What's new
By:
Photoshop Gurus Forum

Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Complex selections (not hair)


Emily Rutter said:
I know there are many ways to do it so I thought I'd share what I would do. Hope its easy to follow

The steps are written on the pics, but at the end I used the quick selection tool with tolerance at 10 to select the empty spaces in the lace (the larger ones) and painted black on the mask, then used a tiny brush on the mask for any little spaces.

If you click on the last image you can see it looks pretty clean.
Click to expand...

Nice result Emily. How much time? Looks pretty quick.
 
RuidosoBill
@I'mSam ALB68

I've been busy all day, didn't see your posts until now.

So sorry to all of you. I guess a screenshot doesn't help too much to see how I worked. It's also very difficult for me to describe how I did the masking. Anyways, I give it a try.
When I use the magic wand tool or the quick selection tool I change the tolerance constantly between 5 and 35, depending on which area of the background I'm working on. Often I switch to best channel for better contrast. I do the masking by working in the 100% size or bigger of the actual image.
I work like this almost automatically and complete the masking. Then I use refine edge. (Smart radius, soft edge, contrast). This "selection" I use for my layer mask. On the layer mask I paint away or soften areas as needed for blending.

It is interesting to hear from you that 50 min. seems to be "a long time" for me to complete and image like this.
It is also very interesting for me to hear that the OP likes the way I did this job.
But it is not my problem at all if the OP has 100 images to complete in a certain time.

After all this forum is a tool to show people how certain photoshop based problems can be solved. I'm happy to share my knowledge here as good as I can, though sometimes it is difficult because of the language barrier.

dancer screenshot layers.jpg
 
Chris. I was not being critical about the time it took. I know it's slow. OPs original question was how to speed up the process. Too bad if we can't get him a quicker, more efficient way to do these without sacrificing the necessary quality. Thanks for posting your methodology.
 
I think the time it takes will depend on your comfort with masking. After doing the first one and deciding exactly what tools I was going to use I think 20min would be enough to do another similar image.
 
I use the same method as Chris, and agree with the time. After I use refine edge, I will get out the brushes on my mask...I cannot do clean crisp masks without touchups. An hour per image is not that long....until you need 100's of different images...I might think of altering the shooting process, to save this problem
 
MikeMc said:
I use the same method as Chris, and agree with the time. After I use refine edge, I will get out the brushes on my mask...I cannot do clean crisp masks without touchups. An hour per image is not that long....until you need 100's of different images...I might think of altering the shooting process, to save this problem
Click to expand...

Yes, Mike I was thinking the same thing. Bring it down so that the background is basically one color and eliminate that other brownish background stuff. That would make it much easier and quicker.
 
Emily Rutter said:
I think the time it takes will depend on your comfort with masking. After doing the first one and deciding exactly what tools I was going to use I think 20min would be enough to do another similar image.
Click to expand...

I tried one using similar Emily and I came in about 20-25 minutes
 
This was one of the most difficult, I used quick selection, Quick mask, Some cloning and painting but with your suggestions I am pleased with this result.

_DSC2735-Edit-Edit.jpg

I truly appreciate your suggestions and guidance, thanks again!
 

Attachments

  • _DSC2735-Edit.jpg
    _DSC2735-Edit.jpg
    2.1 MB · Views: 10
Last edited:
RuidosoBill said:
This was one of the most difficult, I used quick selection, Quick mask, Some cloning and painting but with your suggestions I am pleased with this result.

View attachment 52250

I truly appreciate your suggestions and guidance, thanks again!
Click to expand...
Add a couple of drop shadows and your good to go ! Looks good. Did you not use a layer mask?
 
Last edited:
Looking close at the last picture you can still see an area of the backdrop and a lot of halo effect from I'm assuming the layer mask that didn't get covered completely

Do you mind me asking if this is something you are being paid for?
 
Emily Rutter said:
Looking close at the last picture you can still see an area of the backdrop and a lot of halo effect from I'm assuming the layer mask that didn't get covered completely

Do you mind me asking if this is something you are being paid for?
Click to expand...

I did not scrutinize this one that close until you said what you did Emily. However, what I am seeing here, if it's the same thing, may be due to this being a screen shot and is jpg artifact etc. Bill, I believe, is the photographer and would be working on the full resolution image and would not be effected in his printed image I don't think.
Otherwise, post a screenshot of what your referring to.
fivecrowns.JPG
 
Last edited:
The picture he attached to the comment I right clicked to open in new window and it allows you to enlarge it, I'm not sure if this is how you are viewing it to?
Please don't take this as me being rude as I meant it to be helpful, not overly critical

I saved the enlarged image and opened it in PS to mark where I noticed the halo or left over background
 

Attachments

  • _DSC2735-Edit.jpg
    _DSC2735-Edit.jpg
    2.7 MB · Views: 9
I so much appreciate all your help, I invite suggestions and no comment is taken out of context. I have found I can do a quick selection of the entire scene, outside edge, go into quick mask and Paint over the crowns with the black and then get the right size brush and paint the crown details with white, it appears to be the very best I can do, takes less time and for this job should be enough. Again I say thanks to all that helped and your suggestions are appreciated. This is a very helpful site and I am so glad to have found you all! Some of the other PS sites haven't even responded, I am not a pro retoucher but I sure need some help now and again and I will start here from now on, again thanks.
 
Emily Rutter said:
The picture he attached to the comment I right clicked to open in new window and it allows you to enlarge it, I'm not sure if this is how you are viewing it to?
Please don't take this as me being rude as I meant it to be helpful, not overly critical

I saved the enlarged image and opened it in PS to mark where I noticed the halo or left over background
Click to expand...

Your right Emily, I didn't look at it in a new window like you. I wasn't really looking for that more than I was at the crowns. But I see what your talking about. Makes me wonder about layer masks.
@Bill - Bill, I haven't heard you mention anything about using a layer mask. If your not, it would be a help to you. Are you familiar with them and how to use ?

Look here in case you don't https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrKR07ofRRE
 
Last edited:
ALB and Emily and the others that have commented, I have learned more here about selection and masking than all the youtube tutorials I watch almost every night. Alb, to answer your question I am by no means an expert on selection and masking but I am more confident in what I do prior to joining and asking for help. I appreciate the pointers and sending me in the right direction. What my current dilemma is where to make the cut between time and payback. I hate anything less than what is my best (effort) but when these folks order 8 X 10 or smaller there is a business decision on what is "Acceptable" and what is not. To compound matters it is displayed on the internet for all to see either acceptable or substandard work.

The one thing I know for sure is Photoshop continues to challenge me and I will never stop learning it.

Thanks again to all, I will be hanging around here to learn.

Bill
 
RuidosoBill said:
ALB do you know of anywhere I can read up on "Drop Shadows" when I try and do it they look poor.
Click to expand...

Bill, for your drop shadows to look right, do a selection of just the dancers and put them on a separate layer (Ctrl/Cmd+J). Then select drop shadow from your fX menu and you can then manipulate the shadow. This was real quick but here is result
dancers3.JPG
 
Last edited:

Back
Top