Cutout - womens hair line

877 views6 repliesLast post: 7/30/2004
I cant seem to get an accurate cutout of a women head, I need the person to be placed on a white background, the problem I have is that when I cut around he hair line it looks fake, I have tried all using the magic wand tool but that seems to fake looking, any suggestions on how to properly cut around a women with thin flowing locks will be much appreciated.

So far I have tried, Pen tool, Magic wand.

Thanks
#1
Wayne, You might want to learn how to use the Extract Filter. It will take pulling out the owners manual or help menu to learn how to use it right, but there are times when this seems to work best for hair... unless you want to invest in a special masking plug-in.
#2
or just use a brush tool and mask.
#3
I faced the same challenge last week with a photo restoration. I had to remove the background from two women with short hair styles that was more fluffy around the edges. I started by using the pen tool, converted paths to selections and created a mask which I then trying blurring slightly. There was still a visible edge so I tried using the minimum filter. It was still not natural enough. I finally played with the Extract Filter, followed by the mask, blur, and minimum and this seemed to work pretty good... or at least a lot better than my previous attempts.
#4
I'm with progress. I start with smaller brushes and then work my way up. A little blurring or feathering will be necessary to make it look natural. It's a time-consuming job but I like it. Time just flies when you're having fun…
peace
#6
Some images lend themselves to channel masking. You make an alpha channel based on one of your RGB channels to use as a hair mask. If the background behind the hair is not too busy, and/or is a different color than the hair you may want to try this method. Can get a little complicated, but I’ve gotten some good results. Julieanne Kost has a pdf explaining it (“making masks from channels”) at <http://www.adobeevangelists.com/>
Good luck
Charles
#7