To remove all traces of the old background from around the hair, select the Refine Radius Tool and paint over any areas where there may be hair. If you forgot to use the Auto-Enhance feature when you made the initial selection you may need to raise the Smooth and Feather sliders slightly in the Adjust Edge section of the dialog. You should now have an appropriate edge quality with all traces of the old background removed from all the edges except the hair. Check the Decontaminate Colors checkbox and raise the Amount slider. We could use the Shift Edge slider to try to remove the white halo that will sit around the edge of your subject but the most effective way to do this is to use the new Decontaminate Colors feature. Increase the Radius in the Edge Detection section of the dialog so that it covers the less well define edges of your subject. Don’t worry about any areas of the old background that may appear in the preview window at this stage. This will give you the most accurate view when you refine the edge of your mask. Go to Select > Refine Edge and from the View Mode drop-down menu choose the On Layers option. If you accidentally select some of the background just hold down the Alt/Option key and drag across this area to subtract it from the initial selection. This is not brain surgery and there are no lengthy selection procedures required (the Refine Edge and Channels panel holds the secret to success).Ī rough selection can be made using the Quick Selection Tool from the Tools panel with the Auto-Enhance option checked in the Options bar. The post-production is now the easy bit – simply apply the correct sequence of editing steps for a perfect result. This important aspect of the initial image capture ensures that the resulting hair transplant is seamless and undetectable. To increase the chances of success you should try to photograph your subject against a featureless background that has a different tone or color to the model’s hair. The first step to ensure guaranteed success should be completed before you even press the shutter on the camera. Extract filters, Magic Erasers and Tragic Wands didn’t get us close but we now have a new Refine Edge feature in CS5 that has eased the burden of this task and made the task easier than ever before. If you got it wrong, just like a bad wig, it showed. When the model had long flowing hair and the subject needed to change location many post-production artists would call in sick. One of the most challenging montage or masking jobs in the profession of post-production editing used to be the hair lift. The Refine Edge feature has been completely revised for Photoshop CS5 and now has the WOW factor when it comes to creating composite images. Go back to the Photoshop CS5 main tutorials page Refine Edge Photoshop CS5 Tutorial From Mark Galer Get Photoshop CS5 now at the Adobe Store.
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