how to cut a silver object against darker background?

Question

I got a few photos of a cassette. The cassette is made of steel. It’s against various backgrounds.

I was playing with it a little in Gimp but have not come up with a good and fast solution how to deal with it.

I’d like to know:
• how to take photos of silver objects – which background is the best? • how to deal with the photos I attached – which one of them is the best to work on?

http://i.stack.imgur.com/XrhHv.jpg

http://i.stack.imgur.com/KXCWL.jpg

Answer 1

The second photo is the best as it has the background contrasting the object.

To cut out the silver area use Fuzzy selection(magic wand) tool in GIMP.

You do follow this:

1. Using fuzzy selection tool click on the black area of the photograph. It will select the black portion alone.
2. Then invert the selection to select the silver object. Now cut the object.

To make processing more easy just place the silver object in middle of the photo, so that there will same lighting and detail on all edges. This will make Fuzzy selection to work easy and accurate, as this tool works differentiating color. Color contrast between object and background is important.