Photoshop Question! Haircuts? - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

08/16/2008 01:04:23 AM · #1

Say you had to do an extraction and there is no clutter in the bg but it is not a solid colour and your model has VERY wild hair but you CANNOT give her a new 'do.

Magic eraser ain't cuttin it.
BG eraser takes out stuff that needs to be kept (even with the foreground colour -hair colour- protected).
All selection tools make it look FUN-AYYYY and highly unnatural.

How would you proceed? What do YOU do?

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

08/16/2008 01:08:18 AM · #2

Hard to say without seeing some examples of the photo and the bkg you're trying to put it on. There is some special masking software plugins for PS - Mask Pro from OnOne is one I have but never used.

geoffb

08/16/2008 01:24:31 AM · #3

Did you try using a channel selection yet?

As Ken said, it's tough to know without seeing the image.

08/16/2008 01:30:01 AM · #4

Example:

[thumb]710889[/thumb]

08/16/2008 01:30:38 AM · #5

Originally posted by geoffb:

Did you try using a channel selection yet?

As Ken said, it's tough to know without seeing the image.

I did :) Not working... takes away some of the hairs I would rrrrreally like to retain.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

08/16/2008 01:32:00 AM · #6

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:

Hard to say without seeing some examples of the photo and the bkg you're trying to put it on. There is some special masking software plugins for PS - Mask Pro from OnOne is one I have but never used.

Dunno what she wants me to put it on yet... right now just trying to find something that won't take me a million years to get it off there for her and that looks natural.

Let's pretend it's going on a black background :) For the sake of argument :)

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

08/16/2008 01:57:36 AM · #7

Originally posted by TCGuru:

Let's pretend it's going on a black background :) For the sake of argument :)

I got this much done through an extensive variety of methods that would take much too long to explain...

It would be much easier to work on the original, high res image. The thing is, in this situation, I don't know of any way around a series of seemingly random and tedious steps to get it right, but based on the little work I did on this, I would guess it's maybe 30 - 45 minutes to get from the original to the final with desired background.

I guess it doesn't help if I can't at least give you some idea of how to approach it, so I'll try to post some screenshots I took during my playing around. Give me a few minutes...

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

08/16/2008 02:03:14 AM · #8

Which random and tedious steps did you use? LOL

That actually looks pretty darn good. Much better than what I have been able to manage.

ETA: Give me a few minutes... okay!! :)

Message edited by author 2008-08-16 02:05:09.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

08/16/2008 02:47:35 AM · #9

Ok -sorry for the oversized images, but I think it works better if they're in the thread...

Use the lasso with about 5 px feathering and mask the outer edges of the hair (ref image #1), not worrying about getting a bunch of bkg with it. Click CTRL+J TWICE to duplicate the selection to two new layers (ref image #2), then hide those layers. *One of the layers is just a backup in case we need to get some of that hair back in later steps.

Create a layer under the current one and fill it with black (or put your final bkg on it). Now go back to the main photo layer and go ahead and just use the magic wand to select all the white bkg and delete it and use the eraser to erase the white around the edges of the hair and go ahead and erase even the ends of the hair. Then turn on one of the top layers with the hair you selected in the beginning. You should see something like this:

Now CTRL+I to invert the hair. I only do this because we are going from one extreme to another (white to black) on the background. Now set the blending mode to "Lighten" for that layer. You should end up with something like this:

Now use CTRL+U (hue/sat) and adjust the hue way to one side or the other to get as close to the original brown as you can. Use color, curves, whatever to refine even more to get it to match. Then erase the lighter inside parts of the hair - you should have enough overlapping on the original image underneath to reveal the hair on that layer. If not, you can use the backup copy of the hair ends - take pieces from it to slip underneath or whatever - it should all line up.

In my examples, I did everything sloppy and quick and on the low res image - you should be able to get much better results on the originals. The exact steps are not important as long as you somewhat understand the approach, you can use your own, perhaps even better methods.

Hope it helps.

edit to add: I use the clone tool and this brush:

to clone over where I couldn't completely get rid of the bkg. Adjust the angle and size of the brush and use lightly - a little at a time.

Message edited by author 2008-08-16 02:51:32.

one2one

Olympus E-5

Olympus 7-14mm f/4.0 Zuiko Digital Zoom

08/16/2008 08:12:42 AM · #10

If you need more help, I used this tutorial a few weeks ago and thought it was great and my result was good too.

08/16/2008 12:16:04 PM · #11

WOW. Thanks Ken! I understand what you did there :) I tried to do it almost the same way but missed some vital steps so was ending up with garbage!!! :)

You are a sweetheart! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

08/16/2008 12:16:43 PM · #12

Originally posted by Jac:

If you need more help, I used this tutorial a few weeks ago and thought it was great and my result was good too.

Thank you very very much for the link!! I will check it out :)