Masking Tips

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hey there,

im using CS1 and just wanted to see if any of you have any masking tips in photoshop. i've really had no luck using the extract tool. we dont have the budget to buy a third party masking program. anyone got any tips for masking around hair? ive got a headshot i need to cut from the background. thanks in advance.
 
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The easiest way is to look at each colour channel in either CMYK or RGB

If you have a colour channel with the best contrast between hair and background you can copy that channel and then go about playing with levels and curves to get a good white - black mask between the two, with hair don't make it black and white, keep some feathering at the edges)

Hope that helps - worked for me years ago when I had to do a cut out of Scary Spice's hair (the Spice Girls) for a commercial job
 
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mcjacksonnelson
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that helps alot actually. even after 7 yrs of being a pro designer, i still always forget about channels. thanks!
 
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If the channel method doesn't work then Color Range can sometimes get the job done but requires a bit more work
 
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mcjacksonnelson
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thanks again. i usually give up on channel/color selections and break out the old WACOM and do a layer mask. can be pretty therapeutic sometimes. :D
 
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The easiest way is to look at each colour channel in either CMYK or RGB

If you have a colour channel with the best contrast between hair and background you can copy that channel and then go about playing with levels and curves to get a good white - black mask between the two, with hair don't make it black and white, keep some feathering at the edges)

Hope that helps - worked for me years ago when I had to do a cut out of Scary Spice's hair (the Spice Girls) for a commercial job

excellent tip!
Depending on the type of object to be selected, I'll often combine selection tools with quickmask and then use a tablet with various brushes to touch it up. For mechanical object selections, I'll often start with a path, and convert that to a channel if needed.
 

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