Turn On This Secret Setting for Flawless Hair Masks! - Photoshop Tutorial

This one setting is going to make your hair selection and masking so much better that it's unbelievable. All you have to do, first of all, is to make sure that you are on the latest version of Photoshop. Right now, I'm on 25.7, because in the later versions, Select Subject has become so much better. Right now, I do not recommend clicking on Select Subject, although it does a fantastic job of selecting every strand. Let's go back by pressing Ctrl or Command D. You want to make sure you have your subject and the new background perfectly placed in your layers. So, here we have our new background wall. On top of that, we have our subject. You want to make sure the subject layer is selected and select any of the selection tools. And at the top, you'll see Select and Mask. Click on it. Now, inside of Select and Mask, I recommend, now you can try Select Subject. Let's click on it. As you can see, it does a fantastic job, but that is not the secret. The secret is in the algorithm. First of all, you want to make sure the view is set to so that you can see in real time how the masking is happening. And by the way, if Select Subject doesn't select these hair strands properly in the first place, you want to make sure you try Refine Hair. So, I'm going to hit Cancel for now and let us try this example. Let's try Select and Mask here as well. Click on Select Subject. Now, if you zoom in, you'll notice that it's just messed up. So, in cases like this, you can try clicking on Refine Hair. And as soon as you do that, it does a fantastic job. Let me change the view to On Black so that you can clearly see it. Now, on top of it, you can also try this. You can try the Refine Edge Brush tool and start painting on areas like this to ensure that every fur is properly masked in. For example, in this case, we're just going to select the Refine Edge Brush tool and paint over these areas. There you go, to fix it. This image is not of a great quality, but you get the point. Let's go back to our example. We clicked on Select and Mask and then clicked on Select Subject. Now, by default, it's going to select the Object Aware algorithm. Now, the Object Aware algorithm is best for selecting hair or fur on complex backgrounds, and that's what it says. And then you have the Color Aware one, which is best for contrasting backgrounds. All right, let us try it. Let's not let Photoshop decide what is best for you. Let's try it. Click on it. And as soon as you do that, have a look at the change. So, this is Object Aware, and this is Color Aware. This is crazy. Let us change the view to On White to properly check it. When the view is On White, everything that is not selected will be white. Now, of course, you can control the Opacity of it. If the Opacity is zero, it is like there was no mask. If the Opacity is at 100, everything that is not selected will be white. Let us take a look at the difference in other areas. So, this is Object Aware, and this is Color Aware. Since we had a lot of contrast between the background and the hair, it just works perfectly. This algorithm is the key. Now, which one would work better for your image? You have to click and try. It varies from image to image. In this case, as you can see, this is Object Aware, and this is Color Aware. We may have to fine tune this, but that's perfectly fine. Now, there are a couple more settings that we can also play with. Let's scroll down and let's play with Shift Edge. It tries to shift the edge outside or inside. So, let's take it a bit on the outside, and as you can see, this can be too much. A lot of unnecessary details also showing up. So, probably, let's go for about 20%. On top of that, we can also try Decontaminate Colors. It tries to remove the halos by expanding the color on the inside and keeping the mask intact. So, let's test it, check it, and there you go. It also does a fantastic job, but again, it may be too much. So, let's control the amount. Let's keep it at about 50%. Alright. Now, although this looks fantastic, there is one thing that bugs me. Have a look. It did leave out a few areas. These hair right here, they are discontinuing. So, how do we complete all that? How do we include all the hair that is left out right here? Just simply select the Refine Edge Brush Tool right there and just paint over these areas. See, it brought back those hair. Similarly, let's do it right here as well. Zoom out. Let's see which areas are left out. For example, this area. Paint over that. Paint over the areas that are left out. That will easily bring back the missing hair. For example, here, you see, some of the links are missing. So, we're gonna paint right there to bring that back. There you go. It is complete. Similarly, right here, there's a patch. So, we're gonna paint right there to bring that back. There you go. And that is how all you have to do is to paint in areas where there's a missing strand. Do know that this technique does bring along a little bit of the background, as you can see. A little bit of the green, a little bit of the gray, but that is fine. Once you change the background, let's scroll up and change the view to Onion Skin. See, it really doesn't matter much. And that is why the Onion Skin view is important so that you can see in real time how your mask looks like. Once you're happy with this, let's simply scroll down and you want to make sure Output is set to New Layer with a Layer Mask and hit OK. Now, it will always create a copy and not let you create a mask on the same layer because Decontaminate Color was checked. And because it was checked, if you turn off the mask, you will notice that it expands the color that is on the inside, keeps the mask intact, and that is how it takes care of the halos. And right here, you cannot notice the extra masking, but if it does bother you, you can always take the time to remove it by holding the Alt key or the Option key, clicking on the Mask button. And if you see it, I barely see it, by the way, but if you were to see it, for example, in this area, you can simply take the brush, set the Blend Mode to Overlay, decrease the Flow to about, let's say, 10 percent, make the brush smaller and paint with black. Make sure the foreground color is black and then simply paint away those areas. Probably, I'll get the Flow down to even 1 percent and then do it. Clean up these areas if you feel there is a need for it. But trust me, there is not much need for it. Hold the Alt key or the Option key, click on the Mask to bring it back. And there you have it. Now, you can take the time to match the subject with the background. I did it actually in one of my recent classes, live classes in Colorado Springs. And all I did here is blur the background. As you can see, here's the before. The background is sharp. Here's the after. On top of that, I added some lighting and shadows to merge it well. On top of that, I also added a soft focus effect and some color grading effects. And it was so much fun teaching some of you live for two full days. By the way, I'm also doing another workshop in North Carolina for the Carolina Photo Expo. It's also going to be a complete two-day full Photoshop workshop. If you're interested to know what is included, check the link in description to sign up. I would love to see you there. Now, some of you might be asking, what if the background is complicated? What if it's black? What if it's some other color? You see, when it comes to masking hair, there is no one size fits all. Each situation demands a specific technique. And you can watch this complete guide to masking hair in Photoshop where I talk about the best technique for every situation. It's linked in the description. Thank you so much for watching this video. I'll see you in the next one. Till then, stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.