oops ... I lost her hair

[moonchild64]

Hi All
I am TRYING to teach myself a bit about about photomanip, restoration, etc. using Photoshop CS3. Tonight I was playing around with a picture of my youngest daughter. Though I'm not even sure if I could repeat it, I like the glowing skin in her picture. The problem is, I ended up losing her hair to the bg.

How can I bring out her hair again without losing the doll-like effect of her face?

I appreciate any help. You folks amaze me with the work you do!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...lyCompare2.jpg

[Dave.Cox]

To keep the hair, you might try a lighter background. I also noticed that the forehead and cheeks are blown out in your retouch.

[moonchild64]

Thanks Dave. Sometimes I just don't see the easiest way that is right in front of me. Sleep deprivation can wreck havoc. LOL

As for the cheeks and forehead, I have already done one of her with a nice retouch. I made the one above by accident but really liked the effect ... sorta like a doll. I wanted to play around with it a bit more but couldn't figure out how to get her hair back.

I am new here and to Photoshop. I am really enjoying looking at all the work you have all done and I am looking forward to learning a lot! I can already tell masking seems to be something really important so hopefully I will find all the best info here and can learn it.

Thanks again.

[Daviskw]

If you have your layers set up right you can add a light circular gradient between your lovely daughter and the dark background... it should blend nicely.

Butch

[Ellen LeRoy]

Each time you make a change, use a new layer (control J). In the step where you lost her hair, add a mask (at bottom of layers palatte, rectange with circle in it). Then use a paintbrush with black at a low opacity (10-20%) and it will slowly bring back your original layer so you can get the hair back. If you go too far, paint with white and you will go back to the new version.

Learning to use layers and masks will take you a long way in Photoshop. It allows you to have more control over your changes.

[Swampy]

For those times that I don't want to make a hair selection, I go about it in a different way and intentionally lose the hair.

1. Duplicate background
2. Using QuickMask Mode and a soft painterly brush (I used my "Swampy's Watercolor Brush") and starting with the facial details at 100%. Reduce the brush size and opacity as you work your way out toward the edge of the hair.
3. Exit QuickMask and apply the mask to your duplicate layer.
4. Under the masked layer add a color of your choice.
5. Run a pretty high Gaussian Blur on the mask until you get a soft blend between the hair and the background.
6. Run Filter/Other/Minimum to choke in the blurred edge if you like
7. Touch up the mask as needed, painting away excess edges, or painting in more hair.

[moonchild64]

Thank you all for replying with help.

Ellen, you are right ... layers and masks are what I am trying best to learn. From what I have been reading here at this forum, they seem to be very, VERY important. I used them on that photo but still neglected to bring her hair back. I tried everything I could think of afterwords to get it back but couldn't. I will learn one day not to flatten the image until I am certain it is the way I want it.

I have some good repros of that same picture that does show her hair (but not her crutches). This just happened to be a new style I was trying from a tut found here.

Thanks again y'all! If you are still feeling helpful, I am about to post one of my grandson that I can't fix. I could sure use the help.

[Noah]

One thing I like to do if I've botched something and I didn't save the layers is just cut and paste a copy of the original picture back over top. On this new layer put in a black layer mask then use a 30ish% opacity soft brush to put back in the parts I want back.

Here's an example of this technique with her hair:

[moonchild64]

Noah, Thank you so much ... that is a great way to do it!