Photo Compositing - - Cutting Out Hair

OhThatGirl2001 · #1 02-04-2002, 12:42 AM

Greetings!

I thought I would ask if anyone knows of a good techinique for selecting hair and cutting out. I personally make a selection as close to the edge as possible in a new layer and later clean up with the eraser tool if I've gone over - However, I miss the fine strands of hair with this method. I enjoy hand coloring images and wonder if there is a neater way to get those fine whisps in my selection. Currently, I use the retouch tool set to smudge to get some of the whisps close to the forehead once I've added the color to my selection. Your tips would be greatly appreciated.

Lisa

Doug Nelson · #2 02-04-2002, 08:27 AM

There's a tutorial (over in the 'tutorials' section, gee

) that has a method for masking hair, but it only works in some situations.

I usually end up using 2-3 different techniques for different sections, on separate copies, then putting them together.

DJ Dubovsky · #3 02-05-2002, 05:16 PM

If you are using Photoshop 5.5 or higher there is a feature called Extract. I also found a good 2 page tutorial on extracting hair using the extract feature by Russel Preston Brown. You can find the PDF file on it here
Hope that helps you.
DJ

OhThatGirl2001 · #4 02-07-2002, 02:42 AM

Thanks DJ,

I have tried that method before. It works better if you're trying to cut out and replace the background. The method reminds me of Corel's Total Knockout. It does not work well, if I'm trying to just select the hair for coloring purposes. Nice and easy method for cutting someone out. I appreciate the tip.

Lisa

Mig · #5 02-07-2002, 08:34 PM

The best method I've ever read for hair is in a book by Deke McClelland's book Photoshop Bible. I have the one for version 5, but the section that deals with hair is sure to be in other versions of the book. Here's the link to his site:
http://www.dekemc.com/Explorer/DekePresII.html
The method involves examining the channels to look for the one that has the most contrast between the hair and background, then dragging that channel down to the little page icon at the bottom of the channels pallette, duplicating the channel. Then you use any number of methods to further increase the contrast in the channel, such as with curves. Basically you're building a mask.

This is a good book all around and includes all the basics and some advanced stuff.

Mig

Mike · #6 02-07-2002, 10:15 PM

Lisa
Now you need to remember that I am a new comer to this, but if you used the extract method, then placed that on a new layer over the orginal image and did your coloring on that "hair layer" while getting rid of everything else on that layer that you did not need?
Guess I will have to get an image (and the time

) and try this out. I am sure that if I am wrong someone will let me know about it!!
Mike

OhThatGirl2001 · #7 02-08-2002, 01:01 PM

Thanks Mig and Mike (sounds like a pizza restaurant), I have all of two books on Photoshop - both I consider outstanding. Derke's Photoshop Bible and Photoshop Restoration & Retouching by Katrin Eismann. I will look up the section about channels and selecting hair. I have read and found a tutorial just recently that did exactly that. http://graphicssoft.about.com/librar...bps_5agirl.htm
I tried to follow along step but my end result was nothing like theirs.

DJ Dubovsky · #8 02-08-2002, 05:22 PM

Thanks alot for the link. I copied those tutorials to my collection. There is really alot of great info on that site. Can't wait to really dig into it.
DJ

Mig · #9 02-08-2002, 08:07 PM

Yes, that's the basic gist of it. The author of the tutorial was a little sloppy, but that's the closest tutorial on the net to the one I've seen in the book.

Mig

Sanda · #10 02-08-2002, 08:38 PM

here's another one form an older thread which shows how to cut out hair on a difficult subject.
http://www.btinternet.com/%7Ebbdigit...gie/boogie.htm