{"id":17,"date":"2020-06-21T22:15:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-21T22:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/?p=17"},"modified":"2023-11-09T21:25:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T21:25:15","slug":"masking-hair-with-photoshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/masking-hair-with-photoshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Photoshop: Masking Hair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Clients and friends alike regularly ask me to help them superimpose the image of a person onto another background.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The first problem is hair and the opacity between the hairs. Adobe Photoshop offers a tool called the \u201cmagic wand\u201d. While this tool can get you a quick idea of the composition, you will soon realize the selection is rarely perfect, even if you \u201cfeather\u201d the selection to soften the edges.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This tutorial will get you terrific results using alpha channels that have been available in Photoshop since it\u2019s earliest days.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Ed Layne for putting this together for me.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Good luck and good imaging!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>1.<\/strong> Select the Blue Channel (channel with the highest contrast).<br \/>\n<strong>2.<\/strong> With the magic wand tool select the background.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2518 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask01.jpg\" alt=\"mask01\" width=\"218\" height=\"191\" \/><br \/>\n<b>3.<\/b>\u00a0Invert the selection (command+shift+i).<br \/>\n<strong>4.<\/strong> With the marquee tool, hold down the <em>option key<\/em> to remove the edges of the hair from your selection.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2521 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask03.jpg\" alt=\"mask03\" width=\"222\" height=\"199\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>5.<\/strong> From the Paths window pull-down menu, select Make Work Path&#8230; and deselect the Work Path.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2520 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask04.jpg\" alt=\"mask04\" width=\"219\" height=\"195\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>6.<\/strong> With the marquee tool, select the area to be masked, loose hair around head.<br \/>\n<strong>7.<\/strong> Select the Blue Channel and copy the selected area.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2522 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask05.jpg\" alt=\"mask05\" width=\"218\" height=\"198\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>8.<\/strong> Create a new alpha channel and paste your selection into the new alpha channel.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2523 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask06.jpg\" alt=\"mask06\" width=\"205\" height=\"186\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>9.<\/strong> Choose the Burn Tool to darken the hair to nearly black (set shadows with\u00a0exposure less than 18% in the adjustment palette).<br \/>\n<strong>10.<\/strong> Choose the Dodge Tool to lighten the background to white, careful to allow loose hair to remain grey.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2524 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask07.jpg\" alt=\"mask07\" width=\"221\" height=\"199\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>11.<\/strong> Invert your selection (command+i) and deselect (command+d).<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2525 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask08.jpg\" alt=\"mask08\" width=\"197\" height=\"178\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>12.<\/strong> Turn on your Work Path, select the path, Load Path As Selection and fill with white.<br \/>\n<strong>13.<\/strong> Paint areas of face and hair that were not burned to white.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2526 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask09.jpg\" alt=\"mask09\" width=\"200\" height=\"180\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>14.<\/strong> Load your alpha channel as a selection.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2527 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask10.jpg\" alt=\"mask10\" width=\"200\" height=\"181\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>15.<\/strong> Select your RGB channel and extract your image.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2528 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask11.jpg\" alt=\"mask11\" width=\"405\" height=\"254\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>16.<\/strong> Once your image is placed into your new image temporarily turn on the stroke in your adjustment layers palette to find and erase any ghost pixels.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2529 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mask12.jpg\" alt=\"mask12\" width=\"405\" height=\"253\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clients and friends alike regularly ask me to help them superimpose the image of a person onto another background. &nbsp; The first problem is hair and the opacity between the hairs. Adobe Photoshop offers a tool called the \u201cmagic wand\u201d. While this&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","category-other"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Photoshop: Masking Hair - Damion Wagner Graphic Design<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/damionwagner.com\/masking-hair-with-photoshop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Photoshop: Masking Hair - Damion Wagner Graphic Design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Clients and friends alike regularly ask me to help them superimpose the image of a person onto another background. &nbsp; The first problem is hair and the opacity between the hairs. 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