Sooner or later, each user mastering the work in a graphical editor begins to be interested in how to cut hair in Photoshop. We will deal with the most effective ways to cut objects with complex contours.
Clarify the edge
In general, to be precise, the problem is not how to cut hair in Photoshop (this is elementary), but how to select them with maximum detail and accuracy. Superiority here, perhaps, belongs to the tool "Refine the edge."
This outstanding function (Refine Edge) has added to the arsenal of Photoshop tools since CS5 and has been added to the upper right of the tool settings panel.
Using the Refine Edge feature, you can do this with any selection, regardless of its origin. Following the generally accepted belief that the popular graphic editor with each new version is becoming more perfect, we demonstrate the ability of this tool to cut hair in Photoshop CS6.
First, select the object in any suitable way for a particular image, for example, using the "Quick Selection" function. Then, by clicking the "Refine Edge" button, we’ll go to the dialog box of the same name with the settings for the selection outline parameters.
First of all, you need to select "View mode", indicating your preferred option for displaying the border between the object and the background. Here we are offered Marching Ants, Overlay, On Black, On White, Black & White, On layers "(On Layers) and" Show layer "(Reveal Layer). The choice of the viewing mode is a purely personal matter of the user, but since we are interested in how to cut hair in Photoshop, it is more convenient to work in the Black and White mode.
For detection of edges (Edge Detection) two settings are provided. If you check the box "Smart Radius", the program will determine the nature of the selection (sharp or soft) and immediately correct it. In our case, it is recommended to use this function with hair.
The Radius setting determines the size of the refinement area, that is, the width (in pixels) of the influence zone of the tool. The radius will depend on the detail of the outline and image resolution.
Next comes the Adjust Edge group. The Smooth function hardly needs comments, especially since in our case it is inappropriate. Feathering softens the outline, but we don’t need it either, but the Contrast and Shift Edge settings can be very helpful.
Actually, the functions that specify 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 expand the edge detection area.
If you need to detail any portion of the selection (and for hair it will be necessary), take the brush “Refine radius tool” and, setting the required radius in the main window at the top left, draw along the problem segment of the contour. Special accuracy is not required here, the program itself will figure out what's what. If you need to simplify excessively detailed fragments, use the Erase Refinement tool (eraser).
In the drop-down list of the Output To window, there are several options for presenting the result, where you can select Selection, Layer Mask, New Layer, New Layer with mask layer "(New Layer with Layer Mask), "New Document" (New Document) and "New Document with a Layer Mask" (New Document with Layer Mask). If, carried away by the refinement of the edges, you have not forgotten that we are interested in how to cut hair in Photoshop, then, of course, select the output option "Highlight" before clicking OK.
Now, when it remains only to press the Delete button, to permanently separate an object with a native background, it's time to pay attention to the function "Decontaminate Color". This tool is applied (selected) if, putting the cut out object on a new background, you will find a fringe from the remnants of colored pixels around the edges of the selection. 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 to be repainted.
Using color channels
Perhaps someone will find it useful to learn how to cut hair in Photoshop without resorting to regular selection tools. There is such a method, and often it is just preferable for use in relation to such complex objects as hair. We are talking about the color channels of the image, which can be seen on the "Channels" tab of the layer panel.
The essence of the selection method is to determine, process and select the channel that is the most contrasting to the selected object, which is most often the blue channel, especially if the objects are hair, fur, wool, etc.
Having selected the channel, create a copy of it, then, using one of the functions for correcting brightness and contrast, achieve the maximum blackening of the object on the background clarified in turn, in order to reveal as many details (hair) as possible in the outline of the selected object. To do this, depending on the nature of a particular image, you can use the brightness / contrast correction, the “Level” or “Curves” settings, but in many cases very good results are obtained with the “Channel Mixer” adjustment layer.
It is clear that in the dialog box of the Channel Mixer correction properties, the darkening of an object against a clarified background is achieved by adjusting the sliders of red, green and blue, but for this you need to remember to check the "Monochrome" checkbox.
Having obtained the desired result, select (Ctrl + A) the image and in the "Edit" menu select the "Copy Combined Data" command (Shift + Ctrl + C). Next, go back to the “Channels” tab and create a new alpha channel (save the selected area in the new channel).
Now select (Ctrl + A) the saved selection, paste (Ctrl + V) the contents of the clipboard (we had with us), remove the selection (Ctrl + D) and, going to "Image> Correction", select the "Levels" command. Here we again work on enhancing the contrast, then, if necessary, we clean the drawing, removing excess with the help of black and white brushes.
Then, by pressing the Ctrl key, click on the thumbnail of the alpha channel (all white is highlighted), go to the “Layers” tab, send the adjustment layer “Channel Mixing” to the basket and, finally, press the merciless Delete key, thus removing the background.
If necessary, you can add various backgrounds to an isolated object in order to adjust the outline using the functions of the "Processing layers" command in the "Layers" menu.
Retrieving an Object
If you don’t care how to cut hair in Photoshop, when you need to select it quickly, a lot and with acceptable quality, the program provides the Extract command in the Filter menu. This command opens a large dialog box (almost a mini-editor) with tools for creating a path and settings for its parameters.
The main tool here (which is why it is located on the top left), resembling a felt-tip pen, is called Edge Highlighter. Having set the brush stroke thickness (Brush Size) depending on the specific conditions, an object is circled with this “felt-tip pen”, be sure to close the contour. It is necessary to trace so that the border of interest to us with all its curls, curls or strands is inside this thick border. You can correct the line with the eraser Tool (Eraser Tool), move / move it closer / farther (Ctrl +/-) and even cancel the command (Ctrl + Z).
If you select the Smart Highlighting mode (tricky and clever highlighting), the program will behave more intellectually, defining the border much more accurately, which will manifest itself in the fineness of the line when traced with a felt-tip pen.
Now Photoshop needs to indicate what should be removed and what should remain. To do this, take a bucket of paint (Fill Tool) and “pour” it onto the object by clicking inside the path, and if we miss it, we will delete the object itself. Confirming our determination to complete the procedure, click OK and enjoy the result.
We use a mask
To quickly select and cut objects (including hair) from the background base, they often use the Quick selection tool (quick mask), whose icon is located at the very bottom of the toolbar. The selected area on the image in the quick mask mode is painted with a black brush, adjusting its size, rigidity, opacity and pressure. If you wish, you can outline the hairstyle right down to the hair, but you need incredible patience, which is why they usually create an approximate selection by going to normal mode by pressing the Quick Mask button again and then detailing it using the Refine Edge tool.
We work with a pen and a finger
We learned how to cut hair in Photoshop. Now it does not hurt to learn how to build them, because both of these tasks, despite the opposite, can be interconnected.
Some "photoshoppers", working with hairstyles, prefer to outline objects without going into profile details, using the Pen Tool and then use the Smudge Tool to restore the original contour down to the hair (if there is one) meaning). Preferably, the background does not appear in the hair included in the outline.
After outlining and creating a selection (right-click on the path> the "Create Selected Area" command), copy it to a new layer (Ctrl + J), reduce the opacity of the original image to use as a stencil, and select Finger, restore on the duplicate the original profile, manipulating the size and stiffness of the brushes.
Having filled a hand in using the “Finger”, you can cope with such a shaggy head, which, when working with special extractor programs, “will not seem enough”.