Masking Help Needed

[curtism]

Can someone help me construct a mask so that I can use it to replace the background? I've tried each channel separately and in combination through Calculations without success. The lady would like a different background so that her hair will be more visible and aesthetically pleasing.

This is really an educational exercise for me. I only took the job so that I could better understand masking problems such as this.

Ideas? Suggestions? Links? Thanks in advance.


Curtis

[curtism]

Oops! Forgot photo.

[palms]

Try using the quick mask tool on the hair, had a quick rough try and it worked ok

Palms

[Tony W]

The biggest problem (at least for me!) was to find enough seperation between the hair and the background. So this is my attempt - still not happy with the hair outline though:

1. As the hair needed much seperation duplicated image and converted to LAB. Then used curves layer and played about until I got the best seperation from background.

2. Using a combination of tools including quick selection and a little painting in here and there made a mask.

3. Added the background to the original RGB and copied the mask over to this layer.

4. Mask refinement next and also used the levels command directly on the mask. Plus a small amount of Gaussian blur to the mask.

5. A little more painting on the mask layer in places.

I am still not happy with the hair and think that it may benefit to a little touch up here and there with a hair brush to make it more realistic.

[amica999]

This was done with Topaz Remask 3 in 5 Minutes....

Not sure if you noticed, but you have a pattern problem on that pic too....So if adding a new background you'd either need to repeat the pattern on the bg or get rif of it on the lady :-)

[curtism]

@ Tony W -- I ran into the same problem that you did. There's just not enough separation between the hair and the background. That's what my client is complaining about!

I hope that maybe someone will have an unconventional idea that might work.


Curtis

[curtism]

@ amica999 -- Thanks! I'll look into that program.

I knew about the pattern but figured that the main problem was masking the hair/background and, if I couldn't do that, there was no point in worrying about the pattern.

Curtis

[amica999]

Originally Posted by curtism

@ amica999 -- Thanks! I'll look into that program.

I knew about the pattern but figured that the main problem was masking the hair/background and, if I couldn't do that, there was no point in worrying about the pattern.

Curtis

They have a 30 days trial: http://www.topazlabs.com/downloads/index.php

[Daviskw]

I used the pen tool then a little brush work on the mask.

Butch

[daygraphics]

Yes... Daviskw, I agree. What is needed here is good ol' fashioned hand work. Topaz and many other masking tools, only do what you could do yourself if you had a thorough command of all aspects of color and densities. It is not magic - despite their very good dog and ponies. I too would use a pen tool, create a mask with a feathered edge and rework the stray hairs with conventional brush, erase and cloning tools. Doing it this way, your final may not be actually accurate, but will look more natural and hopefully slip by unnoticed. Try creating a new channel, copy this grayscale image and paste it into it (I made this in about 10 minutes). Then select this mask with load selection (unless you named it - it will be Alpha 1) and then delete your background. You may need to do some additional fine-tuning and color matching, but again - a lot of this boils down to hand work.

[philbach]

Photoshop CS5 has a mask edge feature that's pretty helpful. It didn't work very well in this example but I used it here as an example. I did not fine tune the mask after I made this mask using the "mask edge" feature. What I did do though was use a curves adjustment layer to increase the contrast between the hair and the background before making a crude selection to a mask and then used the mask edge feature.

Russell Brown has two nice videos on this CS5 feature.

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/the-russel...photoshop-cs5/

[daygraphics]

I will have to check out the videos. While all the masks filters and 3rd party plug-ins continue to improve - they ALL struggle with this type of image. Not enough color, density or hue separation between the background and the actual hair. Not really much these applications can do about that...

If you want a course, crude - very non-professional looking result - go ahead and use them. BUT if you want something that looks better than a student project, you will have to learn how to do some handwork.

I liken some of these results (topaz and others) to designers using the "magic" wand for outlining - works for layout purposes and approval, but you'll likely have to pay someone to do a professional job in the end.

[Wolfman]

I also used the latest version of Topaz Remask 3 and it did a pretty good job in my opinion.

[daygraphics]

Good is certainly a relative term and I guess in the end, our client's decide what is good. My personal barometer for what is good is whether or not you can "tell if it has been retouched." Hair is particularly hard, especially on a subject like this. Obviously, we are all working on lores images for these exercises, but the end hires result should look like hair - not misty, cloudy blotches of see through, somethingness.

[Daviskw]

It is relative but there are very few true ,so called professional extractions, that I can't see the evidence...Especially if the shot was not set up for extraction.

Reasonable should be good enough.

Butch

[0lBaldy]

Cut her out (just painted a mask) .. smooth the rough edges... FFT filter.. new gradient background... sharpened eyes ... 1 pixel clone brush to put some hair back on the edges