Easy Way To Cut Out Hair And Select Curly Hair In Photoshop

Today I will discuss changing the difficult background. So I am using three different images with difficult edges.

Simpler method to extract background is a subject selection that I have already discussed before

But when we work with a picture of a woman with curly hair or complicated hair then it is always a challenge.

So Today, I will discuss how to select curly hair with a blend if.

Normally it is a very good option to replace the blue sky with this option

Let's first see how sky can replace with a blend if

So open it layer menu in the layer style box. Go to Blending option, Default is grey

and change the dropdown from grey to blue

If you want to select use a color on the top layer, use the top slider

As you slide the slider, you will see that the blue sky will be replaced by our clouds, move it as far as you can before the clouds start to disappear.

So opening an image with a grey background. Selecting background and placing on the image Then duplicating a layer by using CTRL+J in windows and Command+J on Mac

Shifting the duplicate layer above the new background layer

Now open the layer menu in the layer style box. Go to Blending option, Default is grey

and I am selecting here grey only because of the background.

I want to select use a color on the top layer, and use the top slider means removing the grey channel

As you slide the slider, you will see that the grey background is removing move it as far as you can before the background start to disappear.

Now we need to finesse the selection, hold down Alt/Option and drag on the left of the triangle, you will see that it now splits and enables users to refine our blending.

After refining the selection click ok.

You can see with background, other grey parts or grey highlights area of the image are also removed because it is s destructive way to select an image. Don't worry.

I am creating a solid background from the adjustment menu

you can see how it affected destructively. But hair is selected in a nice way

In white and light background hair is looking perfect, but here is a problem in a black or dark background,

We can discuss it later. Now I am deleting the solid color layer

I am shifting the main background layer above the new background image

Creating a mask,

After selecting a black mask, you can see all contents hidden but not erased

Again I switched black to white by using CTRL+I in windows and Command+I in mac.

Content revealed again.

Now come to black mask, select foreground to white and paint with a brush, you can reveal the part that you want to reveal

Or unhide all content by using x key and toggle to white you can do vice versa

So press the D key to active foreground

Type X key to toggle black to white and paint on unwanted removed areas.

After painting these parts restore, checking other parts and painting over.

After restoring it, merge both active layers, By doing so, you can work on a layer in a non-destructive way

Hair is perfectly selected and background was replaced perfectly,

But here is a little issue of fringe

When you replace parts of an image with selections from a different image,

you get unwanted fringing that's comprised of stray pixels and looks like a fuzzy halo around certain parts of the image.

Here are many ways to defringe this effect.

Creating a new layer and clipping it by using Hold alt / Hold OPtion between two layers

Or use shortcut Ctrl+Alt+G (Win) / Command+Option+G (Mac)

If you do anything on the new layer then all the layers will be affected, but by using the clipping mask your only that layer will be affected that will be clipped

Open the blending menu and select the blend mode soft light here

And pick the hair color with the dropper and paint over the edges of the hair, take care don't paint inside,

as I painting our edges of the hair fringing is removing,

look more realistic I am reducing opacity 100% to 53% and fringe removed and background replaced perfectly

Now I am opening light background and will see how image will look in this background

To check this I am unhiding the defringing layer and also dark background layer

In light background fringing is not showing , so we have no need to paint if the background is light, it requires only in dark background

So with little practice, you can replace background very easily

Blending If is best working with blue and grey bacgrounds , but if your image has different background like matching skin color or any other complicated background then it works in destructive way like in this image.

So I will use another feature color range. The Color Range command is used to select areas based on tonal and color values,

In this tutorial, we'll watch why the Color Range command, not the Magic Wand, is the tool you should be using when making tone and color-based selections.

I am working this feature both with dark and light background

Opening both background images and placed them below the duplicate layer

And transforming the background by using Ctrl+t /command+T

First I am using the light background and hiding the dark background

So select the top layer and go to select Menu and select color range

At the very top of the dialog box is the Select option. By default, it's set to Sampled Colors:

and fuzziness to 0 - The Color Range dialog box gives us a similar way to set the acceptable range like tolerance in magic wand , except here it's not called Tolerance, it's called Fuzziness,

We use the Fuzziness value the same way we use Tolerance. The higher we set the Fuzziness value, the more brightness levels we include in the acceptable range.

Select selection menu to none here are three tools eyedropper , add sample and substract sample

Select eyedropper tool useing for making initial color selection ,simply click on the image with the Eyedropper Tool to select the color you need

the Add to Sample Tool for adding additional colors to the selection, and the Subtract from Sample Tool to remove colors from the selection.

Once we select the color with eyedropper we have no need to waste time to use it again. So add sample with dropper with + tool

To add more of the background gradient color to my initial selection, I'll hold down my Shift key, which switches me to the Add to Sample Tool, and I'll simply click on the area I want to add. I'll choose a brighter shade of background

First I am clicking on dark shade then drawing with dropper outside the subject for better selection

Background is not in single shade it has some critical areas so I am clicking these areas in privew windows

To see how our selection is made , select invert and select white matt in selection window

Subject is selected very well , here need to adjust fuzziness

I m adjusting the skider till then background will not be perfectly white.

But by doing so some part of the subject also selected , it is because skin color are matching with background

If the background color is different then it was easy. But it has not a big deal , I will take care it later

Click ok and subject is selected now .

Now click on mask and create a mask layer, I am turning off light background and unhide dark background to see the unwanted selected area

So press the D key to active forground

Type X key to toggle black to white and paint on unwanted selected areas.

Image is perfectly selected , but some issue in subject body 's edges these are like zigzag correct it later

Hair are perfectly selected and background was replaced perfectly ,

Make selection more refine , you need to select edges of the hair

Select a Lasso tool and roughly select the complicated part of the hair

Then select the white mask and hold Alt backspace with windows / option backspace in mac and rename it Body

Press Ctrl D/ command D to deselect the selection

Duplicate the layer by CTRL+J in windows and Command+J in Mac

And rename it Hair then delete the mask

Now you have two layers Hair and Body

Select the body layer and click on select and mask top of option bar , make sure you have already selected lasso tool

Adjusting Smooth slider smooths out the edges. Keep it low because it takes away from your selection. In this image, I used this slider to smoothen the edges of the hair.

after that adjusting a Feather slider , it helps to blend the selection more into its eventual background. Keep it low as well.

Adjusting a Contrast slider adds more definition to your edge. I am not Using too much that will create harsh edges.

Move the Shift Edge left or right to shrink or expand the selection. You can see now zigzag is removed and edges are smooth

Click ok and save it as a layer

See before and after

Now I am unhide the body layer and selecting the hair layer

So first select a select and mask and then chose the selection tool to select the hair

After that selecting a refine edge tool

You can use Refine Edge on any image, but it really shines when you have a foreground that you're trying to select against a contrasting background.

It is best to use here because you're working with complex edges of hair . Anything with straight lines is easy enough to get with the pen tool. But lots of small projects, transitions, and blank spots will benefit from the Refine Edge tool.

Now brush over the edges

Photoshop extracts contrasting pixels for your selection much faster than you could with a manual tool. Keep brushing until you get the selection you want.

After selection click okay with selecting layer.

Hair are perfectly selected but it is showing fringe in dark background , but it is okay with light background .

Even it is very good with medium tones as I adjusting hue and saturation.

Here I found some correction while brushing , so selecting again select and mask to remove the unwanted selection

Now the main issue is fringe

So open again mask properties then click on Decontaminate Colors. In the Properties tab, scroll down until you see the Deconta-minate Colors checkbox. Click it and check out the results.

It solved 60% fringe in this image so we need to remove it perfectly we need to do some manual work.

When you replace parts of an image with selections from a different image,

you get unwanted fringing that's comprised of stray pixels, and looks like a fuzzy halo around certain parts of the image.

Here are many way to defringe this effect.

Creating a new layer and clipping it by using Hold alt / Hold OPtion between two layers

Or use shortcut Ctrl+Alt+G (Win) / Command+Option+G (Mac)

If you do anything on new layer then all the layers will be affected , but by using clipping mask your only that layer will be affected that will be clipped

Open the blending menu and select the blend mode soft light here

And pick the hair color with dropper and paint over the edges of the hair , take care don't paint inside,

as I painting our edges of the hair fringing is removing , look more realistic I am reducing opacity 100% to 70%

now image is perfectly selected and no fringe in dark background .

Photoshop is giving lots of option of selection and replacing background , but we have to choose what option is best for specific image.

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