extracting blond Hair for black background-destination

[Flora]

Gary,

...any luck in downloading the pictures?

No problems here, but sometimes it happens to me too .... In these cases, I 'force' a total reload of the page (with Netscape is Crtl+Shift+R) and it ususally works ...

[Rydiant]

Hi everyone,

I've observed discussions on RetouchPRO for a while now. I've never had anything to contribute that hasn't already been mentioned by others in each thread until now. This isn't original but I think it's a good reminder:

Pure, try to refer to a similar image; give yourself a target. Look for a model shot against a black background and lit in a similar fashion. It's so obvious to consider (and accordingly, very easy to forget when you're in a pinch,) but it's impossible to undervalue how an ideal picture gives you a goal to aim for in your retouching. You'll know what doesn't look real because you'll have a concrete example for comparison. You won't need to rely on imagination or vague memory.

We're all sensitive to human features that "just don't look right." We can all keep working through trial and error to make our retouching look better. Of course it's best to know exactly what we're aiming for when we need to maintain realism.

I hope this helps. And Pure, I hope you come up with the result you need in time! Good luck!

PS. The RetouchPRO community is full of genius! I've learned a lot. Thanks to the mods and all the contributors. I hope to be a part of more discussions in the future.

[mistermonday]

Hi Pure,
There is no visible loss in converting to LAB and back. Mathematically there may be a tiny quantizing error but it is not noticeable.
Regards, Murray

[byRo]

Hi there, Rydiant! Welcome to RetouchPRO

You quite right of course.
Sometimes we get so carried away with the intricacies of channel blending that we forget to look where we're going - good reality check!

Rô

[Flora]

Hi Rydiant!

Welcome to RP from me too!!

Thank you so much for the great tip!!! As Rô said, we tend to get 'carried away' ... so, it's a brilliant idea to keep an image of reality for quick comparison!!

[bart_hickman]

I think we all agree this is one of those pathalogical cases you'd want to avoid at all costs.

For future reference, the best choice is to shoot with a background and lighting of similar color to the final desired result. Russel Brown's techniques work best in this situation.

If you don't know what the final background will look like or if you just want more flexibility to have a general image that you can cleanly extract for an arbitrary number of possible scenarios (ie aribrarily changed background and arbitrarily changed hair highlights) it's best to ensure that every light source has a distinct color--the more saturated the better. So, for example, if the background had been saturated dark red and the hair-highlight had been light saturated green (the third light source is what is coming from front of the subject--in this case it's the yellow of the hair), you could more easily (and smoothly) separate the three light sources and adjust them as desired in the final image.

Bart

[Kraellin]

oh lord, another bad hair day

has anyone tried the vertus software on this yet? i'd be real curious to see how that works.

craig

[studioj]

Ok non of the 2 ways that Russell Brown shows in his videos are usefull for this, well, not as a "GOOD RESULT"

I'm a little stuck, but after the meal I was wondering about something, I'll give a try.

Do you know pure that you put all of us to work?

LOL

Ok, Now I edited my post to attach my try, please tell me if you think it's some how reallistic and I'll tell you my process

Check most on the upper side of the pic, I wasn't putting attention to the lower part, but the method works for bought

[pure]

studioj, your pic is very good.
unfortunately i didnt have enough time to experiment today,
but i found my own way of doing it and mixed everything a bit together from your approaches and the videos one.

alltogether i like the result, it took me the whole day, but i have to continue with 10 more and i must leave it now, until the client says "no" or "yes".

of course its not as precise as all of yours, its just done in a flush or hurry and finished "moody" as for the atmosphere and lightmood, for my own point of view.

here it is: unretouched/retouched

http://homepage.mac.com/purepeter/Si...de_onwhite.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/purepeter/Si...nd_onblack.jpg


thanks for your help again, i cannot say how much you all helped me today.
i was nearly close to heartattack, to say it ironically.

[studioj]

I like the final result, I like the model too

It's not what you where looking at the beginning, but the result it's good for my point of view

[bart_hickman]

Looks good. Please tell us how.

Bart

[pure]

thanks

extracted the hair and body with the video method (i think it was colormixer)
then i had a channel with a nice mask, actually 2 as for body and hair, like described in the video above.

applying the mask and cleaning it, erasing everything light and medium light in the hair.

finally copied original hair as layer over the masked layer and erased everything which i didnt need. then pressed invert (i), then applied several curves for the second hair layer and applied another layer as luminosity filled with light orange airbrush over the hair peaces which went light-grey as i inverted it. then the invertlayer looks like a mix between red/blonde against black background. hope this works also for next 10 images.

thanks

[studioj]

Mine was the most simple of all of you. I used the old REPLACE COLOR option in the menu IMAGE/ADJUST/REPLACE COLOR

I used 20% tolerance and click on the upper background color, and I decrease the luminosity only in 15%.

I did this like 6 times and then, I had a very nice contrast in the background and the hair. Then, use color burn tool (O) on the edge of the hair and a hard black brush on the rest of the background.

REPLACE COLOR worked perfectly, more than LAB color and the other methods

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Flora, sorry I'm a bit late coming back. Tried just now and it opened fine, just some kind of temp glitch I suppose.

Thanks for the suggestion, will try it next time I have such a problem.

Gary

[Cameraken]

Hi Pure.

You Say you ‘unfortunately I have to set them all in front of a white background’

I don’t know whose fault this was but it sounds like the instructions were not that clear. As a photographer without clear instruction then I would have added a backlight or hair light.

Another Way.

Why not extract the body but leave a snoot on the background. This is what I would have done when taking the shots.

This means you can have a black background without any hair extraction, which will look more natural.

Ken