Hair extraction (possibly the most frustrating thing on earth)

**pealo86** · 02-07-2009, 07:42 PM

Here is my attempt at extracting the woman from a purple background. I've used the wooden pattern as the new background so that it's more obvious where the bits are that I had trouble with. You can see that the edges look a little 'fluffy' around the areas where the shape of the hair gets really complex. Still, not bad for a first try I think!

What do you think?

Here is a link to the original stock photo:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=7936392

**inertia** · 02-07-2009, 10:32 PM

That is really good for a first try. What tool did you use to cut the background out? For me this is a task where I love to use the pen tool, it can take a very long time but you can get a near perfect cut out and then you can always blur the edges into the new background and fix the lighting so it looks more natural.

**pealo86** · 02-08-2009, 11:01 AM

Thanks! Yeah I normally tend to prefer the pen tool, only I thought it wouldn't really be capable of extracting something of such detail. So I decided to use this for some tips on how to do it with masking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJSroTLz8zk

It's quite a good tutorial, only the image used in the video is a lot simpler than the one I was using. So I eventually lost patience with the video and started to improvise!

**LadynRed** · 02-08-2009, 08:42 PM

Extractions involving hair is most definitely one of the most aggravating. You did do a pretty good job. Did you try the extraction tool ? I can often get pretty darn good results with that.

**pealo86** · 02-09-2009, 03:09 AM

Yeah I did try the extraction tool but with no luck! I saw some tutorials that did a really good job but mine just didn't turn out like that lol, so I just gave up and did it with masking instead. I think I will try and get to grips with the extraction tool though as I've seen some good results with it.

**LadynRed** · 02-09-2009, 03:57 PM

Just make sure that when you're using a mask, that you use a soft brush, set at maybe 30-45% hardness to help blend the hair in at the edges.

**eEL** · 02-24-2009, 09:48 PM

Wacom pen tablets [or similar] help with this task tremendously!!
i've gone around hair, lobster and even mice with awesome results using it

you can set the presssure to change the tip size so going in and around fine objects is like actuallly drawing

http://www.wacom.com/index2.php

**banzaibert** · 02-26-2009, 12:26 AM

Yeah I do the same masking technique and works really well with a pen tablet. Although I'm not using Wacom 'coz its pretty expensive.

You did a great job by the way!

**six80five** · 03-17-2009, 03:49 PM

it looks amazing either way