cuting out hair - nightmare!!!

[zorro]

Hey guys, first post here ? nice to meet you

I am finally getting to grips with digital photography and photoshop (better late than never ? I guess). Thing is how the hell do you cut out an image and make it look at least a bit good? The hard edges are pretty easy but what about the hair?? Its been driving me crazy, so ive been desperately googling and what I?ve found is Fluid Mask which looks bloody great but maybe good to be true!! Does/has anyone used the software? If so does it do what it says? Here is a review on Mask Pro, Fluid Mask & Primate from a blog I found -

http://johnyonko.wordpress.com/2007/03/26/fluid-mask-versus-mask-pro-versus-primatte/

Is it worth paying for a masking software because I dont think the extract function in PS can't do a good job. Or Im being a muppet! Just needed some advice.

Cheers!

 

[ronmatt]

zorro... this is an age old issue and "no one" really has the end-all answer. There are many techniques employed to do it and many plugins. None are foolproof and none work in all instances. You can spend many hours working on a photo and getting it 'just right', then when you apply precisely the same technique to the next photo, it doesn't work as well. It usually comes down to a lot of hand work and a lot of trial and error.
I use a technique ( usually ) in which I get the extraction as good as I can ( working on a transparent background ). Then, on different layers, applying 'hair brushes' to fill and replace the whispiness and trasnparency of the fine detail in an average color, then sometimes cloning the actual hair into the manufactured hair. I've gotten quite good with this technique and you really can't tell where one ends and the other begins. I can do this with ease, some others may find it more difficult, just as I find what some people do, more difficult than they make it sound. And no... you can't write an action for it.

 

[Gaussian]

Welcome. 8))

Extracting images is all about learning as many techniques as possible and for specific images third party plugins might be useful, but don't expect miracles. As for the extract tool; most people that I know don?t really took the time to learn how to use it, because under some circumstances the extract tool works pretty good (and not just with easy edges).

If you want to know more about Fluid Mask, then search on the board for either fluid mask or fluidmask, there have been several discussions about this product.

 

[MindBlasting]

Hello PS friends,you know all well and do it with style.
What i want to know is somewhere i saw a tutorial that explained me of extracting the exact look of hair using channels.
I don't know where i saw that tutorial now i lost it and forgot the tutorial, if i found it i will post it here.

Now, do you ppl know how this can be done.

 

[MindBender]

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/technique/replace_bg.html

 

[SCync]

In addition to MB's suggestion :}, here's a couple of old gems.
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/select-hair-by-using-channels.html
http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html Go to the bottom