What's new
Photoshop Gurus Forum

Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Fastest solution to cut out this strange image


ruttan

Member
Messages
7
Likes
1
Hi, I am a newbie of Photoshop and I want to know this:

SAMPLE IMAGE:

309.fw.png

RESULT NEEDED:

FAST and clean cut out of hair with their border but without background, skin and armor.

NOT WORKING (I use Photoshop CS3):


  • Magnetic lasso tool -> Bad selection on the hair tips.
  • Magic wand tool -> Confuse selection.
  • Quick selection tool -> Good but not always in hair tips.
  • Manual selection -> Good, but too slow.

QUESTIONS:


  • Am I doing somthing wrong?
  • Have I missed something?
  • Wrong regulations?
  • Have I first to optimize the image?
 

Tom Mann

Guru
Messages
7,223
Likes
4,343
If, by "manual", you meant the pen tool, this is what I would use for the task you described.

Once one gets some practice, it's quite fast to do something like this.

Tom
 

ruttan

Member
Messages
7
Likes
1
If, by "manual", you meant the pen tool, this is what I would use for the task you described.

Once one gets some practice, it's quite fast to do something like this.

Tom

Thanks for your reply, I already have some dexterity with the path of Fireworks but my goal was to speed up everything with a selection tool more powerful. The use of pen tool undermines the entire job. I need to have a clean and curved shape... with the live trace of Illustrator, there are more possibilities?
 

IamSam

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Messages
22,721
Likes
13,258
Hi ruttan and welcome to PSG.

The individual image based on it's color delineation, value and tonal similarity, will dictate the type of tool needed to make the selection. There's not a magic tool that's perfect for making selections with all images. As Tom has stated, when using Photoshop, there's no better tool than your own eyes and the Pen Tool.

ruttan said:
I need to have a clean and curved shape...
The Pen Tool is more than capable of creating and or following very complex curves with ease. With practice you can become very proficient with the Pen Tool as well as surprisingly fast.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with live trace in Illustrator.

Good luck!
 

Sierraccr

Power User
Messages
432
Likes
275
I have to agee. Unfortunately in the image below there is too much similarity of color and tone to use any of the alternatives to the pen tool that I know of.
 

Tom Mann

Guru
Messages
7,223
Likes
4,343
Often, the best method to select a feature is to use a combination of methods. For example, below is a screen shot showing the result of (in order of application):

a) cleaning up all the JPG artifacts using Topaz Clean;

b) using the color range selection tool; and,

c) using the "refine selection" tool.

Obviously, this doesn't get you exactly what you want, but it's very fast, and it gives you a starting point from which you could further refine this selection using fewer applications of the quick selection, pen or other tools as compared to starting from scratch with these other tools.

HTH,

Tom
 

Attachments

  • 2014-07-16_135947-color_range_plus_refine_edge.jpg
    2014-07-16_135947-color_range_plus_refine_edge.jpg
    412.6 KB · Views: 7

ruttan

Member
Messages
7
Likes
1
I understand your point of view but I have no time to do it manually on 3000+ images... :cry:

Do you think there is a way to simplify the image?
Something that remove borders, simplify colors and make colors more different (in this case violet-blue)?

This is my try:

test.gif


  1. Original.
  2. Live trace (with old Illustrator CS3).
  3. Cleaning of unwanted paths.
  4. Conversion of path in selection.

I have good looking lines but the problem of hair tips remains the same. Hair tips are black! :evil:
 

Tom Mann

Guru
Messages
7,223
Likes
4,343
Ahh. You hadn't said that there were 3000+ images to do. Eek!! That's a bit different.

Let me think about it a bit.

Tom
 

Tom Mann

Guru
Messages
7,223
Likes
4,343
If, by some chance, your customer does not hold the copyright to these images, or has not purchased a license to use /modify these images for commercial purposes, you should be careful about getting involved in such an undertaking. The copyright laws in each country are different, so you should be careful to protect yourself against possible legal action.

T
 

IamSam

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Messages
22,721
Likes
13,258
Excellent advice Tom.

Getting back on track. Is this the type of selection and detail your trying get with each image?

Screen Shot 2014-07-17 at 8.20.16 AM.png
 

ruttan

Member
Messages
7
Likes
1
Tom: my customer obviously has the rights to do this.
IamSam: Yes! A result like this is very very impressive!
 

IamSam

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Messages
22,721
Likes
13,258
ruttan - I know this may not be what your wanting to hear, but in order to get this level of detailed selection it took about 8 minutes with the Brush Tool. I can't imagine having to do this 3000 times! If your going to use Photoshop, your choices are........being content with the quicker methods or roll up those sleeves and knock them out with the Pen Tool! I only hope your not under a deadline.

I can't believe I'm going to suggest this, but you could also outsource the work one of the many clipping path services..........:frown:

Good luck.
 

Tom Mann

Guru
Messages
7,223
Likes
4,343
From the example image you posted and the statement that you have 3000+ images to do, my guess is that you are working on (restoring?) a video clip. If that is the case, there are a couple of shortcuts, which, if you don't already know them, you should think about:

1. Once you have the edge of the hair defined by a path (...say, using the pen tool), usually, that path will only change slightly from frame to frame, at least until there is a scene change. It's vastly easier/faster to move a relatively small number of existing control points (ie, the path from the previous frame) around as you move from frame to frame than it would be to generate a new path from scratch for each frame.

2. Make full use of the "tweening" facility to reduce the number of frames you actually need to work on.

If you know all about the above, just ignore it. :)

Tom
 

IamSam

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Messages
22,721
Likes
13,258
That's a great observation Tom! I did not think of that and this is probably the case. :thumbsup:
 

ruttan

Member
Messages
7
Likes
1
IamSam & Tom Mann: Yes I have a deadline (it was not me to accept work and time). :cry: No, by contract I cannot talk too much about this project but, unfortunately, it is not a video cleaning.
dv8_fx: I want to try this interesting tool!
 

dv8_fx

Retired Administrator
Messages
13,761
Likes
4,789
IamSam & Tom Mann: Yes I have a deadline (it was not me to accept work and time). :cry: No, by contract I cannot talk too much about this project but, unfortunately, it is not a video cleaning.
dv8_fx: I want to try this interesting tool!


Give it a go and post back what you think of it.......
 

Top