cutting out

[lettergothic]

I want to outline this album image (delete the fabric around the edge)  and I can't seem to do it.

I tried the wand at all kinds tolerances . . .
I tried the flood selection brush at all kinds of sizes . . .

Either it takes too much or not enough. "Add" or "Subtract" seems to add too much or subtract too much. "Snap to edge" is checked but it doesn't seem to snap to the edge. I understand about contiguity (I think...) and have experimented with that as well.

Can someone tell me the steps necessary to cleanly cut out this image? 

thanks,

lettergothic

[firstdefence]

There are several methods using either the crop tool, Mesh Warp Tool or Selection Tool.

Using the Mesh Warp Tool is kind of cool... 

1. Select the Mesh Warp Tool
2. Change Destination to Source using the dropdown menu
3. Move the corner nodes of the mesh tool to match the corners of the cover and straighten the edges with the node handles, basically get the node handles in line with the edges.
4. Now change from source to destination
5. Click Apply.

[lettergothic]

Thanks for responding, firstdefence.

I don''t want to distort the image; I just want to cut out the rectangular album cover.

No matter how I drag the the mesh tool node, or node handles, it just distorts the whole image—b.g. included.

thanks,

lettergothic

[JimmyJack]

I'd go with the perspective tool. Why mess with Bez handles if ya don't need to .

If you truly want to keep the image as is but remove the carpet...
Use the Freehand Selection Tool (Lasso) set to straight line mode. Outline the album. Invert pixel selection. Delete.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, lettergothic said:

I don''t want to distort the image; I just want to cut out the rectangular album cover.

The cover isn't quite rectangular in the photo, which you can see by using the Crop Tool in Straighten mode -- there is no way to straighten it along any of its four edges & still have the opposite edge parallel to it or the other two edges parallel to each other.

Thus the suggestions @JimmyJack made to cut it out from the photo, either by 'un-distorting it' to correct for the perspective distortion present in the photo or to leave it as is.

[v_kyr]

Hmm ...

... looks straight for me!

[jeffers]

That's all very well but.....How did you do it?

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, v_kyr said:

... looks straight for me!

Not to be overly picky, but you cut off some of the album cover around the edges, particularly on the left. The album is a set of (probably 78 rpm) records packaged in sleeves, attached to the album like pages in a book. That black vertical stripe is where the cover hinges open, like the cover of a hardbound book with a very thick binding.

Full disclosure: I only really mentioned this as an excuse so I could point out that "album" in this context came from the similarity to photo & stamp books, also called albums. In my younger years when 12" records were 33 1/3 rpm & one of them could hold all the songs from up to a dozen or so 78 rpm records, we still called them albums, without really knowing why. The same terminology is often used for CD's, even now.

It is a bit like the floppy disk icons some apps still use for the save button. That supposedly convinced a kid his dad had 3-D printed a replica of the button when he saw him holding one. 

[Move Along People]

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[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, jeffers said:

That's all very well but.....How did you do it?

I for my part just instructed the "Google search engine" to show me album images of "Gene Kruka and his Orchestra", then looked and fetched a straight one.

[R C-R]

Note: Sorry for taking this so far off topic -- please just skip this post if you are not interested.

27 minutes ago, haakoo said:

I know those records you mentioned,my grandfather was a musician and an avid electronics nerd and had bakelite and even glass records

No glass records in our house when I was growing up, but there were lots of those multi-record albums, many of them full recordings of operas, long orchestral works, & musical comedies.

The two sides of the first record had the beginning & end of the performance on it, & the others continued the pattern so they could be stacked on the spindle of a 'record changer' & each one dropped onto the platter in turn to play half the performance automatically, & then the stack flipped over manually to play the rest of it.

That was the way most people listened to recorded music back then, complete with the pauses & noises of records dropping. Because they were used to that, when LP's became popular, many people stacked them on their changers as well. To protect the LP 'microgrooves' from damage, many of them were manufactured with slightly raised label areas so the records would not grind on the one below it when dropped & spun up to speed. I think they quit doing that eventually, but it is one way to tell an early LP pressing from a later one.

[Move Along People]

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[Move Along People]

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[gdenby]

My try.

Started w. pen tool. Switched to node tool to bring the vectors in tighter to the slight curves of the edges, roundings at corner. Back to pen tool, and change to selection. Copy and paste into new document. Use perspective tool 3 times, on for each slanted side. Adjusted one edge to flatten w. mesh warp.

[R C-R]

45 minutes ago, gdenby said:

My try.

Why not just do it like @JimmyJack suggested?