How to isolate whispy hair using CS3?

[Cruzor]

Have a project to individually cut persons from a plain blue background using the quick selection wand in CS3. But one person has whispy hair and am hoping there's an easy option so I can do a great job. Thanks for your help.

 

[glaston]

If this has to be done using the quick selection wand, then your options are limited.
Is this an assignment?

Best thing you could do is zoom in close on the hair, set the magic wand tolerance to a moderate level, uncheck the contiguous option and hold down the shift key while clicking around the hairlines trying to get pixels of similar value.

If you have the means and the option, it would be better to paint a mask by hand in quick mask mode to get a perfect selection.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

layer mask, than use the pen tool to draw it out.

 

[Cruzor]

Thankyou from a Kiwi girl

 

[AdamZx3]

Use channels, it will be sooo much easier and a lot more precise than the magic wand....that tool is only usefull 3% of the time. Switch If you can select whispy hairs strands with the pen tool without it looking blocky I give you mad props!

If you don't know how to use channels yet I would suggest scott Kelbys channels book, while a little on the beginner side it has several whispy hair projects in there. If you post a decent sized file (preferably the full size file in a .zip) I can help you with the extraction. you can even email it if you like. [email protected]

Basically you want to duplicate your background layer, this will be your new mask. open up your channels palette, select just the blue channel, hopefully the background will be fairly white already..depending on the shade of blue. (it wont always be the blue channel it depends on the picture) You can then use that to start a mask, adjusting it with curves and maybey even select range to eventually get it to black and white mask. Its hard to say though without seeing it.

 

[The_Traveler]

Get the book on masking and compositing from Katrin Eismann. THis will tell all.

 

[Apex]

ive only used this program once and i had some decent success with it. its called Fluid mask and its very effective with cutting out hair and whatnot. they have some tutorials on their site on how to use it effectively.

http://www.vertustech.com/