Precise lips selection method

I'm looking for the best and fastest method of precise lips selection. Please take a look at a sample image at
http://www.mikro.net.pl/lips/lips.jpg.
Suppose I want to make the lips bright red, just as they were painted by a lipstick. First I need to select them. How should I start? I know all the basic methods such as masks, magnetic lasso, magic wand, etc. But that's theory. In practice it's very hard to do (try it!). Do you have any suggestions?

Olek" wrote in message

[...] First I need to select them. How should I start? I know all the basic methods such as masks, magnetic lasso, magic wand, etc. But that's theory. In practice it's very hard to do (try it!). Do you have any suggestions?

Practice, practice, practice.

hmm... I get 'connection failure' or 'connection timed out' trying to access your site.

inez

hmm... I get 'connection failure' or 'connection timed out' trying to access your site.

Strange. Where are you from? :-)

On 3/2/05 6:34 PM, Olek uttered:

hmm... I get 'connection failure' or 'connection timed out' trying to access your site.

Strange. Where are you from? :-)

Yes, I am strange;¬) And, I'm from Louisiana, US

"Olek" wrote:

I'm looking for the best and fastest method of precise lips selection. Please take a look at a sample image at
http://www.mikro.net.pl/lips/lips.jpg.
Suppose I want to make the lips bright red, just as they were painted by a lipstick. First I need to select them. How should I start? I know all the basic methods such as masks, magnetic lasso, magic wand, etc. But that's theory. In practice it's very hard to do (try it!). Do you have any suggestions?

I'd suggest a different approach. Try the following:
Create a hue/saturation layer on top of your background layer. Set hue to -17, saturation to +50 and lightness to -16.
This looks awful ;)
Now select the layer mask, which was created together with the new layer and Strg+I, or Image>Adjust>Invert
Now everything looks as before again.
Take the brush, select white as foreground and black as background color and set the brush opacity to about 50 %, soft tip. Now start painting the lips as a woman would when putting on lip-gloss. A digitizing tablet is really helpful for this task. Continue until you are pleased with the result. You may decrease the opacity of the brush and adjust its size when you come close to the borders of the lips. If you happend to paint into the skin, hit the x key in order to change foreground and background color. Now your brush works like a nondestructive eraser. Flip foreground and background colors again to continue.
If you are happy with the result, add a levels or curves adjustment layer. Alt-click on the boundary between the two adjustment layers in order to limit the effect of the levels layer to the hue/saturation layer. Set the layer mode of the top layer to multiply and adjust opacity as you like. Play with the various adjustment layers and opacities. If you want a dark color it might be necessary to blur the layer mask slightly in order to achieve a more naturally looking result.

Peter

Suppose I want to make the lips bright red, just as they were painted by a lipstick. First I need to select them. How should I start?

For an accurate selection of that shape I'd use the pen tool. Failing that, use quick mask and paint in the selection a la Peter's method. If a quick, less precise selection is OK, I got one by temporarily cranking up the contrast with a curves layer, then either using a colour selection, or applying levels to a copy of the green channel.

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In <d05gob$tmp$> Olek wrote:

Suppose I want to make the lips bright red, just as they were painted by a lipstick. First I need to select them. How should I start? I know all the basic methods such as masks, magnetic lasso, magic wand, etc. But that's theory. In practice it's very hard to do (try it!). Do you have any suggestions?

Forget the "automated selection tools for beginners" (the magnetic lasso and so on); there isn't enough contrast for those tools to work efficiently.

For the image on your site, I have two words: pen tool. Put a path around the lips, turn the path to a selection, and you're set.

The Pen tool is the most difficult tool on the Toolbar to master. It's also well worth the effort; it turns selecting those lips into a five- second process.

"Tacit" wrote in message

Forget the "automated selection tools for beginners" (the magnetic lasso and so on); there isn't enough contrast for those tools to work efficiently.

This whole thread is just silly. It is not a Photoshop issue! Women don't paint their lips according to the contrast of flesh tones as evinced in that picture. Lipstick is a statement on their own part - filling in border areas and so-forth - or not. I say to the OP to get a life, or get a girlfriend to show him the way.

Practice, practice...
EOT

jjs wrote:

"Tacit" wrote in message

Forget the "automated selection tools for beginners" (the magnetic lasso and so on); there isn't enough contrast for those tools to work efficiently.

This whole thread is just silly. It is not a Photoshop issue! Women don't paint their lips according to the contrast of flesh tones as evinced in that picture. Lipstick is a statement on their own part - filling in border areas and so-forth - or not. I say to the OP to get a life, or get a girlfriend to show him the way.

Practice, practice...
EOT

Well, if one ignores jjs's last statement (sad, but true), you could make a very quick rough selection of the lips. Make sure your selection covers all of the lips, bigger is fine. Apply your colour corrections and then use one of the history brushes to paint out (revert back to normal) the areas you accidentally changed through having a rough selection. Worth a try,
Brian.