Hair tutorial

[Paris]

Hair can be a serious pain, and there are various techniques for tackling it.

This particular technique uses masking and coloring.



Here is the before image.
[attachment=21809:Hair_Step_1.jpg]

Duplicate this layer and create a vector mask on the new layer. Hide the original layer and mask out the edges of the hair.
[attachment=21806:Hair_Step_4.jpg]

Show the original layer around 50% opacity.
[attachment=21807:Hair_Step_5.jpg]

Select the paintbrush tool
[attachment=21808:Step_0.jpg]

Select the paint brush icon in the top left corner and then select "Paintbrush Oval 45 pixels Multiply."
[attachment=21795:Step_1.jpg]

Next, adjust the the options on the top bar.

Before
[attachment=21798:Step_3.jpg]
After
[attachment=21797:Step_3.5.jpg]

Go to the paint "Brushes" icon, uncheck "Wet Edges" and adjust the fade option like so.
[attachment=21799:Step_4_copy.jpg]

Select the vector mask and "trace" the outlines of the hair with the new brush. Adjust the brush size and Fade when necessary.
[attachment=21812:Step_5.jpg]
[attachment=21813:Step_6.jpg]

After a while you should get something like this.
[attachment=21811:Step_7.jpg]

There will most likely be colors from the background in your masking. This is where the coloring comes in. The original background colors won't be a big issue if they match the new background.

Select the eyedropper tool. Find a light brown color source in the hair to paint the edges with. Use a combination of blend modes: normal, color, overlay, honestly, whatever works In this image, I used a combination of light browns at color and overlay and whites at normal at low opacity.
[attachment=21802:Step_8.jpg]
[attachment=21816:Step_9.jpg]

After some coloring, you're ready to go
[attachment=21817:Hair_Step_2.jpg]

[invisigoth]

Tx Paris, I think I've tried a half a dozen or so tutorials all with average results. I recently came across this 30minute video tutorial which I used recently. Actually I thought it worked a little better than most. I'll give yours a try on my next bad hair day..!



http://scottkelby.com/2009/its-guest-blog-...eke-mcclelland/


..

[Kernie]

Excellent tutorial, nikerun. I never thought of doing it your way, but I must admit that the process explained in invisigoth's link is closer to the way I would do it, especially since your photo of the lady already has a blue background.

Sorry if this hijacks your thread, but I'm only posting this because I think you could save yourself some time by utilizing the flat blue background that is already present in your image as a sort of "blue screen" to help create your mask.

[attachment=21822:hair_02.jpg]

Of course, there is no one right or wrong way of doing things in Photoshop, and your "paint the hairs" method might actually give the designer more control and flexibility over the end product, whereas this "blue screen" method could potentially create unexpected errors in the mask that need to be fixed manually. Just thought I'd offer another option (and there are certainly many variations on this method as well), if you don't mind.

[Paris]

Thanks for pointing me to the site, invisigoth! I'll have to dive into advanced masking sooner or later

Kernie, don't worry about hijacking a tutorial with a tutorial (that saves time.) :P the more info the merrier

[sauron]

I do it a similar way to Kernie...

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop...lrbps_2fwks.htm

Here's what my result would look like after using refine edge and a level adjustment. Obviously would need a bit more work on the hair.

[M0vieM0nster]

Nice tutorial Paris I'll give it a try soon