Hello everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics back with another video tutorial.
Rather than show you how to create a specific effect, this time I thought I'd create more
of a general guide to help you learn new tips and tricks, so the topic I have in mind is
cutting stuff out in Photoshop.
Clipping a subject from its background has to be the most common task a designer will
encounter in their every day working life.
Back when I worked at a local studio we had a job where we had to clip out about 5000
product images of ornate coving, ceiling roses and all kinds of fancy decorative plaster
mouldings, which quickly got me used to drawing and saving paths with the pen tool.
The pen tool is the go-to tool for cutting most things out, but there's some cool techniques
you can use for hair, fur and other specialty subjects.
So let's crack on and look at the tools we have available to us in Photoshop.
Let's start with the Quick and Dirty selections.
Sometimes you just need to quickly remove something from its background with no questions
asked.
If the final result doesn’t have to be pixel perfect there’s a range of Photoshop tools
that offer you quick and easy clipping solutions.
If the first tool you reach for is the Eraser when you're faced with the task of cutting
something out you need a slap on the wrist!
The Eraser tool should really be left in Microsoft Paint.
In Photoshop Layer Masks provide the same functionality, but without destructively editing
your images.
However, with that said, if you have a steady hand or your fingers are hovering over the
Undo button, the Eraser tool can quickly rub out portions of an image you don't want.
Just be careful near the edges!
The Magic Wand Tool
The Magic Wand was probably the first tool we all discovered as Photoshop newbies, but
as you level up in experience you soon realise its capabilities don’t stretch very far.
However, the Magic Wand is a great little tool for cutting out simple images where there’s
clear definition between edges.
The Quick Selection tool is a step up from the Magic Wand.
Rather than let Photoshop make all the decisions, with this tool you paint over the exact area
you want masking and Photoshop will apply a mask based on your instructions.
It’s much easier than the trial & error of the Magic Wand Tool’s tolerance setting.
Right, now we have the basic stuff out of the way we can look at the Pro techniques.
As the saying goes, if you want something doing; do it yourself.
It might be tedious, but the best clipping results often come from manually drawing a
selection around your subject.
The Lasso tool is another somewhat newbie tool that beginners rely on, until they graduate
to the Pen tool.
The Lasso tool is great for quick selections, but its series of straight edges and the frustration
of accidentally double-clicking and closing the selection too soon can make this tool
a nightmare when used for more advanced selections.
The Pen tool has so many more benefits over the Lasso tool.
For starters you can create curved outlines, which is useful for those of us who live outside
the Minecraft world.
The Pen tool also creates paths that can be edited and saved for future use, which are
valuable features when working on real-world projects.
The basic mechanics of the Pen tool’s Bezier curves could take an entire video to explain,
but once you’ve mastered this tool it becomes you new best friend.
Trace your image, making an accurate path within a few pixels inside the edge of your
subject to avoid capturing any slithers of background in your cut out, then close the
path back at the starting point.
This path can be tweaked using the Direct Selection Tool, or you can save it by giving
it a new name under the Paths panel for easy re-selection later.
Your path can be converted into a selection at any time.
You can even add feathering to eliminate any harsh edges.
The Pen tool is the Swiss Army Knife of Photoshop tools.
There’s not many situations where this thing can’t be used, but there might be other
techniques that are faster, especially when trying to tackle complex stuff like hair,
fur or fine details.
Tonal selections is the name I’m using for techniques that use the overall contrast and
colour of an image to make a selection.
These methods are great for ultra detailed images where it’s just not feasible to draw
a selection manually.
Every image is made up of a Red, Green & Blue channel that each contains a different tonal
version of the picture.
Channels have the ability to create the most perfect selections from ultra fine details
such as hair or fur, but they don’t work well with detailed backgrounds or where there’s
a lack of contrast.
In the Channels panel, toggle the visibility of the Red, Green & Blue channels individually
to find the one with the highest contrast between the areas you want, and the areas
you don’t.
Drag it over the ‘new icon’ to make a duplicate.
You can increase the contrast further by adjusting the Levels or Curves to darken the blacks
and lighten the whites.
Once you've achieved good contrast between the fine details of your image, you’ll also
need to fill in any remaining areas of your desired selection manually with a black brush.
Load the selection of your Channel by CMD/(CTRL)+Clicking on the thumbnail from the Channels panel.
Whenever you have an image with clear contrast between your subject and the background the
Channels will provide the best and cleanest selection.
They’re especially great when selecting hair or fur, but only if the background is
clean.
Color Range from the Select menu is a handy tool that can be used to make quick selections
based on the tones of an image.
It’s particularly useful to select highlights or shadows, or if you need to select areas
of a specific colour from your image.
Go to Select > Color Range to open the Color Range options.
You can now choose from Sampled Color (your current foreground colour selection), or pick
from Highlights, Midtones or Shadows if you only need to select bright or dark areas of
an image.
Masks are the ultimate non-destructive editing tools.
Rather than permanently erasing your image, they hide the unwanted portions just in case
you want to edit the selection later.
Draw your masks manually, or use them with any of the previously mentioned selection
techniques to temporarily delete portions of your images.
Layer Masks
Layer Masks are applied to a single layer by selecting the Add Layer Mask icon at the
bottom of the Layers panel.
Whatever areas of the mask are black are the portions of that layer that are hidden.
We talked about Layer Masks being a better alternative to the Eraser tool earlier.
To use this technique with a mask, you would use the brush tool in place of the Eraser
and paint those unwanted areas away with a black brush.
The key difference is if you make a mistake, you can rectify it by painting back over the
area in white.
Clipping Masks are similar to Layer Masks, except that can be applied to multiple layers.
They still work on the same principle of black areas are hidden; white areas are visible.
ALT+Click between two layers in the Layers panel, or right click on your chosen layer
and select Make Clipping Mask from the menu.
Remember to place the clipping mask under your main image in the layer stack.
Now you have a full arsenal of selection techniques you’re ready to tackle any kind of image
your projects throw at you, but I've got a few more selection tips that can really help
achieve the perfect result.
The Channels technique is perfect for cutting out model shots against perfect studio backgrounds,
but for every other scenario the Refine Edge tool is your best option.
This tool should really be named “The Hair Tool” as that’s really all I’ve seen
it used for.
It takes your basic Magic Wand, Pen or Lasso selection and expands it to intelligently
capture those fine details.
Trace a path around the subject, but just roughly outline any areas of hair or fur,
not worrying about fine strands.
Go to Select > Refine Edge and increase the Radius value to see the hair magically appear
in the selection.
Expand the brush options and paint over the areas of hair you want to keep with the Refine
Radius tool.
Switch over to the Erase Refinements tool and paint around any areas where this refine
edge adjustment isn’t required.
The final selection will hopefully make a good hair selection even against the most
detailed of backgrounds, as long as there’s enough contrast.
Sometimes when you paste your cut out onto a darker background, you’ll notice it has
a very fine light outline or halo.
There’s a super easy way to eliminate this using the Defringe option.
Go to Layer > Matting > Defringe and enter 1px in the options.
With just one click of a button that ugly outline will be gone.
Be careful through, this can ruin your cutouts with extremely fine details.
The tonal selection method that uses the Channels can generate perfect selections if the contrast
and tone of the image is right.
Levels and Curves adjust the whole image, but you can fine tune specific areas with
the Dodge & Burn tools.
Use the Dodge tool to brighten areas of the background such as the sky.
A blue sky will appear mid-grey in a channels selection, but you can brighten it up to add
more contrast between it and your main subject.
The Burn tool can help darken areas within a selection that might be too delicate to
paint with a pure black brush.
Change the mode to Shadows, Midtones or Highlights to safely target the right area.
Sometimes it’s just impossible to make a clean selection of a person’s hair from
an extremely busy background.
In those situations there’s one final tip that can save the day – Paint them some
new hair!
Make a rough selection around the subject’s hair line and paste the cut out on a new layer.
Reduce the opacity of the original image below it in the Layers panel.
Use the Smudge tool with a fine brush to paint back in the individual hairs.
Begin with a 3-4px soft brush to flesh out the thick base, then incrementally reduce
the brush to paint in finer stray hairs.
This sounds like an extremely tedious process, but it doesn’t take too long, especially
if you have a Graphics tablet.
I don’t have much experience with Photoshop plugins so I can’t make any personal recommendations,
but I know there’s a range of selection based plugins out there for Photoshop.
Fluid Mask is a popular choice that has features designed specifically for selecting complex
hair, trees, glass and translucent fabrics.
If you find yourself spending countless hours cutting out images, you might find a little
extra help from a plugin can speed up your workflow and improve your results.
So I hope you found this guide useful.
If you learnt anything new a thumbs up on YouTube or a share with your friends on Twitter
or Facebook would be a massive help to spread the word.
If you want to put your new tricks into practice you can find a bunch of tutorials on my YouTube
channel and my website at http://Spoon.Graphics.
So thank you very much for watching and I'll catch you later.