Extracting hair from a difficult background

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Segunda
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Post by Segunda »

Hye all,

I hope you guys/girls can help me out with this one. I want to extract the woman including hair from the background.

I tried to follow several extracting hair topics, but the result is not good enough yet.

I use Photoshop CS5, and used for example 'quick selection tool + refine mask'.

I hope you can help me ;)

Cheers Segunda

Original:
[attachment=16784:woman_original.jpg]

My attempt:
[attachment=16783:woman.jpg]
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Fubster
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Post by Fubster »

I think what you have here is great for the image you started with. I think at this point you may be best to simply mask out (or erase) the edge areas that don't look like hair, and use the smudge tool to create extra "whips" of hair.
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jcdesign
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Post by jcdesign »

I think It´s gonna be hard to cut out that black hair with that dark shoes behind. Try to match a darker background around the shoe.
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sauron
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Post by sauron »

Your best bet is to do what Fubster said to do.
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Kernie
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Post by Kernie »

sauron wrote:
QUOTE (sauron @ Aug 4 2011, 03:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Your best bet is to do what Fubster said to do.

:agree: :agree: :agree:
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Segunda
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Post by Segunda »

Thanks guys! Could you help me a bit with the smudge tool? How do you use it exactly in this image?

I have to say I have not used the smudge tool many times in my photoshop life :)
Last edited by Segunda on Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Fubster
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Post by Fubster »

I'll work up a quick tut for you in the next hour or two.
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Post by Fubster »

[attachment=16796:tut01.jpg]
When using the smudge tool (1) to re-create hair, these are the settings I pay attention to the most. Brush size (2) – this controls the “hair width” that will be created. Strength (3) – this, for lack of a better explanation, controls the “length” of the wisps created. Sample all Layers (4) – well, I’ll get to that in a moment.
I started with the woman image of yours, and simply magic-erasered away the white, and added a green background. To add a wisp of hair, I will click inside the hair, and drag.
[attachment=16797:tut02.jpg]
These aren’t that good, it takes practice, and playing with the settings to get things right, but you get the idea. Also, notice that I have NOT checked “sample all layers”, so a few notable things are happening, and can happen.
1) I’m actually making a change to the base image, these smudges are being created on the same layer. This is akin to doing an erase instead of masking…it’s permanent on that layer.
2) If I do a “curl”, or come back onto my image, the smudge tool WILL smudge transparency:
[attachment=16798:tut03.jpg]
Obviously that is not desirable.

So, what I want to do it this:
1) Create a new layer
2) turn off all layers except for this new layer and your image
[attachment=16799:tut04.jpg]
3) Check “Sample All Layers”
4) Make sure the NEW layer is the SELECTED layer.
This will smudge FROM all visible layers, but put the smudge results into the SELECTED (New) layer.
Here is shown 1) As I am doing the smudge, 2) final against background, 3) new layer only against background.
[attachment=16800:tut05.jpg]
As you can see, I also suffered some from allowing so much white to stay on my image.

Hopefully this will give you enough to play around with and get the results you desire!
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Last edited by Fubster on Fri Aug 05, 2011 2:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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LittleCoolDude
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Post by LittleCoolDude »

Similar to fubsters, you could use the pentool to cut out a part of the area that has hair and use different layers to overlay it over top of her head thats cut out, then use some hair brushes to finish it off. Either way you extracting and making hair is a painful task
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chefjoe
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Post by chefjoe »

I've had much success with the method as discussed, but also creative use of the clone tool with a soft brush can work nicely.
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