Extracting hair - Please help!

[gardenfull]

I am trying to extract a woman's face with beautiful hair. But no matter if using "Extract" or "Magic Wand Tool", I just can't get the natural touch of the hair.
Appreciated for those who can help.

Gardenfull

[HroadhogD1]

Can you post an image? This would be helpful.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by gardenfull

I am trying to extract a woman's face with beautiful hair. But no matter if using "Extract" or "Magic Wand Tool", I just can't get the natural touch of the hair.
Appreciated for those who can help.

Gardenfull

First of all, welcome to RetouchPRO. I moved and retitled your thread so more people will find/look at it.

There's no free lunch (easy way) to extract hair easily in most situations. Often times the method to use depends on the nature/characteristics of the image.

If you upload/attach the image you're having trouble with [see link below my sig], that would help folks point you in the right direction or provide suggestions specific to the challenge you are facing. I highly recommend doing this.

Other possibilities:
* Try the RetouchPRO forum search tool using extract hair as keywords. Much has been written here.
* There are boatloads of tutorials on this topic on the net. Google photoshop hair masking tutorial or photoshop extract hair tutorial

I hope this gets the ball rolling on this for you.

[Swampy]

See Russell Brown's Advance Masking Quicktime tutorial.

[Dave.Cox]

The advance masking technique takes some practice, but is well worth the effort. Russell Brown's tutorial that Swampy referenced above is one of the best I've seen on how to do it.

[longside1]

Hey guys,

I've just watched the Russell Brown tutorial and have to admit that it's really good! Thanks for sharing fellas!

[Alison]

If you're using PS3, try the quick selection brush.

[jagplt@mac.com]

if you know you're going to be extracting the image for later use, a bright backround helps. I've found preplaning before the shoot keeps me from spending hours in photoshop trying to fix simple stuff. oh yeah... and practice ...

Russ Browns tutorial is a great starting point...

another good one is David Zisor's at http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/ his lesson on extracting for a banner of a skier.

j

[Dave.Cox]

I'm less than impressed by the quick selection brush for anything other than the most crude selections. For selecting hair, I feel the advanced masking selection is generally the best method, and for many other selections when there is sufficient contrast, it is the quickest and most accurate. When there isn't enough contrast, I generally fall back to the pen tool to make my selection. It is very helpful to know all methods of selection though, including the marquee selection tools and even the lasso tool is occasionally useful and don't forget, you can even paint in your selection, and use the transform tool to adjust a selection by using the quick mask mode. Quick mask can be very powerful, and yet is often forgotten.

So now you have your selection, what do you do with it to extract your image from the background. I believe the best way for most situations is to work non-destructively. If you copy your selection to a new layer, you will have an image that contains your selected image only on a layer, with the rest of the image transparent. You can turn off the lower layers, and you will see that only the extracted image is left. This is a much better method than deleting the un-wanted parts of the image, as you have the original layer still intact.

[Alison]

Originally Posted by Dave.Cox

I'm less than impressed by the quick selection brush for anything other than the most crude selections. For selecting hair, I feel the advanced masking selection is generally the best method, and for many other selections when there is sufficient contrast, it is the quickest and most accurate. When there isn't enough contrast, I generally fall back to the pen tool to make my selection. It is very helpful to know all methods of selection though, including the marquee selection tools and even the lasso tool is occasionally useful and don't forget, you can even paint in your selection, and use the transform tool to adjust a selection by using the quick mask mode. Quick mask can be very powerful, and yet is often forgotten.

So now you have your selection, what do you do with it to extract your image from the background. I believe the best way for most situations is to work non-destructively. If you copy your selection to a new layer, you will have an image that contains your selected image only on a layer, with the rest of the image transparent. You can turn off the lower layers, and you will see that only the extracted image is left. This is a much better method than deleting the un-wanted parts of the image, as you have the original layer still intact.

Hi Dave,

I think it depends on the image. I've had some very successful attempts with it myself, and some complete disasters

[Dave.Cox]

Of course, that can be said about any technique in Photoshop. That is why it is good to know multiple techniques.

[scorpioeddie]

If you have the money or do this alot..Fluid Mask is a GREAT program that works as a stand alone or plugin for Photoshop!!!!

[cheshirepoet]

I fully second Fluid Mask...it's superb for hair! My boss Bill Simone uses it a lot for his composite photo work (http://www.billsimonephotography.com/). The only bad thing is it's a bit pricey, so determine if it'll have any value to you. Their site is www.vertustech.com

[pixelzombie]

Originally Posted by cheshirepoet

I fully second Fluid Mask...it's superb for hair! My boss Bill Simone uses it a lot for his composite photo work (http://www.billsimonephotography.com/). The only bad thing is it's a bit pricey, so determine if it'll have any value to you. Their site is www.vertustech.com

can point out an image with hair that you used it for?..i've played around with it but have been less than thrilled with the results so far...

[cheshirepoet]

Certainly, there's a blog entry at this page: http://billsimonephotography.com/wordpress/?p=28 which shows the before and after photo of a girl with fly-away hair put on a different background. While you can't see the hair as clearly in that photo, I've attached one that you can definitely see how well it worked.

[pixelzombie]

the boxing sample has some nice contrast between the hair and background, if i sent you a file do you think you would have time to use fluid mask on it?

[cheshirepoet]

Sure, although I won't get to work on it until Monday if that's alright. You can send it to shana@simoneassociates.com if it's not too large

[pixelzombie]

that would be great, i'll just post it to flickr and give you the link..thanks

[ray12]

I use Fluid Mask regularly for extracting hair from backgrounds...when its working... it works real great...I can even get individual strands of hair cutting out with no fringing. There are other times when the background and the hair are almost indesquishable...and in that case...almost nothing is going to help. I have made up a set of Hair Brushes of single strands and groups of strands that can be added in to places where the hair cut out is damaged. Sometimes you have to cheat to get good looking hair...but is terriblt challenging to get perfect. Fluid Mask does the best job of any software I have used to date.

Ray12

[pixelzombie]

how does it compare to Knockout?

[grimby]

Russel Browns masking demo is really good, probably one of the best I've seen. A craftsman at work !!