Photoshop Hair Help/How To

eric-holmes · Jun 2, 2012

I have to be the absolute worlds worse when it comes to photoshoping hair. I am needing some help getting rid of the stray chunky strand on the left side of the image. It seems like it would be an easy fix but I can't make it look natural. What would you do to fix it (besides fixing it and retaking the photo)?

Kerbouchard · Jun 2, 2012

The most likely reason that you are having trouble is because there is some bleeding coming back from the background lights. How far was the subject to the background?

Having the white fade in like the rest of the photo is probably what is giving you the most trouble making it look natural.

As far as solutions, it generally starts with a good mask. In a photo like this, the best way to generate a mask is using the channels. Pick the channel that has the most contrast between the hair and the background as a place to start. From there, use a brush to paint out the large parts of the selection that you won't need. Then, either use the refine edge tool or continue to paint in your mask making sure to either feather your selection or use a lower opacity as you reach the hairline.

Edsport · Jun 3, 2012

How's this?

bianni · Jun 4, 2012

Here's another way of the many ways to do this, use the brush tool set to softest, and with eyedropper, select the white beside the hair you want to remove and brush away the stray hair and as Peano says, select a piece of hair and put this in another layer and use liquify to bend, shape the selected hair.
Align with free transform and and adjust color to blend with the hair below it. Fine tune with layer mask.