I am interested in learning how to remove the background similiar to this photo....(forgive me if it wasn't done this way Sophia!)
http://www.megapixelworld.com/photography/showphoto.php?photo=2053&limit=recent

I assume it is with some sort of editing software? My computer came with very basic software (Paint shop photo album4). I never used it and now of course the trial version has expired. I don't mind making a purchase so any ideas of "user friendly" programs would be much appreciated.

I have a few pictures of some of my tulips this season and would love to frame them but would prefer to rid the background, (mulch, grass etc...)
Is this do-able?

I just noticed that I also have Microsoft Picture It! software......

Thanks in advance!

This photo of a little dog it was taken with flash and there were a dark background,the only thing that i did,was to darken the background using the burn tool on photoshop

But on that photo http://www.megapixelworld.com/photography/showphoto.php?photo=1131&cat=516 i removed the bars of the background and changed it with a blue sky

This is how i did..
1.i found a photo of a blue sky and i opened it on the photoshop
2. i opened the photo of the eagle and i select only the eagle using the extract filter to remove the bars
3.moved these two photos as layers
4 Tried to fix edge problems of the eagle using the blur tool and stamp tool
5 flatten the two images

You could post here a photo of the flowers you want to change the background and i will fix it the write the steps :)

I played around last night with my Picture It! software....actually went thru the tour (I never use them-duh) and I know what you are talking about when you say filters now :D

I wasn't too good in getting the cutting/tracing outline of the subject but I get the general idea. I am wondering if it is my lack of practice or if some programs are better at doing this than others? I am going to keep playing with it.

I learned that I can also move one subject into another photo, such as what you did with the Eagle and the sky blue background. I guess I just need to practice with what I have and see what I can come up with.

It's a brand new adventure and hopefully I can eventually come up with what I am looking for. Practice makes perfect! :)

Thanks for the offer of doing one of my pics....as soon as I get some free time I will get it here.

Practice is the key and ofcourse patience ;) I spent about 2 hours to remove the background of the eagle.I worked on the edges of the eagle,pixel by pixel and supposing that the eage was an easy "subject"to work,due to it's straight lines ;)

Sophia I was also wondering the same how to do this because I saw that you had done it with a picture of Colleen's Ozzy and I think Cinnamon would look nice with a headshot and black background but I'm not too fluent in photoshop. What tool did you use?

The best way without using the layers is to select the background with the Lasso tool and then with the brush tool you can paint it black.

When you work with the lasso tool,better to open the photo at 200% or 300%and if you lose some pixels of the photo and want to add them,you could push the "shift" with your left hand at the same time you select the background with the lasso tool,so you don't have to start again and again if you lose some parts :)

I do not have Photoimpact 11 but I read good reviews about its object extraction wizard. You can read more about it at
http://www.ulead.com/pi/features4.htm
Apparently it is very easy to do.