Photoshop: What's the quickest way to remove a background in a jpeg?

Hey Guys... So, for the longest time I've been removing backgrounds in photoshop by using a combination of the paint bucket tool and eraser tool. But, this is really tedious and I've always meant to ask someone if there's a better way to do this.

I want to remove the background behind a model so that the edges around him look crisp and clean (such as on magazine covers). See the image I attached below (I want to isolate the model as they've done, with clean, crisp edges). Any suggestions?

Thanks guys :-)

Hi BrianDN,

The way i do it is this:

I might be using wrong terminology sometimes but it still works :)

Use the magic wand and click on the background. You can set it's sensitivity so you get most of the background but not any bodyparts selected.
Keep +clicking (clicking while hodling down Shift, or was that ctrl?)

OK, depending on the picture, most of the background is selected now.

Click on the masking icon (bottom of the tools panel) now everything selected is red, and everything unselected is noncolored. Use the airbrush, or pen while zoomed in to remove red dots/parts where they shouldnt be, and apply color where selection should be. Black makes selection, white removes selection.

When you are satisfied click the mask icon again.
You should have a pretty good selection now. So you can invert the selection, apply a few pixles smoothing and feather if you want (selection menu), then delete the background by hitting Delete key. Keep practising and youll get better cutouts.

Another way is using the magnetic lasso or pen with bezier curves.

Good luck!

Hey Marq... I've been using the magnetic lasso which has been working out well (although I have to still clean up with the eraser at times). Thanx for the tip, I'll try your method as well!

BrianDN