Tree/Hair extraction from photo

[zcole]

I'm having trouble extracting trees from the source photo. I have a picture that I cut the background out of, but am having trouble getting the blue sky out of the tops of the trees. (Changing the sky color to a dark amber) I have tried using the extract command with no luck, magic wand doesn't work that well, and using the lasso tool will take about 100 years to complete. Just curious if anyone is savvy on extracting/eliminating the previous background from trees. I have also experienced this problem with human hair. It is difficult to get the "see through" look. Any suggestions or web based tutorials would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Sheri99]

Here's how I deal with trees/sky. Take a history snapshot of the source layer. Use the rectangular marquee or other selection tool to include the area where sky shows through the trees. Then use Select - Color Range - Highlights. (If it fails to select all the sky areas you need, use quick mask as necessary to include them; be sure to exit quick mask before proceeding). Then delete (or Edit - Clear) to remove the highlights. If areas other than sky got affected, set the history source to the recent snapshot and paint back those areas with the history brush. Its not really necessary to delete the sky. Another way (instead of clearing the selected portions) would be to replace them enmasse by dragging a gradient from the horizon to the top, again using the history brush if non-sky areas are affected by the Highlights color range selection.

Hope it helps. Working with hair is a different kettle of fish, but not difficult when there is good contrast between the hair and the background. See this thread for more info:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=8452246

Regards,
Sheri

 

[mscallisto]

I like using the extract function...here's a good tutorial

http://www.russellbrown.com/body.html

Click [more tips] and scroll down to Extracting images and pick the extracting hair pdf

 

[MasterKaos]

I went to

http://www.russellbrown.com/body.html

but there was nothing on the page that said "more tips" or "extract function".

Can you please supply the URL of the actual tutorial??


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The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.

 

[mscallisto]

Hmmm...I revisited the site via the posted link and it really is there, two thirds of the way down on the right side it says "More Tips" highlited in yellow.
(It says ADOBE PHOTOSHOP on the same line left side]

They are really good tutorials by one of the original Photoshop group Artistic Director Russell Preston.

Hope you can get there.

 

[MasterKaos]

Oh sorry! My bad!

I think i must be going blind, it is there indeed. Maybe because it's an image it took some time to load or something. I really did look hard!

/me feels silly now.

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The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.

 

[EicherDesignDotCom]

Here's what I do, with much success...

create a mask on your tree layer. click off the new mask and back onto your tree layer. select all. copy. Option-click onto your new mask. paste. invert. Command-L to open layers. Now adjust your layers to get rid of the midtones. It really will work well for fine silhouetting like that.

Good luck!