Retouching Hair Strands - Does CS2 have a photo "TUBE" mode?

[ray12]

Have CS2 on Win XP.

Question: I am retouching a head shot. I would like to add some hair to it. Take a part from somewhere else and put it on the forehead. I am doing that fine with select and then cut and paste. Problem is that this procedure is quite long and produces many layers.

Is there some way in CS2 to create photo "TUBES" like in paintshop pro? I want to paint with a picture. I want to be able to dab hair strands on the area.

I have tried making a selection - then defining a brush - and then painting with the brush. Problem is that I have to select the colors and the brush is not really finely detailed. I need picture perfect reality. This works perfect with eye lashes - not so much hair.

Is there a Shape or a Tube capability in CS2 where I can select from a library of hair strands and then dab them on with great photo clairity?

I have an extensive collection of hair pictures and would like to make up a library of hair patches for various retouches. I have a good collection of eyes, lips, jewelery, skin texture etc...But hair is so fine detailed that you need 30 layers of cut and paste or maybe something like this.

Thanks

[mistermonday]

Ray, have you tried defining a small group of hairs as a Pattern and then using the Pattern Stamp Tool (under the Clone Tool flyout) stamp small patches of hair at a time?
Regards, Murray

[ray12]

Murray,

Thanks for the tip. Never considered doing that. Nice idea. Ill try it out some.

Any other ideas on how to get photo quality hair strands on the tip of your paint brush?

[creeduk]

You can download many hair and fur brushes created by Dave Nagel. I have linked a few of them here for you.

Brush Hair set 19
Brush Hair Set 21
Brush Hair Set 43
Brush Hair Set 23
There are plenty more and most sets have 20 to 30 brushes so have fun.