Masking an image, by Bazzah
This quick tutorial is for Adobe Photoshop (CS3) on a PC.
1. Press ctrl + J to duplicate you main (background) layer, then hide the background layer.
2. With the copied background layer selected, click on 'Add Vector Mask, in your layers window.
3 Press 'D' on your keyboard to default your palette to black and white, and then 'X' until the primary colour is Black.
4. Select your brush tool ('B' on your keyboard). For this example I am going to use an 8px brush, with 82% hardness. My image is 500x380, so you will need to adjust your brush according to the size of them image you are masking.
5. Zoom into about 400% (whichever is most comfortable for you to use)
6. Now using your brush tool, carefully draw around the image you want to 'cut out' Don't worry if you make a mistake, as all you need to do is select a white brush (by pressing 'X') and you can draw the image back in.
You can apply the layer mask, by right clicking on the layer in your layers window, and selecting 'Apply Layer Mask'
Extra Tips
Making it easier to see masking
You may want to add a coloured back ground in temporarily. Depending on the image, add a vibrant green or red etc so you can see in detail where you are masking. 
Realistic Hair
To make hair look more realistic, try using the Smudge Tool ® to 'flick' in the hair. For this example, I used a smudge tool with size 1px and 79% strength. I simply smudged into the hair, to make small lines.
Matching the background colour.
One easy way to do this, is add an inner glow, like this:
Tutorial by Bazzah ©2007 www.hirescovers.net
