In this demonstration we will be using this image and extracting the man:
You'll notice that we have our view at 50%. It is important to have a relatively large and high quality image to extract from. This makes it easier to use the extract tool. If we extract at a higher resolution, we can then scale down the resulting image as necessary.
Once we have the image opened up in PhotoShop, we can goto Filter > Extract. We should be presented with a screen like this:
The various tools available to us in the Extraction area are listed at the top-left. The Edge Highlight tool should already be selected, which is what we will be using first. On the right you can change the brush size and also check the Smart highlighting option. This will make it easier for us by making an educated guess at what we want to extract by the difference in colors around the areas we paint.
It is important to create a thin line around the object we wish to extract - the thinner the line, the better the extraction. The line acts as a buffer for the extraction. Once we paint a complete green line around the object, we use the Paint Bucket tool to fill in the area we want to extract. PhotoShop then examines and extracts the image based upon the green outlines. We can also use the Eraser tool to clean up the outline, or in case we make a mistake:
We can zoom in and out of the image with Ctrl- and Ctrl+, and we can move around the image by holding Spacebar and clicking and dragging around.
Once we have completely surrounded the object with the outline, and cleaned it up with the eraser and/or a smaller brush, we can select the Paint Bucket and fill the object, like so:
Now we can press the Preview button to see how it looks. If we're satisfied, press Ok; if not, press Ctrl+Z to undo and modify the outline further to fine-tune. We're not aiming for perfection with the Extraction tool. It rarely yields perfect results, if ever. We can clean it up once we've got a good base to work on, like this:
Once we're at this stage, we can clean it up with the eraser:
Now we have no background and just the man, we can do whatever we want with him.
The choice is yours.
More Tutorials: 
