Feeling a little "edgy"..

[MainFragger]

OK...I am going to show an original, and then what I've done with it..but I need help. How do you clean up edges when you don't dare get any closer to them with a clone brush? Especially since I am using a touchpad on my laptop to do this...

[MainFragger]

Help me! I'm clooooning!..err.. meeeelting!

[adrian_k]

I'm not the world's best at masking, but a quick and dirty method is select/color range. It's dead simple in this example as there's a high contrast between the BG & subject.

In PS Select, Color Range, Sampled Colors, move fuziness to zero and click the "+" brush then each time you click another bit of blue it adds it to the selection.

when you've gone around click all the blue click inverse becuase you want the subject not the BG. click ok, ctrl+j to copy the selection to a new layer.




Help me! I'm clooooning!..err.. meeeelting!

[adrian_k]

you still get some blue around the hair.

I have a better methed where you would duplicate the layer select the blue and adjust the contrast thereby getting a better outline....

....but that's at home.

After 2 minutes work, this is what I got.

[cletus]

you still get some blue around the hair.
Nice work :thumb

Adrian has the right idea. Use the fact that your background is a solid color to your advantage. Select Color Range is probably the easiest method.

I have a better methed where you would duplicate the layer select the blue and adjust the contrast thereby getting a better outline....
Adrian, could you provide a bit more detail on this method? I know that making a copy of the blue channel and then adjusting it (with contrast/brightness, levels, curves, etc...) would probably make a pretty good mask.

[ginger_55]

Cletus, et Adrian, could you both go into more detail, especially as regard masks. The very word makes me go to a different book. Usually the book/article just says "make a layer mask", hahahahahha, well, some of us cannot translate that, I can't.

Also, on the clone brush, I do closer, why can't you go closer? I would rather take a tad of hair out, with a soft brush ( don't know what a soft brush is either, I guess a lot) opacity (see, I am checking my Ben Wilmore book rt now for details, but opacity, I never go full strength, not in tight work, not usually at all, would use the patch tool for large stuff)

Also, if you see the feather tool, use it.
I just worked up a photo to see what it was called, I was having a senior moment. The funny thing is I used to see the feather tool all the time. Didn't this time. But the opacity thing was a big help.

What I really use all the time is under edit, I use "backwards" to undo what I did that I wish I hadn't. As long as you can use that, or have it in a layer you can delete, well you can try this and that all you want...........that is what I do.

I do edges around dogs and their hair, it works usually.

ginger

Now about layer masks??????????? And I know I have used them, but not with finess, I have no idea how.

[XO-Studios]

OK...I am going to show an original, and then what I've done with it..but I need help. How do you clean up edges when you don't dare get any closer to them with a clone brush? Especially since I am using a touchpad on my laptop to do this...
OK here is your challenge, and this is for future reference, this picture is what it is.

With a monochrome background, isolating/extracting/masking is quite easy by doing indeed a color range select. As Shay pointed out to me in the past this can be done with a chromakey, but also with any other color backdrop.

The challenge with your shot is, that the model is so close to the backdrop that on the edges and in the hair there is a color wash reflecting of the backdrop. No matter how much you do, an extract will always show that even with the expensive masking plug ins.

Solution:
1) get the model a good distance away from the backdrop
2) light the backdrop seperately
3) use a rim light on your model

If nothing else, next time cheat and use a midgrey or studio grey backdrop, as it is a lot more forgiving in color cast (if any).

FWIW,


XO,

[adrian_k]

Nice work :thumb
.
thank you.

dcmag.co.uk has alot of good tuts.

this one in particular talks about using the blue (high contrast) channel.
http://www.dcmag.co.uk/news/printablearticle.asp?SP=&v=1&UAN=207

also the filter-->extract tool in photoshop (mine is ye olde V7)
http://www.creativepro.com/img/story/ExtractHair.pdf

hth

[DeanMcM]

Help me! I'm clooooning!..err.. meeeelting!Have you tried the color replacement tool? :dunno

I have been experimenting with it and might be just what you need.

[Steve Cavigliano]

MF,

You might want to try a combo of Adrian's Color Selection and a Quick Mask. Use the Color Selection feature to get close, then click Quick Mask. This will give you a red mask that can be fine tuned using the brush tool (black BG selected and the brush will add more mask, white BG selected and the brush will remove the mask). You can use a lower opacity (and smaller size) brush as you get close to the subject's hair or skin. So as not to lose sharp edges.

Just a thought :dunno

Steve

[nzmacro]

First thing I would do, is get a mouse for your laptop. I'm lazy and would use a cutting tool with a fine feather dialled in. Then zoom in and cut around the edges.

Anyway, just different strokes for different folks I guess :wink

Danny.

[Mike Lane]

I accomplished this without using any brushes. Here's what I did...

1) copy the original image in a layer above a white background.
2) looked at the channels to determine which channels had the girl most offset from the background and were most offset from each other. It was obvious that the red and the blue channel were the best selections.
3) Went to image > Calculations selected the red channel as source 1 the blue channel as source 2 did subtract for blending with an offset of 160 and clicked okay.
4) Inverted the result since I wanted a black background
5) hit shift-ctrl-L to enhance the contrast
6) ctrl a to select the whole thing.
7) clicked on the original full color version
8) went to layer > layer mask > hide all
9) alt clicked on the layer mask
10) ctrl-v to paste the mask
11) Went to select > color range and selected the black background
12) inverted that selection and filled it with white.
13) Clicked on the image to exit the layer mask. Zoomed in to the edges.
14) went to select > color range and selected a few of the still blue pixels
15) hit ctrl-u for hue saturation and desaturated and altered the color of the blue.

and got the following...

[MainFragger]

After finding most of the resolutions suggested to be beyond my limited patience level...what I did was, set the magic wand to 100 per cent tolerance, and clicked on the back drop. Occasionally I had to shift and click a few times to get the area solidly surrounded and cover the shadows. Then I used the eye dropper to grab the colors in between the model's hair. Then I filled the area with 100 per cent opacity. It seemed to work pretty well.

MainFragger

[GerryDavid]

Ive seen this done on tv, and on a dvd, but I havent mastered it yet.

* They way these 2 pros suggest doing this is to go into channels. Find the channel that has the most contrast between the subject you want to issolate and the background.
* Then duplicate this channel *drag it down to the new channel icon*
* Assuming the background appears light in this channel and the girl appears dark.......select the burn tool, set it to shadows and burn the dark areas around the border of the girl on the girl side of things.
* select the dodge tool, set it to highlights and dodge the highlights around the border of the girl on the background side of things.
* using the pensil fill in the background with white and the girl with black.
* drag the channel to the selection icon or hold down ctrl and click on the layer *think thats the combination* to make this a selection then use it to mask the layer you want to issolate. Possibly feathering the selection.

Supposdly this works wonders around the hair line, but I havent mastered it yet. It actually moves pretty fast once you know the procedure.

[MainFragger]

I forgot to show you my final result..

The reason I decided to stick with the same background color is because I found it a pain to also try to change the color that was showing through the candle glass. The nice thing is, that in different pictures, the blue background came out various shades brighter or darker, but because of the way the blue shows through the candle, it didn't really seem to not match..

MainFragger