Is anyone good with channel masking?

I'm trying to learn how to do it and I've got a difficult photo that I just can not seem to work with at all. I've been using The Photoshop Channels Book by Scott Kelby but for whatever reason I just seem to be hitting the wall. Maybe the photo I chose is just too difficult, I don't know. Anyone out there that can give it a shot? I'll post a smaller version below but if I need to send a larger one that's fine. I don't really care what background the baby is moved to. And the lighting angles don't have to be perfect. All I want to know is can she be cut out and if so, then how!

http://www.theglycerintekneek.com/testelly_2521.jpg

Anyone? Wrong forum for this?

Hi Sarah,

You're in the right forum, but the DI forum is pretty slow. I have been working my way throght that same book, when time allows. The channel masking is as far as I have gotten and I haven't had time to practice.

Anything is possible. Patience is the key. I do tons and tons of masking. What exactly is the problem? There are lots of strategies you can use. But no matter what you do, you're going to end up needing some careful, manual work, and either featuring your selection or blurring your mask. Lately, I've been using big soft brushes to make masks.

Does that help? You weren't very specific about what kind of help you want. Tell me more and I'll do my best to give you some guidance.

I want to cut her completely out of that background and put her into something different. I was hoping to get the wisps of hair on the right but eliminate the Eyeore completely. I may not be explaining it properly though. Does that make better sense?


What does it mean to feature a selection?

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Originally Posted by Glycerin19

What does it mean to feature a selection?

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I think PJ meant "feather". You feather your selection to soften the edges, and make the transitions more natural looking. When you make a selections, go to Select > Feather. I have also seen people soften their edges by adding a slight Gausian Blur to their mask.

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

I think PJ meant "feather". You feather your selection to soften the edges, and make the transitions more natural looking. When you make a selections, go to Select > Feather. I have also seen people soften their edges by adding a slight Gausian Blur to their mask.

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You got it. Sorry about the typo. The hair selection can be done, but like I said, I think doing it manually with either a brush or eraser will be necessary. Patience will be the key for this operation. But it's totally doable.

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Originally Posted by Glycerin19

I want to cut her completely out of that background and put her into something different. I was hoping to get the wisps of hair on the right but eliminate the Eyeore completely. I may not be explaining it properly though. Does that make better sense?

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Once you get used to masking, you will learn how to make a mask from a channel. Temporarily diddle the photo (on a layer) to make the hair really stand out, go to the Channeld pallate, pick the channel that's closest to what you want, and drag it to the little circle that makes it into a selection.

You'll have to do some manual cleaning up, but at least that gets you a good part of the way there.

try quick mask a number of how to , in regard to changing backgrounds on an image
You can also try extract in Photoshop cs2
Lowolf

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Originally Posted by danag42

Once you get used to masking, you will learn how to make a mask from a channel. Temporarily diddle the photo (on a layer) to make the hair really stand out, go to the Channeld pallate, pick the channel that's closest to what you want, and drag it to the little circle that makes it into a selection.

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Nice! This is new to me. Psyched to try it! I use masked adjustment layers on pretty much every image I use. Any new trick is a good tool to add to my virtual toolbox.

Thanks!