Hello friends,
I was wondering how to remove the background of this photo without disturbing the strands of hair. I was trying to replace the background with white color but didnt quiet impress me with the final output.

Try this video tutorial

http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/AdvancedMasking.mov

My picture is bit complicated, whereas the video showed the picture with a blonde hair and plain background. Any one can help me?

Cyber...

As Russell Brown says at the beginning of his tutorial, he's using a photo with a gray background, but his explained technique works on more complex backgrounds. His is one of the most popular tutorials on hair masking available on the web.

If you're looking for a simple solution, there isn't one. Masking wispy hair is one of the most difficult things to achieve in Photoshop. It is next to impossible to get every little piece even on a studio shot with a chroma background. The hair on you subjects left (viewer's right) is so poorly defined against a background of little or no contrast is next to impossible. You seem to be looking for studio quality retouch from a poorly shot amature photo.

Sorry to sound harsh, but you just blew off one of the best hair masking tutorials available and I can't help you more than point you in that direction.

Swampy. Thanks for posting that tut. I have been looking for something like that, and this is fantastic! Best procedure that I have seen to date. Wahoo!

I say just cut her out with the pen tool carefully, and around the hair removing the little hairs, and just draw the little hairs in with the brush tool size 1 in photoshop, and while using a graphics pad and pen for more accuracy.

Dave, You're welcome,

Russell Brown has some great videos and is a master. He also does a pod cast from time to time. Some times his "energy" wears me down, but his Photoshop knowledge is both deep and wide.

Hi There

There is not too much fly hair along the backboard so you could and should use a pen to make all the selection you can.

Either use the above technique or use a channel.. red gives good contrast and make your mask along with the pen selection from there.

The example you posted is much too low res for a good job. If you post a hi res link then maybe we can help more... otherwise you will get something like below.

Butch

Hello cybersip

You can remove background in 4 different ways, like:


Magic Wand: Select the background with the magic wand by holding down the Shift button on your keyboard. When the whole background is selected, press delete. You can also select the lady and inverse the selection for deleting background.
Quick Mask: Make a quick mask over the layer from the Layer Tool Window. Drawn colored outline over the layer but on the mask leaving the lady out. Select the mask with the magic wand and press delete.
Extract Tool from Filter: You can find a handy tool named "Extract" in the "Filter" Menu in Photoshop. Draw a outline over the lady and fill the lady with the bucket tool. Then press ok.
Clipping Path: Go to path window beside the layer window. Create a new path and choose Clipping Path from the option menu hidden in the Arrow Button pointing to the right. Choose 1 pixel as flatness. Take the (Magnetic) Pen Tool from the Toolbar. Draw outline over the lady. When finished, right click the path from the path window and "make selection". Inverse the selection by Ctrl+Shft+I and press delete.


Manual hand-drawn clipping path can ensure best quality. The image you have attached requires hair masking, which is complex level of Clipping Path task.

There are some outsourcing companies that remove background with Clipping Path in Photoshop for you. You can contact them for removing background and create transparency, if require the task at bulk amount. They also have free trials for you to access their service.

Here is a cut out, using Russell Brown's technique for the hair. I find that I still prefer the pen for the rest of the cutout, as it makes a smoother cutout, but maybe that is just the way I am doing it.

A similar technique that I use all of the time to cut things out becuause it is fast, is to add an adjustment layer to increase contrast between the background and the forground image, and then use select color, or the magic wand to select one of the areas. Of course that technique only works where you can get a strong contrast, but when it does work, it is very fast.

Well done, Dave!

Thanks everybody to guide me and helping me out. I am gonna try my best and will surely show you all my work. I know the picture is not so good and not the best of the qaulity but i will try.

Thanks once again. This is great site and have learnt alot :)

Go for it Cyber..

why keep the fly hair? the fly hair is really infact a bad thing coming to portraits...unless people have a strong will to keep the fly hair...

I'd say concentrate on keeping the cutout true to the hair shape...when looking on the cutout the fly hair get's really noticed...

Gerry

I tend to use the highpass extraction method for complex jobs or a combination of channel masking and calculations.

Hi admirer

I'm not sure what you mean by highpass I hope you will explain. Also I often use either the channel mixer or channels along with apply image. I have tried calculations but find it easer to combine channel selections by hand. Please explain how you use calculations and for what reason.

Thanks Butch

Highpass extraction? Me too, I'd love to know what you are doing.

Well i open a channel with the best overall contrast then copy it. Run a highpass filter on it this picks up all the edges and differences in lumin values, the smaller the radius for highpass the more accurate the mask+more laboursome. Of course the greater the radius the less accurate+less work.
Next apply a levels adjustment to the picture bringing in the black and white slider into near the middle until you get a kind of pencil drawing. here you will find that all your edges contrast quite well either black on white or vise versa. Keep the edges that have white on the bit you want to keep as they are but if as it seems to always do you will have some sections where the inside edge is black. For the Black inside bits just lasso around and invert.
From here it is just a case of lasso the inside of the image (away from the edges) and fill with white. Do the same for the outside and fill with black.
From here its just a case of getting a nice soft brush at medium opp set to overlay to define the edges.
Hope this helps.
I would do a video tut but i cant find a free screen recorder (im sooo cheap).

Calculations are not so easy to describe.

Ohhh Forgot to add.
Using arbitrary maps can also be quite effective but not so accurate.

Admirer...

This would make a great tutorial. If you are on a PC there are several free (shareware) screen recorders available.

http://www.camstudio.org/

You can remove hairs using colour range very easily. Just make a rough selection around ladys hair, pick out the colours you want to remove & here you go. You have perfect selection of hairs. Also, you an make use of Softwares Like Corel Knockout & Extensis Mask Pro.