MahaShiva
Magistrate
I'm part of the old school on this one, too. The lasso tools are definitely a time-saving shortcut if I want to transfer a figure or an object between backgrounds of very similar color tone, but those occasions are quite rare. In addition to the ragged edges, the lasso tools also bring over remnants of the original background along the edge of the image, which is a sure-fire "tell" of photo-manipulation and therefore runs smack against every single perfectionist fiber in me.Like Bob says above, it's a question of ragged edges. Most of these lasso tools leave a ragged edge which may not be immediately obvious. You want to avoid ragged edges or pale or dark edges around your figures if possible. Bob and I are a bit old school and cut out our figures manually.
Ideally you want to match the size (and the quality) of the background with the figure. Large can always be made smaller, small may not look good when enlarged, depends on the quality of the image. You don't want a beautiful high res figure against a scratchy background, or vice versa.
Nice work so far Barb, and you're learning how much fun it can be. Are you using materials from the Crucifixion Manipulations Construction Kit ?