How would you do this ?

[buso23]

I want to put the rabbit inside the top hat and I've tried with a feathered selection around the rabbit, but it didn't work as there are many stray hairs around him. So how would you guys do this ?

What technique would you use in order to place the rabbit ? The pen tool ? I used the pen tool for the hat, but I think it's be very very time consuming to use it on the rabbit.

Anyway, thanks in advance and would like to hear your suggestions.

Regards, Ljupco

[Vernon]

I did a quick channel selection, duped the channel with the most contrast and then did a levels adjustment to enhance the the edges.
From that, made a selection, and extracted the bunny.

Your mileage may vary depending on personal choice of settings - a larger image will also net a better result.

[KRPphotography]

I would try using a levels mask.

[Der_W]

I used the blue channel along with some levels adjustments, some brushing on "Overlay" mode and a little "Refine Edge".
http://www.abload.de/img/rabbit3rdo.png

Next time you should try to get a little more contrast when shooting your images, that'll boost the quality of the masks your going to create.

[Wolfman]

I dropped the rabbit image on to the hat image, created a mask and brushed away what was not needed of the rabbit to fit into the hat.

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by buso23

I want to put the rabbit inside the top hat and I've tried with a feathered selection around the rabbit, but it didn't work as there are many stray hairs around him. So how would you guys do this ?

What technique would you use in order to place the rabbit ? The pen tool ? I used the pen tool for the hat, but I think it's be very very time consuming to use it on the rabbit.

Anyway, thanks in advance and would like to hear your suggestions.

Regards, Ljupco

I am very lazy...
I selected background of the hat with magic wand
Invert selection, copy, paste
put hat above rabbit (did a curves adjustment layer for the rabbit to make it show a bit better)
mask the hat
done

make a GIF for effect (Click the hat GIF and wait for the rabbit to appear)

[buso23]

Thanks to all of you guys. I'm going to give these techniques a try and see what I can do. Thanks again. Regards, Ljupco

[JoaJoa]

Hi,

as the background of the rabbit is pure white you can just make a duplicate of the rabbit, make that duplicate black and white and make a simple subtraction with a second pure white layer - the result is your mask which just needs a little curve for fine tuning.

Another approach would be to use the blend-if sliders with a range of 253-254 (for the sample image, for a bigger resolution the values will like vary).

[Der_W]

Another nice approach I just tested is to use a new layer, fill it with white and set its mode to "Difference". After that you can use the blue channel to create your mask (don't forget to delete your difference-layer after masking).

[buso23]

It might be because I suck at compositing or because I am doing something wrong but neither of the techniques could get me a good composite image. The edges are visible on the hat and I couldn't get rid of that.Maybe because my mask was not good but I've tried all the techniques described here but still couldn't get the hairs on the rabbit look as it was shot inside the hat and it wasn't a composite image.

Anyway I'm hosting the full resolution files at my web page so if anyone wants to kill some feel free to do that.

http://www.ljsphotographyonline.com/...10359750_HNcXe

password: retouch


P.S. Can you guys suggest a good book on compositing and making montages ? There are lots out there, just don't know which are good ones

[Nasturtium]

OlBaldy, you're a hoot!

russell brown on lynda.com can show you how to mask fur
Katrin Eismann's book on Masking and Compositing would be a good investment for you I believe

use the smudge tool on your mask to soften the edges

I think the perspective on the two images is slightly different

[buso23]

Originally Posted by Nasturtium

OlBaldy, you're a hoot!

russell brown on lynda.com can show you how to mask fur
Katrin Eismann's book on Masking and Compositing would be a good investment for you I believe

use the smudge tool on your mask to soften the edges

I think the perspective on the two images is slightly different

That sure looks promising. I need to have it on a white background instead of black, would you please explain your steps as to how to achieve this ?

Thanks in advance, Ljupco

[grannysdc]

resized the hat and added some space to the top.
used the Extract tool with a size 5 brush around the bunny
moved bunny to hat - resized with transform tool - masked bottom
sharpened eye
posted
maybe 2 minuets

[buso23]

Thanks grannysdc's It worked. Out of all the difficult techniques I've tried, this one worked best. Here is the full size image for all of you to see :

http://www.ljsphotographyonline.com/...10359750_HNcXe

Comments and critiques are welcome

[billyw55]

Is there a compositing technique that you could use with Photoshop Elements .

[billyw55]

I am a basic user of Photoshop element , I really don't do much compositing , or making I just do basic edits . I would really like to get into more advanced retouching techniquee with portraits , collarges etc.
Any help or suggestions would be great appricated.
thanks

[0lBaldy]

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[flexmanta]

The best technique for masking this type of fur is extracting it with any extraction filter/plugin/calculations/levels. Then, to give it a quality finish, smudge some hair out in little wisps with a small smudging brush on the rabbit layer.