hairy object, what selection tool?

[Raymond43580]

hi,
what is the best selection tool to use on hairy objects like dogs and cats?

The magnetic lasso and majic wond don't work very well, do I have to do it manually?
Raymond Wong

 

[Canyonlu]

Raymond.....see if this method helps. I use it and like it very much.

http://users.supernet.com/guntcher/tutor/ps/step1.htm

Hope it helps you.

Marilu

hi,
what is the best selection tool to use on hairy objects like dogs
and cats?
The magnetic lasso and majic wond don't work very well, do I have
to do it manually?
Raymond Wong

 

[Scotsman]

If I have to go through all of that every time I want to change something, well, there has to be a better way.

hi,
what is the best selection tool to use on hairy objects like dogs
and cats?
The magnetic lasso and majic wond don't work very well, do I have
to do it manually?
Raymond Wong

 

[BanjoBluesman]

If I have to go through all of that every time I want to change
something, well, there has to be a better way.

That only looks like a lot of work to someone who has never had to retouch negatives. ;-) Back In The Old Days we didn't have alpha channels -- making a mask meant a couple of hours of screwing around with high contrast film and A/B developers. Compositing meant days of working with copy negatives, an etching knife and a bottle of red dye. Kids these days have it too easy....

 

[chilly23971]

If I have to go through all of that every time I want to change
something, well, there has to be a better way.

That only looks like a lot of work to someone who has never had to
retouch negatives. ;-) Back In The Old Days we didn't have alpha
channels -- making a mask meant a couple of hours of screwing
around with high contrast film and A/B developers. Compositing
meant days of working with copy negatives, an etching knife and a
bottle of red dye. Kids these days have it too easy....

hi mate...you did mean a bottle of "bourbon" not red dye..... LOL .

there is a heap of tutorials for remooving hair from background, but they all require Work..so pick the one you lile and PRACTICE...
any spelling nistakes are fom da red dye.........

 

[jes]

I just like to dood it anually, er I mean manually.

I'm pretty fast with the pen tool, so I just make a general hard-edged outline selection of the head/body/foreground first after zooming in close to see the edges and using the hand (spacebar) to scroll as I drop points. You don't need to worry about stray hairs/transparency at this point. Just outline all edges that are completely opaque and separate from the background. Then you can right click and do make selection and then go into quick mask mode (Q).

At this point I use brush strokes in quick mask mode to paint/stroke the stray hairs outward from the head/body in as part of the selection, with brush dynamics turned on (PS6) and with fades set for brush size and opactiy say between 30-50 for each. So essentially you are fading your stroke as you brush outward to the background mimicking hairs that go from thicker to thinner/transparent as they stick out from the body.

I prefer to do this rather then letting photoshop peform more automatic (and inaccurate) edge selections and transparency with color range, wand etc.

hi,
what is the best selection tool to use on hairy objects like dogs
and cats?
The magnetic lasso and majic wond don't work very well, do I have
to do it manually?
Raymond Wong

 

[JonathanF]

If I have to go through all of that every time I want to change
something, well, there has to be a better way.

That only looks like a lot of work to someone who has never had to
retouch negatives. ;-) Back In The Old Days we didn't have alpha
channels -- making a mask meant a couple of hours of screwing
around with high contrast film and A/B developers. Compositing
meant days of working with copy negatives, an etching knife and a
bottle of red dye. Kids these days have it too easy....

hi mate...you did mean a bottle of "bourbon" not red dye..... LOL .

there is a heap of tutorials for remooving hair from background,
but they all require Work..so pick the one you lile and PRACTICE...
any spelling nistakes are fom da red dye.........

What I told my daughter:
I used to walk 5 miles to school, in 4 feet of snow, uphill both ways.

What my daughter told me:
She has to work with Photoshop at school.

 

[roark314]

Go to the image menu and choose Extract. You can use the little hilighter tool in the box that pops up to outline the object (does not have to be a precise outlining). Then fill in the area you want with the little paint bucket and hit preview. Good things should happen.

I'm assuming you're using photoshop.

 

[jes]

Yeah, extract is da way to go baby!

I knew you could use it to remove a background or foreground, but I didn't think it would be good at first for merely isolating part of an image to adjust it separately , but this is actually one of its best uses.

I tried extract on this self-portrait, first using a thin 2-pixel brush stroke around the hard edges after zooming in close in the window and then used a large 50-pixel or so stroke with smart highlight checked around the hair edges to get transparency.

After entering the extraction, I created a new image file and dragged the now isolated face layer onto it then went back to the portrait image and set the history to the beginning prior to performing the extraction. I dragged the face back into the image and placed it precisely ontop the untouched background face. I was able to use the history brush to touch-up/restore any edges where the extraction wasn't quite smooth/perfect, which was only a few spots around the ear and neck.
Here's an example of what could then be done with an extracted layer.

Go to the image menu and choose Extract. You can use the little
hilighter tool in the box that pops up to outline the object (does
not have to be a precise outlining). Then fill in the area you want
with the little paint bucket and hit preview. Good things should
happen.

I'm assuming you're using photoshop.

 

[jes]

Here's more fun with the extracted layer using a quick freebie eyecandy 3.1 fire filter.

Go to the image menu and choose Extract. You can use the little
hilighter tool in the box that pops up to outline the object (does
not have to be a precise outlining). Then fill in the area you want
with the little paint bucket and hit preview. Good things should
happen.

I'm assuming you're using photoshop.

 

[Will Robinson]

I'm using PS5.0 LE and PS Elements.
I don't see "Extract" in any of the menus, image or otherwise.
I guess thats why they call it "limited edition" ?
Does anyone know if there is a different name for extract in PS Elements?
Wishful thinking on my part no doubt.

Go to the image menu and choose Extract. You can use the little
hilighter tool in the box that pops up to outline the object (does
not have to be a precise outlining). Then fill in the area you want
with the little paint bucket and hit preview. Good things should
happen.

I'm assuming you're using photoshop.