make adjustments to the extraction. Over the years I’ve tried various plug-ins and standalone applications designed to make extractions easier. While I’ve found some that do a good job, I’ve found nothing quicker and more accurate than using the tools described above. "
P.S. I'm disappointed that he didn't add a helmet. We can't have photos of lidless riders after all. 
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mikedeere
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| Hamish wrote: |
- When working with the Polygonal Lasso, do the extraction in 2-minute segments---don’t try to circumvent the entire image in a single selection. This tool is very unforgiving when you try to work at high speed in that if you accidentally close your selection boarder with an inadvertent double click there is no way (that I know of) to step back to the state you were in before the double-click. This can result in a lot of wasted time. |
That guy REALLY needs to learn to use pen-tool.
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Roo
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| mikedeere wrote: | | Hamish wrote: |
- When working with the Polygonal Lasso, do the extraction in 2-minute segments---don’t try to circumvent the entire image in a single selection. This tool is very unforgiving when you try to work at high speed in that if you accidentally close your selection boarder with an inadvertent double click there is no way (that I know of) to step back to the state you were in before the double-click. This can result in a lot of wasted time. |
That guy REALLY needs to learn to use pen-tool. |
Is that the same as paths?
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mikedeere
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Pretty much yeah, Roo.
If you make a mistake you don't have to go back and correct everything, you can simply delete a node, or drag a node to a more accurate position or even change the curvature between/on nodes. Brilliant!
Still, I guess that is one thing with Photoshop... There's about 20 different ways to do any given task!
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sassycat11736
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I'm going to shove a lettuce up Mr Mike Deere's bottom, and it's not going to be comfortable, for him at least.
Stop being geeks!
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John
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Mike, that was a geektastic 100th post!
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