Does anybody know of a good way to mask hair? I've even tried the demo of Mask Pro (http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=4) and it couldn't separate the hair from a solid green background. Was I just using it wrong? Help!

Try Russell Brown's Tips on Masking. Look at the bottom of THIS (http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html) page.

he has good stuff, but he talks way too damn slow, i dont think ive actaully listend to a full lesson by him because he takes forever.

It's subject matter...did you try to work with color range, selection tools, channels(creating alfa channel)...

Does anybody know of a good way to mask hair? I've even tried the demo of Mask Pro (http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=4) and it couldn't separate the hair from a solid green background. Was I just using it wrong? Help!Two tips: often you don't need to actually mask the hair, strand for strand, but, rather, create a hairlike mask that you can clone into. A 3 pixel brush with size and opacity set to pressure sensitive can create nice strands and flyaways. As I say at the bottom of my posts, who cares if it's right, so long as it looks right?

Also, you can create the best mask possible, accepting that you won't accurately capture the wisps that fade into the background without bringing along that background as well. When you put your masked layer against the new background, dupe that part of the new background that overlaps the hair to a new layer. Place it above your masked figure and group to it. Hide this background layer with a mask. If the new background is lighter than the one from which your figure was extracted, set it to screen. If it is darker than the original, set it to multiply. Now reveal these background pixels wherever you have unsightly halos from the previous background. Usually, you can not only blend the halos into the underlying background, you can bring out the wispy hair concealed within. It's tedious and won't always give perfect results, but usually you can preserve the original hair edges, blended against the new background.

Katrin Eismann uses some good techniques for hair in this:

http://www.software-cinema.com/products-on-disc/advanced-masking-techniques/product_details/44

It's essentially working on your alpha channel under the channels palette,
and using a black or white brush in overlay mode to pull out more hair
detail. Or using the dodge and burn tools the same way.

I'm barely explaining it, but it can work quite well.

I just watched Russell Browns video.
Man that guy is hard to listen to.
He does 'essentially' the same thing
Katrin does...

I've listened to Russell Brown for so many years, i just tune out his persona. His masking tutorial *is* one of the best if you ignore all the rest.

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As informative as his tutorials are, more often than not you can guess exactly what he is going to say about a minute before he actually says it. Great that he keeps everything for free, and his scripts for Photoshop/Bridge are excellent.

Nice work Mr. Brown.


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I thought all you colonials talked like that, since you all seem to have so many problems with the English language. :wink::lol: (Ducks as heavy objects fly my way).

Hey, although i live in New Zealand, i'm originally from England.
I was just lucky and got out early. ;)

In Russell's defense, and as an educator, If his tutorial was much faster, you would be complaining that he was too fast to follow. What is too slow for some people is too fast for others. And creating a training video such as this is not a trivial task. You have to choose a happy medium and go for it. I think that Russell did a very good job.

If his tutorial was much faster, you would be complaining that he was too fast to follow.

Fair enough if this wasn't a video.
But it is.

Hmmm! I must be doing something wrong then! I keep having to pause the videos (no matter who does them) to keep up and follow along.. Sometimes even have to re-wind/backup and play it over to understand some things..
I guess that is the difference between those of us trying to learn something new and those who already know the all the how to's are only reviewing known facts..

I looked over my grandsons shoulder the other day while he was using Photoshop to make Avatars or Sigs to see if I could pick up a few tricks.. He clicked and moved stuff so fast I got dizzy and left having no idea what he was doing or how..

I like SLOW... it is like ME!

As far as masking hair I have learned in the short time I've been using Photoshop that it depends on the resolution and a sundry of other things. In the end all you can do is extract the best you can or know how using the tools you are comfortable with. Then use all the other tools in your Photoshop/retouching arsenal to improve on the extraction and make it look right.. If you really need that wisp of hair there is always the stroked and faded freeform pen tool or Smudge tool.

Great link Swampy! Thanks!

Hmmm! I must be doing something wrong then! I keep having to pause the videos (no matter who does them) to keep up and follow along.. Sometimes even have to re-wind/backup and play it over to understand some things..

That's my point.
With video you CAN watch at your pace if it moves too fast.
Although watching Russell Brown in double speed is even more
hilarious, he could afford to move a little faster and those
that can't keep up can rewind etc as you say.

Some videos i watch over and over anyway, even if they
don't move too fast.

Eh who cares. I don't really watch his tutorials anyway. :P