I took this picture of my friends grand daughter and I don't like the background.. She was sitting on a metal bench and it's just ugly and distracting.. So, I'm trying to change the background.. I've used the extract tool, which was a total disaster, the lasso tool which sucked just as bad and now the quick mask.. I like the quick mask the best, but I know this can be improved..
What do you guys think??? What method do you use when you have a lot of hair and it's a close up shot and you want to change the background?? To me, it looks like the backgrounds been changed and I want to minimize that as much as possible.. Here's the pic I'm talking about and what I was able to come up with..
The extract tool really would be your best bet. Leave a little of the background to get all the hair and then after pasting onto the new background, use the eraser to get rid of what you need. You can blow it up for detail. Then use a little blur to blend.
Thanks.. I guess this is something that's going to take a lot of practice.. What I'm struggling with is, how much of the hair do I keep.. Do I just smooth out the edges.. Is there anyway to keep all of the whispys and it not look so fake.. ?
I thought I had a close up one in my profile but I can't find it. I'll check to see if it's still on my computer to give you a better idea. You can pm me if you need help.
edit: OK, it was on my computer so I uploaded it. This is the first one I ever did. They are both in wheelchairs and the background was kitchen cabinets, lol. I cut them out leaving all their hair, then used the eraser to blend in their hair. After it was blended as well as I could, I used the blur tool to blend the background right into them. It's not perfect by any means, but since they are both shut in's, they loved it.
Keep all of the hair! You will lose a little in blending, but if you're careful, not too much.
OK.. I am going to keep trying.. Should I do the erasing once I put it on the new background??? I've been doing it on a blank background and it seems once I put the new background on it, I find a bunch of stuff I missed..
