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Posted on 21/03/09 10:41:10 PM |
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jwhite
Collage Critter Posts: 274 Reply  |
How to tame the furry beast?
Is there a good method for cutting-out a furry critter from the background while maintaining the details of the stray whiskers and hair?  |
Posted on 22/03/09 07:38:02 AM |
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Nick Curtain
Model Master Posts: 1768 Reply  |
Re: How to tame the furry beast?
If you look on the 3rd tab of Image Doctor, you'll see a post by K9 Rescue, where a number of us made suggestions regarding extracting a dog from a background. I would suggest either a channel selection or extract tool. I've tried channels on this image with a degree of success, but only when the animal is placed against a relatively light background. The issue here is that the finer fur is very similar in colour to the background. Nick |
Posted on 22/03/09 09:35:57 AM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 3882 Reply  |
Re: How to tame the furry beast?
Nick is correct about using the channels method for extraction. I have done a quick test on this image and found that the blue channel is the one with the best contrast. What you need to do is take a duplicate of the blue channel to the point where the contrast is such that the animal is pure white and the rest of the image is pure black - absolutely NO grey!.........anywhere! Duplicate the blue channel by dragging the original to the new channel icon.. just like making a new duplicate layer. Now go to Image>apply image and hit ok. It will start to result in a particularly bad looking image as the Blue channel 'multiplies' itself. Now adjust the levels. Bring the white slider to the left until you just start to see detail in the fur disappearing and stop there. Do the same with the black slider and stop at the point where you see the detail start to disappear. You might also achieve an increase in contrast by moving the grey slider. Try it to see if this works. Now take a hard edged black brush and paint inside the dark areas that delineate the animal but STAY AWAY FROM THE VERY EDGE of the animal. Change your colour to white and paint out the background and again STAY AWAY FROM THE VERY EDGE of the animal and the whiskers. You can get very close to the edges but not close enough to actually touch them. Now use the burn tool at a low setting and set to shadows to darken up the edges. Stop when you see a loss of fur detail at the edge. Now set to the dodge tool and set to highlights. Again stop when you see a loss of fur detail at the edge. Go back to levels and adjust again and stop when you see a loss of fur detail at the edge. Just keep increasing the contrast until you have a totally b&w image. You will need to invert the colours so that you have a white animal against a black background. Cmd/Ctrl click the icon to load the selection. Go to the main image and Cmd/Ctrl-J to put the perfectly cut out animal on its own layer You might find that your extraction needs a bit of tidying up as this takes a little bit of practice but as you should be able to see even those whiskers will come out cleanly. As Nick says one of your problems will be where the contrast between background and animal is very low and this will take a bit of extra work to extract. If there is any colour spillage from the background just touch it up as normal. This is a very quick resume of how to do it but it is not really as complicated as the length of this post might suggest. Let us see the result. Gordon _________________ Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean to say that people aren't out to get you. |
Posted on 22/03/09 10:44:49 AM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 3882 Reply |
Re: How to tame the furry beast?
This is a very rough cut out (and I do mean rough....you should with a little patience get it much better than this) but you can see that the fine detail in the whiskers and tail has been preserved. Some of the finer detail on the back has been lost but that is due to me having to do too many other things this morning and not really having time to be particularly careful in this area. But it gives you an idea of what can be achieved. Try getting hold of Katrin Eismann's book on masking in Photoshop for a lot more info. 
_________________ Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean to say that people aren't out to get you. |
Posted on 22/03/09 1:42:54 PM |
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jwhite
Collage Critter Posts: 274 Reply |
Re: How to tame the furry beast?
Nick & Gordon, Thank you for the information. Gordon, thank you for the technique. Is this the book you recommended: http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Masking-Compositing-VOICES-Eismann/dp/0735712794/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237725049&sr=1-5 Thanks again! John |
Posted on 22/03/09 2:10:16 PM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 3882 Reply |
Re: How to tame the furry beast?
That's the one, John. There's even a chapter showing you how to extract black hair from a dark background. Gordon _________________ Why isn't 'phonetic' spelled the way it sounds? |
Posted on 22/03/09 11:18:34 PM |
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jwhite
Collage Critter Posts: 274 Reply |
Re: How to tame the furry beast?
Thanks again, Gordon! |
Posted on 01/04/09 11:05:39 AM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 3882 Reply |
Re: How to tame the furry beast?
That reference to extracting black hair from a dark background is also in Scott Kelby's 'Photoshop Channels Book'; another very good read. Check out his edge sharpening technique using an Alpha channel. _________________ Why is the word 'Abbreviation' so long? |