218
Cutting hair with Refine Edge
IMAGE: THORE SIEBRANDS LICENSED UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS
A
UTOMATING THE CUTTING OUT
of figures, especially those with
flyaway hair, has been the holy grail of
Photoshop developers since the earliest
days. That goal moves one step closer with
the Refine Edge dialog, which allows wispy
cutouts to be made more easily than ever
before.
This photograph of the late, great German
actress Barbara Rudnik is a tricky cutout by
conventional means: the background is close
in tone to her hair, and those wispy strands
can be hard to deal with.
Refine Edge can handle this job relatively
easily. See page16 for a closer look at how
Refine Edge operates.
1
The first step is to make the initial
selection, most easily done using
the Quick Selection tool (see page
14). It may take a little refinement –
that patch of red on the left tends to get
selected – but it’s an easy task.
5
We can deal with individual
strands of hair by brushing over
them using the Edge Detection brush.
First, though, set the tool to Smart
Radius, using the checkbox. When we
brush over the hair area, we see the
original image beneath (left); when we
release the mouse button, the area is
refined into a true cutout (right).
2
We enter Refine Edge, either
by choosing the button on the
Options bar when the Quick Selection
tool is active, or by pressing COr
LAr. The default view is to show
the image on a black background.
6
We can use the same process
to brush over other flyway
strands of hair, such as those on the
side of the head. Again, we first see
the background, then the cutout is
performed for us. There’s no need to
attempt to complete the whole hair
perimeter in one go: small steps often
work better.
8
Heads and bodies
SHORTCUTS
MAC WIN BOTH
219
HOT TIP
Get used to
viewing the
cutout in a variety
of ways, within
the Refine Edge
dialog. Use
b for a black
background,
w for white,
l to show the
underlying layers,
and p to show
the original image
– or just choose
the view you want
from the pop-up
menu at the top of
the dialog.
3
There are several adjustments we can make to improve the way Refine Edge
deals with the cutout. The first control is the Radius setting in the Edge
Detection section. This sets the radius of the border around the perimeter: if we press
j, we can toggle this view on and off. Shown here is our initial selection with a
2-pixel border, which works well for this image.
7
We can continue working all the
way around the head, brushing
over all the stray strands of hair until
we reveal them in all their glory. It’s
important not to use this tool over areas
we want left hard, though, such as the
edge of the face and the jacket: hold
O A to remove unwanted soft areas
with the brush.
8
Refine Edge now gives us the
option of outputting its results in
a variety of ways. The best solution is
usually to output to a new layer with a
layer mask, as this leaves the original
intact. We can now see how the image
works against a white background – it
isn’t perfect, but the layer mask allows
us to fine-tune it.
4
The second control is the
Decontaminate Colors checkbox
near the bottom. This blends colors
from the cutout into the border, so the
red fringe on the shoulder (left) can be
easily removed (right).
9
Once we place the image on any
background other than white
or a flat color, the slight transparency
and inaccuracy is concealed by the
underlying texture, and the cutout
works perfectly.
How to Cheat in Photoshop CC
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