Struggling with fur (warning- graphic medical photo)

[jonascat]

Hello, I'm new to the forums and to using photo software in general. I'm using the latest photoshop. The image I'm working with (see below) was taken with an old camera and is quite fuzzy. My goal is to replace the background with a neutral color.

I've tried extracting, the background eraser, magic lasso- nothing works wells. The cat has many stray hairs and whiskers that cross over each other, creating lots of little areas for the background color to linger in. The background is close to the cat's color in areas, which is also complicating things. I've trying turning up the contrast and making a mask, but the edges are getting lost.

Here's the photo- warning, it is graphic! This is a rescue kitty that I'm working on building a website for. This was taken when he was first found three years ago- he's a very healthy, robust guy now.

I love any hints or tips to working with this kind of furry picture- this isn't the only one I need to retouch.

 

[Tack]

Hi,
I'm no expert on PS or extraction, but I could make a couple of recommendations:

First, you could try a third party plug-in, such as Topaz ReMask and see if it does the job to your satisfaction. It'll save you a lot of time and effort if it works well. Download the free 30 day trial and give it a go.
http://www.topazlabs.com/remask/

There are probably other plug-ins that could you could try as well, but I'm not sure what they are. If you want to do this manually, you could try adding a fill layer with the neutral color you want to use and painting on that layer with a layer mask to extract the cat.

I'm sure others will chime in that have loads more experience and knowledge than I do.

Regards,
Jeff

 

[jonascat]

Thanks so much for the reply, Jeff! I just played around with the Topaz plug in and on my first attempt was able to make a much better mask than I could in Photoshop. It is FAR from perfect (the area around the thumb is giving me trouble), but hopefully I'll get better results with practice.

 

[Toermalijn]

Poor cat...

 

[jonascat]

3 years, 7 surgeries, and 14,000 dollars later, he looks like this:

 

[salBolzano]

And regardless of the cost, I am sure the cat loves you as they appreciate the care of them... And they make you feel much better when they purr near you ! So it all is worth it... better than to give the money do some worthless political campaign ! At least the cat thinks of you unlike them !!!
--
Grazie, Thank you, - Sal

 

[jonascat]

Oh, believe me, I don't begrudge him a dime- sappy as it sounds, he makes me smile every single day!

 

[lylejk]

Wow; I 100% believe that when you adopt such a creature they truly are part of the family. I know how much I do care; ok will say it, love my boy socks. He's in my lap right now as I'm typing this. lol



--

 

[sparkey2]

Did you try the magic extractor?? It might work for you. This was 3 minutes of work using the extractor and a touch of dodging shadows. Tried the cloning tool for the whiskers too.

Mine is very rough but as I said it was 3 minutes and I just did this to show it could be another option for you. If you give the extractor more time it might work for you.

 

[jonascat]

Wow- I did try it and didn't get results even close to that! This is my first time really playing with Photoshop though. I'm really impressed with the whiskers- I couldn't get them out at all. When you highlighted the whiskers in the extractor, were you using a very small brush? I'm thinking I'm using a brush that's too big and I'm getting too much of the background and confusing it.

 

[sparkey2]

You do have to change the size of your tools and opacity often for any work you do in Photoshop. In my quickie I used the clone tool to rebuild the whiskers as much as the magic extractor. I used the dodge shadow and midtone tool get rid of some of the background where it was too close to the fur. You could also mask it to kill unnecessary background which gives you more options yet to eliminate close unwanted detail. I tend to use the eraser more than a mask in situations like that.

When working on fine detail like that you have to enlarge your image a lot. Sometimes I'm working on a pixel level.

Good luck.

 

[jonascat]

Thanks for all the tips. Photoshop seems more like an art than a program!

 

[mstmart]

OMG this photo make me feel sick what happen to this poor poor kitty I am so sad. I love cats I hope he is ok.

marie

 

[Dan Tong]

He's beautiful. I find Orange cats to be especially calm and friendly but my sample is not really big enough to draw such conclusions, so it's just a speculation.

Dan