#professional_clipping_paths

What is Clipping Path ?

A clipping path (or "deep etch") is a closed vector path, or shape, used to cut out a 2D image in image editing software. Anything inside the path will be included after the clipping path is applied; anything outside the path will be omitted from the output.

This one is a multi clipping path example. Now let me tell you about 5 different types .

1. Removing the Background from a Product

This is one of the most common uses of clipping paths, and hand drawn clipping paths in particular yield great results. When it comes to getting the best results, the pen tool allows an unprecedented level of control that leads to high quality edging of a product. This means that you can easily remove the background from image and place it in various other image environments to achieve the perfect result for your marketing or advertorial promotion, whether that’s the dark background of a magazine, or on the web.

2. Multiple Clipping Paths for Color Mask and Color Corrections

For creating a truly faultless image or picture, adjusting and masking color can make all the difference. When photos are shot, very often the camera’s flash will not distribute light equally around the picture, and this can lead to some glaring discrepancies which can make parts of the image look dull, or contrast with other areas that are how they should be.

Additionally, cameras are often not able to accurately capture the vibrancy of some colors, and these can be enhanced using clipping paths. By using multiple clipping paths, separate colors and portions of an image or product can be adjusted to match the preferred color or brightness of other parts of the image or product easily.

3. Using Multiple Clipping Paths to make a Different Color Product from a Single Shot

This process is quite similar to using multiple clipping paths to adjust or correct colors, as above. The key difference is that in this instance, a separate path will be created for each color on the product or image. This becomes extremely useful if, for example, you want to demonstrate a range of different color on your product, but only have one color available to photograph. This can essentially get your marketing up and running well in advance in such cases.

This is achieved by creating a separate clipping path for every color in the product/image, which then enables each individual color and path to be selected and altered via the various tools in Photoshop. This can enable online retailers in particular, to demonstrate the variety of color in a product easily to the consumer, who can simply mouse over a color selection on the website to view the different available colors a product has – the benefit is that all of this can be achieved from one photo shoot of one product.

4. Using Clipping Paths to Recreate Graphics and Logos

Making sure your company or product logo is high quality, especially in today’s online intensive environment, is extremely important, and clipping path can be used to greatly enhance the quality of old bitmap images. By using hand drawn clipping paths, any image can be given a new lease of life as a high-resolution image, and recreated perfectly.

In addition to using clipping path, a vector graphic can also be made in Photoshop. Furthermore, this can then be pasted into an illustrator document, where you can re-apply the color to the vector image by selecting the individual paths. For the best results, the image can then be saved in the illustrator as either an EPS or PDF format, which results in a high resolution vector graphics version of your image or logo.

5. Manipulating Images with Clipping Paths

Clipping paths are also ideal when you need to manipulate an image, or parts of it in Photoshop. This is especially useful in fashion photography, when using a mannequin to model a garment. As an example, when a full picture of a shirt, or dress, is required, a mannequin is often used to hold the item in place for the shot. In order to remove the mannequin’s neck and head from the picture, another shot will need to be taken to capture the part of the clothing that was previously masked by the mannequin. These two images are then clipped, and ultimately combined to make a neat, and finished complete image.

Creating a clipping path is easy when you have a good path. Just follow these steps:

1.     Use the Pen tool to create a path around the image area that will become the silhouette.

2.     In the Paths panel, choose Save Path from the panel menu (click the triangle in the upper right corner of the panel) and then name the path. If Save Path is not visible, your path has already been saved; skip to Step

3.     From the same panel menu, choose Clipping Path.

4.     In the Clipping Paths dialog box, choose your path from the drop-down list, if it’s not already selected; click OK. Leave the Flatness Device Pixels text field blank unless you need to change it. The flatness value determines how many device pixels are used to create your silhouette. The higher the amount, the fewer points are created, thereby allowing for faster processing time. This speed comes at a cost, though: Set the flatness value too high and you may see (if you look close) straight edges instead of curved edges.

5.     Choose File→Save As and, in the Format drop-down list, select Photoshop EPS; in the EPS Options dialog box that appears, accept the defaults and click OK. If you see PostScript errors when printing, choose Clipping Path from the panel menu and increase the value to 2 pixels in the Flatness Device Pixels text field. Keep returning to this text field and increasing the value until the file prints, or give up and try printing your document on another printer.