Selecting fly-away hair can be one of the toughest assignments in Photoshop. The Extract command can be helpful. Third-party plug-ins, such as Mask Pro (www.extensis.com) and KnockOut (www.corel.com), are great. But sometimes the easiest way to select those random strands of hair is right in your Channels palette.

Open the image in Photoshop. Open the Channels palette. Click on each channel, one at a time, to find the channel with the greatest contrast between the strands of hair and the background behind them. (Ignore the rest of the image, you’re only interested in the area around the individual strands of hair.) In our sample image (PhotoSpin.com, #0770118), the Blue channel offers the best contrast.

We’ll duplicate that channel by dragging it to the New Channel button at the bottom of the Channels palette. With the Blue copy channel active in the Channels palette, we can use Levels or Curves to maximize the contrast. Again, we’re interested only in the fringe strands of hair. (Note that I’ve used the command Window> Arrange> New Window for [image name] to open a second window for the image, in which I’ve zoomed to monitor a specific area of the image.)

Using the Lasso tool and the Fill command, in combination with the Brush tool and the Eraser tool, we can easily fill in the subject and delete the remaining areas of the background. (In the upper window, only the Blue copy channel is active and visible. In the lower window, only the Blue copy channel is active, but all channels are visible.)

When the mask is complete, click on the composite channel at the top of the Channels palette to make it active, then Command-click (Mac) or Control-click (Windows) on the mask channel (Blue copy, in this example) to load the channel as a selection. You can delete the background, fill it with color, or invert the selection and copy the subject, ready to paste into another image.

20 Comments

1. Sarah said on — March 31, 2008 @ 9:55 pm

   What are the steps involoved in “using the Lasso tool and the Fill command, in combination with the Brush tool and the Eraser tool, to easily fill in the subject and delete the remaining areas of the background?”

   Thanks,
   Sarah

2. gilbert maceda said on — May 29, 2008 @ 10:19 pm

   i appreciate this tutorial, thanks for that! But can you make it a video to make easier for me, thanks!

3. Marc-Olivier said on — June 1, 2008 @ 12:38 pm

   This tutorial is definitely really useful but I’ve tried this technique on a really curly-hair photo and the result is not that good… The problem is that a part of the white background is still remains in the hair. Any tips?

4. Kristen said on — June 9, 2008 @ 10:33 pm

   I agree with Sara. While I know how to use those tools in normal situations I’m having a hard time understanding exactly what we are doing here that I wouldn’t just normally do the “long” way with out using channels.

5. marcus said on — July 14, 2008 @ 6:36 pm

   I have been looking for this for along time. I’ve seen other co-workers whip it out and get a nice hair selection many of times, but I had no time to look over shoulders. It was so simple. I always thought it was something very complex that they where doing or using a filter of some sort. THANKS DOOD!

6. ON ASSIGNMENT: 9/8 ::: EXTRACT YOURSELF « SuperWolf Pingback on — September 6, 2008 @ 11:02 am

   [...] For those of you who have already built the sandwich, go HERE and/or HERE and start working on the tutorial so you’ll know how to EXTRACT YOURSELF. Try to find a BIG [...]

7. Mike Dennis said on — October 6, 2008 @ 8:20 am

   NICE TOOTORIAL

8. Haarspalterei Pingback on — January 7, 2009 @ 12:23 pm

   [...] PlanetPhotoshop.com bietet ein Tutorial zum gefürchteten Thema “Haare freistellen” an, gibt Tipps und zeigt Tricks, womit der Leser zum Schluß selbst mit den feinsten Spitzen keine Probleme mehr haben sollte, auch wenn es eine haarige Angelegenheit bleibt.  [...]

9. Sarah said on — February 6, 2009 @ 2:33 am

   What are the steps involoved in “using the Lasso tool and the Fill command, in combination with the Brush tool and the Eraser tool, to easily fill in the subject and delete the remaining areas of the background?”

   Thanks,
   Sarah

10. Online Mags and Masks | TipSquirrel Pingback on — April 30, 2009 @ 2:25 pm

    [...] Planet Photoshop - Select Hair by Using Channels [...]

11. Don S said on — May 13, 2009 @ 9:48 am

    Sarah – seems like you are not going to get your answer. I too want that answer. the problem with to many tutorials is the expect us to have the “common knowledege” to do what they ask us to do.

12. Anmari said on — May 14, 2009 @ 8:46 am

    This was very helpful, thank you. )

13. Photoshop Weblog Pingback on — July 11, 2009 @ 9:40 am

    [...] PlanetPhotoshop.com bietet ein Tutorial zum gefürchteten Thema “Haare freistellen” an, gibt Tipps und zeigt Tricks, womit der Leser zum Schluß selbst mit den feinsten Spitzen keine Probleme mehr haben sollte, auch wenn es eine haarige Angelegenheit bleibt.  Kommentare 1 von Michi | 24. November, 2005 um 10:19    [...]

14. HariesDesign.com said on — August 10, 2009 @ 11:32 am

    Thanks for sharing…

15. Gerard Owmby said on — November 16, 2009 @ 11:56 pm

    Once you get it selected, go to Select>Refine Edge and play around with the conrtrols. This will give you almost unlimited control over the unwanted colors.

16. photoshop_fan said on — January 7, 2010 @ 3:08 pm

    can you see why this tutorial works fine in here? they choose a picture with great contrast
    and hair is not that complex, i could easily do this with eraser tool

    this method is useless when the background has similar color to the subject you intent to subtract. also with very curly hair or flying hair won’t work.

17. Lauren said on — January 28, 2010 @ 6:46 pm

    This is what I have figured out in relation to – “using the Lasso tool and the Fill command, in combination with the Brush tool and the Eraser tool, to easily fill in the subject and delete the remaining areas of the background” –

    You want the solid parts of the figure and the hair near the scalp to be filled in completely. I have found that using the pen tool to select the figure works well, then fill the selection in with the paintbrush or paint bucket. You don’t want to fill in any of the hair that may have white showing through it, or else it won’t look convincing when transferred to a different background. If you have filled in any part of the background, you will want to erase it.

18. ravi bose said on — April 18, 2010 @ 11:18 am

    This is what i want to get.

19. Gavin said on — May 11, 2010 @ 3:08 am

    Crap tutorial!! you help with the channels then all of the sudden there is this red mask on which i dont have…. not helping at all on how to do the rest……

20. Mat said on — July 7, 2010 @ 6:50 am

    @Gavin

    It shows you how to achieve the red mask in the final screenshot – select all channels including the newly created alpha channel (blue copy), this will show the original image with the mask overlaid.

    Simples

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