How to "Photoshop" cut hair quickly and efficiently

Sooner or later, every user who learns work in a graphics editor, begins to wonder how to cut out hair in Photoshop. Let's look at the most effective ways to cut objects with complex contours.

We specify the edge

In general, to be precise, the problem is not how to cut out hair in Photoshop (it's elementary), but how to highlight them with maximum detail and accuracy. The championship here, perhaps, belongs to the tool "To clarify the edge."

This uncommon feature (Refine Edge) has added to the arsenal of Photoshop tools since version CS5 and is attached to the upper right in the tool settings panel.

Using the "Refine Edge" function, you can do this with any selection, regardless of its origin. Following the generally accepted belief that the popular graphics editor with each new version becomes more perfect, we will demonstrate the ability of this tool to cut out the hair in "Photoshop CS6".

First, select the object in any way suitable for a particular image, for example, using the "Quick Selection" function. Then, clicking the "Refine Edge" button, we move on to the dialog box with the same settings as the parameters of the outline.

First of all, you need to select "View mode", indicating the preferred option for you to display the border between the object and the background. Here we are offered "Marching Ants", "Overlay", "On Black", "On White", "Black and White" (Black & White), "On Layers "(On Layers) and" Show layer "(Reveal Layer). The choice of viewing mode is strictly a private matter for the user, but since we are interested in how to cut out hair in Photoshop, it is more convenient to work in the "Black and White" mode.

Edge Detection provides two settings. If you tick the "Smart Radius" checkbox, the program will determine the nature of the selection (sharp or soft) and immediately correct it. In our case, hair is recommended to use this function.

The "Radius" setting determines the size of the refinement area, that is, the width (in pixels) of the tool's area of influence. The radius will depend on the detail of the contour and the resolution of the image.

Next comes the Adjust Edge group. The function "Smooth" (Smooth) hardly needs comments, especially since in our case it is inappropriate. Feather softens the outline, but that's useless, but the settings for "Contrast" and "Shift Edge" can be very helpful.

Actually, the functions specifying the edge are assigned to two tools hidden behind the brush icon in the dialog box and shown at the top left in the main window of our document. These tools extend the detection area of the edges.

If you need to detail any part of the selection (and for the hair it's required), take the "Refine radius tool" brush and, having set the required radius in the main window on the upper left, we run along the problem part of the contour. There is no special accuracy here, the program itself will figure out what's what. If you want to simplify unnecessarily detailed fragments, use the tool "Erase refinement" (eraser).

The Output To drop-down list offers several options for representing the result, where you can select "Selection", "Layer Mask", "New Layer", "New Layer" With a mask layer "(New Layer With Layer Mask), New Document and New Document with Layer Mask. If, after capturing the edges, you did not forget that we are interested in how to cut out hair in Photoshop, then, of course, select the option "Selection" before clicking OK.

Now, when it only remains to press the Delete button to permanently separate the object from the native background, it's time to pay attention to the function "Clear colors" (Decontaminate Color). This tool is applied (selected) if, by placing the cut object on a new background, you will find a fringe from the remnants of the colored pixels around the selection edges. In this case, "Photoshop" will try its best to replace the color of the selected pixels with the color of neighboring points, regardless of whether they were selected. The Amount slider adjusts the number of edge pixels that need to be repainted.

We use color channels

Perhaps someone will find it useful to learn how to "cut out" hair in "Photoshop" without resorting to the help of regular selection tools. There is such a method, and often it is just preferable for use in relation to such complex objects as hair. These are the color channels of the image, which can be seen on the Channels tab of the layers panel.

The essence of the extraction method lies in the definition, processing and allocation of the most contrast channel with respect to the selected object, which most often turns out to be a blue channel, especially if the objects are hair, fur, wool, and so on.

Selecting a channel creates a copy of it, then using one of the brightness correction and contrast correction functions, they achieve maximum blackening of the object on the clarified background in order to show as much detail (hair) in the contour of the selected object. For this, depending on the nature of the particular image, you can use the brightness / contrast correction, Level settings or Curves, but in many cases very good results are obtained with the corrective layer "Channel Mixer".

It is clear that in the Channel Mixer correction properties dialog box, the limiting obscuration of an object on a clarified background is achieved by adjusting the sliders of red, green and blue colors, but for this you must remember to tick the checkbox "Monochrome".

Having got the desired result, select (Ctrl + A) the image and in the "Edit" menu select the command "Copy the combined data" (Shift + Ctrl + C). Then go back to the "Channels" tab and create a new alpha channel (save the selected area in the new channel).

Now select the saved selection (Ctrl + A), paste (Ctrl + V) the contents of the clipboard (we had it with us), deselect (Ctrl + D) and select "Levels" in "Image> Correction". Here we again work on enhancing the contrast, then, if necessary, clean the picture, removing excess with the help of black and white brushes.

Then, pressing the Ctrl key, click on the thumbnail of the alpha channel (all white is selected), go to the Layers tab, send a correction layer "Mixing channels" to the basket and finally, press the merciless Delete key, removing the background.

Under the isolated object, if necessary, you can put different backgrounds to adjust the outline using the functions of the "Layer Processing" command in the "Layers" menu.

Extracting the object

In case you do not care how to cut out your hair in Photoshop, when you need to allocate quickly, a lot and with acceptable quality, the program provides the command "Extract" in the "Filter" menu (Filter). This command opens a large dialog box (almost a mini-editor) with tools for creating a contour and setting its parameters.

The main tool here (therefore located on the left from the top), reminiscent of a felt-tip pen, is called Edge Highlighter (edge slicer). Specifying the thickness of the brush (Brush Size), depending on the specific conditions, draws the object around this "felt-tip pen", necessarily closing the contour. You need to circle so that the border of interest to us with all its curls, curls or strands is inside this fat border. You can adjust the line with an eraser (Eraser Tool), move / move it closer / farther (Ctrl +/-) and even cancel the command (Ctrl + Z).

If you select Smart Highlighting (smart and smart selection), the program behaves more intelligently, defining the boundary much more accurately, which will manifest itself in the fineness of the line in the stroke with a "felt-tip pen".

Now, "Photoshop" you need to specify what is to be removed, and what should remain. To do this, we take a bucket of paint (Fill Tool) and "pour" it on the object, clicking inside the contour, and if we miss, we will eventually delete the object. Confirming your determination to complete the procedure, click OK and admire the result.

Use the mask

To quickly select and cut objects (including hair) from the background, the Quick selection tool is often used, the icon of which is located at the very bottom of the toolbar. The selected area in the image in the fast mask mode is drawn with a black brush, adjusting its size, stiffness, opacity and pressing force. If desired, you can sketch the hair up to the hair, but this requires incredible patience, so usually create an approximate selection here by going to normal mode by pressing the "Quick Mask" button again, and then detailing it using the "Refine Edge" tool.

We use pen and finger

We learned how to cut out the hair in Photoshop. Now it does not hurt to learn how to build them up, because both of these tasks, despite the opposite, can be interrelated.

Some "photoshoppers", working with hairstyles, prefer to outline objects without going into the details of the profile, using the Pen Tool, and then using the "Smudge Tool" to restore the original contour up to the hair (if there is one meaning). It is advisable that in the hair included in the outline of the selection, the background does not shine through.

Having contoured and creating a selection (right-click on the contour> command "Form the selected area"), copy it to a new layer (Ctrl + J), reduce the opacity of the original image to use it as a stencil, and, selecting "Finger", restore On the duplicate the original profile, manipulating the size and rigidity of the brushes.

Filling a hand in using the "Finger", you can cope with such shaggy head, when working with which special programs and extractors "will not seem too little."