Hair masking problem

[vivek buddhi]

Hey everyone,

I have bee searching this forum a lot about hair masking and found much good info. But not something that works for me..

I don't want to use any plugins for masking any more but stick only with photoshop because i know it's powerful enough to get the job done.

I attached and example here of the kinda hair I have to mask out very often.
The thing that make it hard is that I have no control over the background at least not in many cases. I shoot mostly at F/5.6 with the focus on the face that makes the hair slightly out of focus.

If any one could give me a explanation of how to mask this the best I would be so grateful!

Vivek

[mistermonday]

Vivek, welcome to RetouchPro. In Photoshop, the Refine Edge, Calculations command, and the Apply Image command individually or in combination with each other are usually very effective for complex masking of hair. As for the image you posted, you really should ask yourself how much of the hair you should mask out. Generally the very fine whispy flyaway and random hair at the top adds no real value to the image and may be more of a distraction. You can waste a lot of time extracting it but why do it if it makes the image look worse? Much of the flyaway hair on this subject is, as you have pointed out, out of focus and lacking in contrast to the background. This makes the effort of extracting it more intensive. Even if for some reason you feel that you would like to keep every strand of that hair, you need to weigh the extra time required against the results that you will achieve. You won't find a very quick solution - not in PS nor any plugin.
Regards, Murray

[vivek buddhi]

Thanks for the quick reply Murray!

I know about the refine edge.. not about the calculations & apply image command... I will research those... thanks!

I did a lot of "shaving" in Ps with hair like this but it looks to fake... It is more like photo journalistic style the way these photos get published and printed... So the more real it looks the better.. in contrast to that some times I take a photo of the same background just without the many people always around and mask that in.. At least a good share of the hair should be there.. The fact that the hair is almost always slightly out of focus makes it pretty hard..

Vivek

[gholmes1936]

Is this one more to your liking? If so all you need to do is learn how to use photoshop a little better or should I say differently. Use the rubber stamp tool and then add a small bit of noise where you moved pixels around. Wouldn't hurt to find the tutorial about smudging here on RetouchPro either.

Let me know.

[Boneappetit]

Originally Posted by vivek buddhi

Hey everyone,

I have bee searching this forum a lot about hair masking and found much good info. But not something that works for me..

I don't want to use any plugins for masking any more but stick only with photoshop because i know it's powerful enough to get the job done.

I attached and example here of the kinda hair I have to mask out very often.
The thing that make it hard is that I have no control over the background at least not in many cases. I shoot mostly at F/5.6 with the focus on the face that makes the hair slightly out of focus.

If any one could give me a explanation of how to mask this the best I would be so grateful!

Vivek

Here is a nice and easy trick to mask hair (background) by Calvin Hollywood.
Great trick and works great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWem0...e=more_related

[vivek buddhi]

Originally Posted by gholmes1936

Is this one more to your liking? If so all you need to do is learn how to use photoshop a little better or should I say differently. Use the rubber stamp tool and then add a small bit of noise where you moved pixels around. Wouldn't hurt to find the tutorial about smudging here on RetouchPro either.

Let me know.

Thanks,

i actually wanted to keep all the wild hair and mask the photo on another background...

v

[vivek buddhi]

Originally Posted by Boneappetit

Here is a nice and easy trick to mask hair (background) by Calvin Hollywood.
Great trick and works great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWem0...e=more_related

i'm gonna check it out! thanks

[mistermonday]

Calvin's technique is great when you have a consistent relationship between the foreground and background (dark on light / light on dark) or other consistent contrast where a Blend mode can apply the same formula to all pixels. That will not work on this particular image.
Vivek, I can understand that for journalistic purposes you might want all that wild hair. In that case you need to control the shooting conditions (distance of camera to subject / subject to background, background content, etc, or prepare for a very large amount of time post processing. Changing the shooting conditions could allow you to take crisp images with the hair sharp and well defined. That would allow you to mask / extract the hair much more easily and quickly and you couls apply depth of field effects afterward.
Regards, Murray

[gholmes1936]

Originally Posted by vivek buddhi

i'm gonna check it out! thanks

That tutorial is great but will not work on multiple colored backgrounds.

Also I must have shorted out when I read your first post, I missed what you wanted by 180 degrees.

Mistermonday said it like it is.