Cutting out fine hair!!

[CarlRetoucher]

Hi,

I've been looking on here for help to cutting out fine hair as attached.
I know you won't be able to get the real fine strands of hair off the background, but I'd like to keep as much as possible, at the moment the hair looks to blocky when cut out and I can't find any good brushes that would work with her hair?

Thanks

Carl.

[Der_W]

Hi Carl,

if you have CS5, you can just use the Refine Edge dialog to mask the hair. Now with this mask applied to your new background (on top of the image), set the blending mode of the new background to "Linear Burn". That should take care of the remaining strays :-).
Edit: To make it even better, select the color of the background, fill a new layer in "Linear Dodge" mode with it, invert it and put both, the new background (top) and the linear dodge layer (bottom), in a group on which you apply the mask (so no mask on any of the layers inside the group but rather on the group itself).

[CarlRetoucher]

HI Der_W,

Thanks for answering so quickly.

I'm struggling with the steps. Once I have the mask created, you say apply it to my new background (on top of the image)?

Thanks

Carl

[Der_W]

Yes.
The layer stack should be (from top to bottom):

group with mask
--new background - mode: "Linear Burn"
--old background (inverted) - mode: "Linear Dodge"
original

I'll just upload a quick PSD file :-): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7124285/Fore...eplacement.psd

[CarlRetoucher]

Brilliant, thanks.

This really helps.

[ME_wwwing]

this video has a few tricks to learn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsJ-x43F6oc

Originally Posted by CarlRetoucher

Hi,

I've been looking on here for help to cutting out fine hair as attached.
I know you won't be able to get the real fine strands of hair off the background, but I'd like to keep as much as possible, at the moment the hair looks to blocky when cut out and I can't find any good brushes that would work with her hair?

Thanks

Carl.

[artofretouching]

Hi carl, you can find a free and detailed how to video on the refine mask tool for cs5 at the link below. I am really a big fan of this tool, as it works wonders for masking hair.

http://www.theartofretouching.com/bl...al-refine-edge