{"id":811116,"date":"2025-02-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/?p=811116"},"modified":"2025-02-03T14:05:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T22:05:56","slug":"how-to-cut-out-hair-from-a-busy-background-in-adobe-photoshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/how-to-cut-out-hair-from-a-busy-background-in-adobe-photoshop\/","title":{"rendered":"How to cut out hair from a busy background in Adobe Photoshop, with PiXimperfect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this tutorial, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@PiXimperfect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Piximperfect<\/a>\u2019s Unmesh Dinda isn't teaching us about adjustment layers, one of his signature techniques, like in <a href=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/en-us\/creative-color-grading-photoshop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the last<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/en-us\/lighting-adobe-photoshop-tutorial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">couple tutorials<\/a>. Instead, he shows us how to cut out a subject\u2019s hair from any background, no matter how cluttered or busy it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This one is a longer tutorial! The video is over 30 minutes long. This blog post will be a general summary, but if you're looking for a step-by-step walkthrough of the technique, you'll need to watch the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Cut Out Hair from Extremely Busy Background! - Photoshop Tutorial\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/42JXjWZ5fII?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">The original image:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-1.jpg\" alt=\"Cut out hair PixImperfect 1\" class=\"wp-image-811122\" style=\"object-fit:cover\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-1.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-1-980x552.jpg 980w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-1-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Drawing a path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before we even begin, Dinda draws an extremely complicated path around the outside of the subject.&nbsp;He renames the path in order to save it, then creates a selection out of it by right clicking and going to <strong>Make Selection<\/strong>, then clicks on the <strong>Mask <\/strong>button with the selection active to create a layer mask.&nbsp;Creating a black background layer underneath the mask shows us that the cutout is perfect around the hard edges, but not around the hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-811123\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-2-480x396.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 600px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Cutting out a mask around the subject<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Making Hair Brushes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, in order to patch in some of the hair that\u2019s been lost, Dinda will need to make a few new brushes. It\u2019s also the part that will be most reliant on his <a href=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wacom-pen-display-pen-tablets\/#drawing-tablets\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wacom-pen-display-pen-tablets\/#drawing-tablets\">Wacom pen tablet<\/a>, as there\u2019s no true equivalent way to do this with a mouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taking the default brush, he goes to the <strong>Brush Settings<\/strong> panel, and under the <strong>Transfer <\/strong>submenu, sets <strong>Opacity <\/strong>and <strong>Flow <\/strong>to <strong>Pen Pressure<\/strong>. Then in the <strong>Shape Dynamics<\/strong> submenu, he sets the size to Pen Pressure as well, and <strong>Hardness <\/strong>somewhere in the middle. He saves this as a brush preset for painting in hair in the future, then saves it into a new brush <strong>Group <\/strong>so that he can keep the next brushes he\u2019ll make together with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He then makes second and third brushes using a different method: zooming in on a section of the hair and scattering black dots over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"517\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-811124\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-3.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-3-980x469.jpg 980w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-3-480x230.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Creating a brush<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This requires some more complex work within the brush functions, as he selects around them, sets the background color to white, and uses them to define a new <strong>Brush Preset<\/strong> through the <strong>Edit <\/strong>menu. Then he goes back to the <strong>Brush Settings<\/strong> panel and sets similar properties for them as he did for the single-strand brush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key Tip: <\/strong>Whenever you want to vary a brushstroke, you can go back to <strong>Brush Settings<\/strong> and in the <strong>Brush Tip Shape<\/strong> window, adjust the <strong>Angle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Refining the hair inside the mask<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The name of the tutorial isn\u2019t entirely accurate, as instead of <em>cutting out<\/em> hair, it mostly has to do with <em>painting it back in<\/em> after cutting it out so that it looks more natural. This is the longest part of the tutorial, but also the most straightforward. For it, he relies heavily, again, on his Wacom pen tablet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To start with, he selects the layer mask that he made over the subject at the beginning, then uses his various hair brushes to paint away parts of it, exposing the \u201coverflow\u201d hairs underneath, the ones that he didn\u2019t capture when cutting it out with the pen tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-811125\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-4.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-4-980x552.jpg 980w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-4-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Painting the hair back in with the new hair brush<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Note: When working with Layer Masks, black is a part that\u2019s excluded, and white is a part that\u2019s included. Dinda uses white brushes for the hair to paint parts of the layer mask back in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key tip: <\/strong>To decrease the opacity of a mask, click on it, go to <strong>Window &gt; Properties<\/strong> to open up the <strong>Mask Properties<\/strong> window, then decrease the <strong>Density<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After decreasing the mask opacity to see where the hair falls, he selects one of his \u201cmulti-strand\u201d brushes and begins to paint in the wider swaths of hair. Then, during a long timelapse, he goes in and, circling the entire head, paints in large amounts of flyaway hairs as he sees fit, adjusting the mask opacity to make sure it\u2019s following the flow of the original hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Blurring the edges according to the depth of field<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One problem with simply painting the hair in will leave is that the edges he painted in are crisp and in focus, which is not how cameras capture flyaway hairs due to depth of field. So to fix this, he takes the blur tool and runs it around the edges of some of the outer hairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-811126\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-5.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-5-980x413.jpg 980w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-5-480x202.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Making flyaways look more realistic via blurring<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Painting additional hair<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dinda calls this step \u201cWhere the magic happens,\u201d and it\u2019s the part where he takes the most creative license. For this step, you don\u2019t have to be accurate since you\u2019re adding entirely new hairs, not painting through a mask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, he creates a normal layer named \u201cHair 1,\u201d then with the <strong>Eyedropper<\/strong>, samples the root color of the hair near where he wants to paint, then just paints additional flyaway hairs going wherever he wants them to. Occasionally, he stops to blur some of the hairs as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hair 1 is just the first of five hair layers he\u2019ll end up creating, one for each part of the hair, in order to keep them organized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-811127\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-6.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-6-980x552.jpg 980w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/07\/Cut-out-hair-6-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Dinda: \u201cCreating fringes is very easy: If you\u2019re using a tablet, just let your hand go wild.\u201d<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Corrections<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you go back to the mask and increase the density, Dinda says, you\u2019ll notice some parts of the hair are pink. Personally, this is invisible to me, but he insists. You may want to skip this step. This is because he painted over the hair and into the background, which contains some pink flowers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To fix this, he creates a new layer above the subject and sets it to be a <strong>Clipping Mask<\/strong>, meaning it\u2019s constrained to the bottom layer, then takes a sample of the hair color and paints it in. If you want to do this without losing texture, he suggests, you can use the <strong>Color blending mode<\/strong> to make sure only the underlying image\u2019s tint is affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And with that, he has an isolated image that, while substantial repainting was done, looks exactly like the original image with the hair masked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">The original compared to the final image:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/06\/Cut-out-hair-feature-image-1080x540.jpg\" alt=\"Cut out hair feature image\" class=\"wp-image-811129\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/06\/Cut-out-hair-feature-image-1080x540.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/06\/Cut-out-hair-feature-image-980x490.jpg 980w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/06\/Cut-out-hair-feature-image-480x240.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this tutorial, PiXimperfect&#8217;s Unmesh Dinda explains how to do the extremely complex technique of cutting a subject out of a busy background &#8211; all hair intact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":811129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2338,2552,2550,2336,2341],"tags":[135,180,154],"class_list":["post-811116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","category-learn-photo-editing","category-learn-to-draw-with-wacom","category-photography","category-software","tag-adobe","tag-piximperfect","tag-tutorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}