How to remove forehead hair in photoshop. How to Smooth Hair in Photoshop

I really love portrait photography. When the work is done neatly, it is at least pleasant. However, almost always I encounter a small nuance, which in fact is a constant problem, you guessed it, I'm talking about protruding, sticking out hair that spoils the look of the photo. When it comes to a corporate portrait or fashion photography, such defects are out of the question.

I will show you three techniques that you can use to get rid of stray hair while maintaining a natural look, which, in my opinion, is also very important. Here, as in any other area of ​​portrait retouching, everything depends on taste and need. But if you go too far, you risk ending up with a "hair helmet" that looks extremely unnatural.

Retouching should be done subtly and with high quality, ideally so that the viewer does not guess that they were working on the photo at all. Of course, a lot depends on the original image itself, but everything else depends on post-processing techniques and their correct application. Good makeup and the involvement of a competent stylist can greatly facilitate your work on further retouching. In this lesson we will talk about hair.

Technique 1: Using the Clone Stamp Tool

Clone Stamp (or Clone Stamp in the Russian version of the program) is the most effective tool for solving this problem. Simply take a stamp from a clean background and paint over the area with the unwanted hair. However, if you have already used this tool, then you probably noticed some of its shortcomings.

The problem is that the stamp copies exactly the pattern you selected, pixel by pixel. Using this method may not reflect well on backgrounds with strong texture, different colors, and uneven lighting. But, nevertheless, if the background is evenly lit and there are no sharp color transitions on it, then the stamp does an excellent job.

Even though I used a very small brush size, I repeatedly updated the swatch, took it from the area as close to the hair as possible, and worked with the blend modeLighten (Lightening), The clone stamp still did not cope with the gradient.

You can later use the Clone Stamp to reduce color and brightness issues by using three different Blend Modes:

  • Normal
  • Darken (Blackout)
  • Lighten (Lightening)

In most cases, of course, you will work with Normal mode, but sometimes it can be too precise, especially when it comes to textured backgrounds.

I use the Burnout mode when working with lighter hair set against a dark background. And accordingly, the Lightening mode is suitable for retouching dark hair on a light background. The effect will last until the hair reaches the same brightness and color as the sampled area.

Technique 2: Using the Healing Brush Tool

In fact, Healing Brush Tool (Healing brush) is an improved version of the same stamp. It copies the color, light, and texture of the sampled area and applies that information to the target area. Thanks to some mathematical calculations, this tool is able to combine the data of the sample and the area to which the sample is applied, which gives a very natural result.

The Healing Brush tool is great for removing age spots, pimples, unwanted facial and body hair, and more. It works much better than a stamp as it doesn't make an exact copy, but blends the edges of the swatch very smoothly with the edges of the area you're applying the swatch to.

Use this tool for more complex textures that the Clone Stamp can't handle. You can even use it to correct stamp errors. I prefer the Healing Brush when removing hair from the face or clothing, as it is essential to leave all skin texture and tissue intact.

Again, you can resort to using blend modes to achieve even better results.

But, unfortunately, in certain cases, the advantages of the Healing Brush can also be its disadvantages. Namely, when the target zone is too close to any sharp boundary, for example, on the border of the head and background. You will get a blurry spot that will catch your eye. In this case, using Stamp is more acceptable. Don't forget to adjust the hardness of the brush as well.

In this illustration, you can see what happens when using the Healing Brush near a high contrast border.

Brush settings

You know what tools you can use to get rid of unruly hairs that spoil the look of a photo. We will now discuss some of the settings that I am using. Through experience and experimentation, I have come to the conclusion that they help to achieve the best results.

For maximum control over the retouching process, I use a Wacom tablet, but you can also work with a mouse. If you are going to retouch professionally, get a tablet, their cost starts from $80, and they serve for a long time, for example, mine is already 6 years old.

clone stamp

As a rule, I leave the brush shape unchanged by default, i.e. round, and Opacity (Opacity) leave at 100%. Depending on the situation, I change the Hardness of the brush (Hardness), but I rarely take it beyond 80%. In fact, I use this tool at 0%, 20%, 50%, and 80% hardness, as I have come to the conclusion that it is at these values ​​that my basic needs are covered. It all depends on the specific problem. Working with a tablet, I can change the hardness value by pressing the pen, which is very convenient in my opinion.

As I mentioned earlier, I use different Blend Modes when needed. Given all these settings, you can make the processing process much faster and more efficient.

Healing brush

Many people advise using a soft-edged brush for this tool, I advise the opposite. Always keep the Brush Hardness at 100%. In addition, change the shape of the brush (Roundness) to a narrow ellipse with values ​​​​of about 20 - 30%. I also change the angle of inclination depending on the situation.

With these settings, you'll swatch your Healing Brush more often and apply it more randomly than you would with a soft-edged round brush. Since the tool automatically blends the edges of the swatch into the target area, you don't need a soft brush. The result will be more natural and you will reduce the risk of border blur that I mentioned above.

Finally, make the brush slightly larger than the area you want to remove, especially when the hair is next to a contrasting border.

Technique 3: Surface Blur

This technique does not depend on the two above, but together with them it gives an excellent result. This is a very quick way to get rid of almost all frizzy hair with just one filter and some mask work.

Unlike Gaussian Blur, Surface Blur does not affect areas beyond a certain threshold. Such boundaries for this type of blur are significant changes in color and/or contrast. Thus, this tool will blur the surface of the face, clothes, hair, but not the borders between them.

Blurring the surface is a great way to clean up the transition area from the head to the background, especially if the background is gradient (the Clone Stamp tool does not cope with such a background). This way, the gradient transition will remain intact and sharp edges will be preserved.

Let's walk through this process step by step.

Step 1: Create a New Layer

Drag the layer onto the Create a new layer icon (Cmd+J or Ctrl+J) so as not to affect the previously done retouching. You can convert this layer to a smart object (Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object), which will allow you to further adjust the values.

Step 2: Applying the Surface Blur filter

Go to tab Filter > Blur > Surface Blur to apply the filter. You will see a window with a preview of the effect with the specified settings.

This filter has two sliders, Radius and Threshold(Radius and Threshold). The Radius determines the size of the blurred area, while the Threshold determines which lines to keep sharp and which to blur. If you set the Radius too high, you risk a blurry halo, and if you set the Threshold too high, you can lose definition. You need to choose a value that will make the hairs in the background blurry, but at the same time the border of the head will remain quite clear. These values ​​depend on the original image and are selected by experiment. I usually use 40px for the Radius and 20px for the Threshold.

At the end of this stage, most of the hair sticking out in different directions should disappear.

Step 3: Clean with the Clone Stamp

In most cases, Surface Blur does the job, but it also happens that single hairs remain. In this case, I use the Clone Stamp with a soft brush and no more than 50% hardness.

By sampling the areas that are as close to the hair as possible, I get rid of the errors made by the Surface Blur.

Step 4: Create A Layer Mask

We need to apply the created effect only to the outer part of the hair border. To do this, create a Layer mask (Layer mask) to the blur layer by clicking on the icon. Invert the layer mask from white (visible) to black (invisible) using the keyboard shortcut Cmd+I (Mac) or Ctrl+I (PC), this will hide the effect.

Now, armed with a hard brush (about 80%), reveal the effect by painting with white. Paint only over areas that contain imperfections (i.e. hair). You can neglect the accuracy, as the filter left the border of the head crisp.

Step 5: Add Noise

Generally, Surface Blur will kill all noise (grain). This lack of texture can ruin the effect. To fix this, let's add some noise.

I zoomed the photo up to 330% to show the difference between the retouched and untouched areas. But this difference is noticeable even at 100% magnification.

Make sure you're working with a blur layer and not a mask. Then go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise(Filter> Noise> Add Noise).

In the dialog box that appears, select the items Gaussian(according to Gauss) and Monochrome ( monochrome). Adjust the sliders until the area to apply the filter is identical to the rest of the image. This small correction will perfectly hide the traces of the retouching done by you.

Conclusion

Photo Before

Photo After

When you get a great portrait, the hair that's out of the crowd can be a real problem. Using the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools you can achieve good results, but these methods have some limitations. But in alliance with the Surface Blur technique, you can not only improve the resulting retouching, but also significantly save your time.

With a little practice, you will understand which technique to use for specific portraits.

I really love portrait photography. When the work is done neatly, it is at least pleasant. However, almost always I encounter a small nuance, which in fact is a constant problem, you guessed it, I'm talking about protruding, sticking out hair that spoils the look of the photo. When it comes to a corporate portrait or fashion photography, such defects are out of the question.

I will show you three techniques that you can use to get rid of stray hair while maintaining a natural look, which, in my opinion, is also very important. Here, as in any other area of ​​portrait retouching, everything depends on taste and need. But if you go too far, you risk ending up with a "hair helmet" that looks extremely unnatural.

Retouching should be done subtly and with high quality, ideally so that the viewer does not guess that they were working on the photo at all. Of course, a lot depends on the original image itself, but everything else depends on post-processing techniques and their correct application. Good makeup and the involvement of a competent stylist can greatly facilitate your work on further retouching. In this lesson we will talk about hair.

Technique 1: Using the Clone Stamp Tool

Clone Stamp (or Clone Stamp in the Russian version of the program) is the most effective tool for solving this problem. Simply take a stamp from a clean background and paint over the area with the unwanted hair. However, if you have already used this tool, then you probably noticed some of its shortcomings.

The problem is that the stamp copies exactly the pattern you selected, pixel by pixel. Using this method may not reflect well on backgrounds with strong texture, different colors, and uneven lighting. But, nevertheless, if the background is evenly lit and there are no sharp color transitions on it, then the stamp does an excellent job.

Even though I used a very small brush size, I repeatedly updated the swatch, took it from the area as close to the hair as possible, and worked with the blend modeLighten (Lightening), The clone stamp still did not cope with the gradient.

You can later use the Clone Stamp to reduce color and brightness issues by using three different Blend Modes:

  • Normal
  • Darken (Blackout)
  • Lighten (Lightening)

In most cases, of course, you will work with Normal mode, but sometimes it can be too precise, especially when it comes to textured backgrounds.

I use the Burnout mode when working with lighter hair set against a dark background. And accordingly, the Lightening mode is suitable for retouching dark hair on a light background. The effect will last until the hair reaches the same brightness and color as the sampled area.

Technique 2: Using the Healing Brush Tool

In fact, Healing Brush Tool (Healing brush) is an improved version of the same stamp. It copies the color, light, and texture of the sampled area and applies that information to the target area. Thanks to some mathematical calculations, this tool is able to combine the data of the sample and the area to which the sample is applied, which gives a very natural result.

The Healing Brush tool is great for removing age spots, pimples, unwanted facial and body hair, and more. It works much better than a stamp as it doesn't make an exact copy, but blends the edges of the swatch very smoothly with the edges of the area you're applying the swatch to.

Use this tool for more complex textures that the Clone Stamp can't handle. You can even use it to correct stamp errors. I prefer the Healing Brush when removing hair from the face or clothing, as it is essential to leave all skin texture and tissue intact.

Again, you can resort to using blend modes to achieve even better results.

But, unfortunately, in certain cases, the advantages of the Healing Brush can also be its disadvantages. Namely, when the target zone is too close to any sharp boundary, for example, on the border of the head and background. You will get a blurry spot that will catch your eye. In this case, using Stamp is more acceptable. Don't forget to adjust the hardness of the brush as well.

In this illustration, you can see what happens when using the Healing Brush near a high contrast border.

Brush settings

You know what tools you can use to get rid of unruly hairs that spoil the look of a photo. We will now discuss some of the settings that I am using. Through experience and experimentation, I have come to the conclusion that they help to achieve the best results.

For maximum control over the retouching process, I use a Wacom tablet, but you can also work with a mouse. If you are going to retouch professionally, get a tablet, their cost starts from $80, and they serve for a long time, for example, mine is already 6 years old.

clone stamp

As a rule, I leave the brush shape unchanged by default, i.e. round, and Opacity (Opacity) leave at 100%. Depending on the situation, I change the Hardness of the brush (Hardness), but I rarely take it beyond 80%. In fact, I use this tool at 0%, 20%, 50%, and 80% hardness, as I have come to the conclusion that it is at these values ​​that my basic needs are covered. It all depends on the specific problem. Working with a tablet, I can change the hardness value by pressing the pen, which is very convenient in my opinion.

As I mentioned earlier, I use different Blend Modes when needed. Given all these settings, you can make the processing process much faster and more efficient.

Healing brush

Many people advise using a soft-edged brush for this tool, I advise the opposite. Always keep the Brush Hardness at 100%. In addition, change the shape of the brush (Roundness) to a narrow ellipse with values ​​​​of about 20 - 30%. I also change the angle of inclination depending on the situation.

With these settings, you'll swatch your Healing Brush more often and apply it more randomly than you would with a soft-edged round brush. Since the tool automatically blends the edges of the swatch into the target area, you don't need a soft brush. The result will be more natural and you will reduce the risk of border blur that I mentioned above.

Finally, make the brush slightly larger than the area you want to remove, especially when the hair is next to a contrasting border.

Technique 3: Surface Blur

This technique does not depend on the two above, but together with them it gives an excellent result. This is a very quick way to get rid of almost all frizzy hair with just one filter and some mask work.

Unlike Gaussian Blur, Surface Blur does not affect areas beyond a certain threshold. Such boundaries for this type of blur are significant changes in color and/or contrast. Thus, this tool will blur the surface of the face, clothes, hair, but not the borders between them.

Blurring the surface is a great way to clean up the transition area from the head to the background, especially if the background is gradient (the Clone Stamp tool does not cope with such a background). This way, the gradient transition will remain intact and sharp edges will be preserved.

Let's walk through this process step by step.

Step 1: Create a New Layer

Drag the layer onto the Create a new layer icon (Cmd+J or Ctrl+J) so as not to affect the previously done retouching. You can convert this layer to a smart object (Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object), which will allow you to further adjust the values.

Step 2: Applying the Surface Blur filter

Go to tab Filter > Blur > Surface Blur to apply the filter. You will see a window with a preview of the effect with the specified settings.

This filter has two sliders, Radius and Threshold(Radius and Threshold). The Radius determines the size of the blurred area, while the Threshold determines which lines to keep sharp and which to blur. If you set the Radius too high, you risk a blurry halo, and if you set the Threshold too high, you can lose definition. You need to choose a value that will make the hairs in the background blurry, but at the same time the border of the head will remain quite clear. These values ​​depend on the original image and are selected by experiment. I usually use 40px for the Radius and 20px for the Threshold.

At the end of this stage, most of the hair sticking out in different directions should disappear.

Step 3: Clean with the Clone Stamp

In most cases, Surface Blur does the job, but it also happens that single hairs remain. In this case, I use the Clone Stamp with a soft brush and no more than 50% hardness.

By sampling the areas that are as close to the hair as possible, I get rid of the errors made by the Surface Blur.

Step 4: Create A Layer Mask

We need to apply the created effect only to the outer part of the hair border. To do this, create a Layer mask (Layer mask) to the blur layer by clicking on the icon. Invert the layer mask from white (visible) to black (invisible) using the keyboard shortcut Cmd+I (Mac) or Ctrl+I (PC), this will hide the effect.

Now, armed with a hard brush (about 80%), reveal the effect by painting with white. Paint only over areas that contain imperfections (i.e. hair). You can neglect the accuracy, as the filter left the border of the head crisp.

Step 5: Add Noise

Generally, Surface Blur will kill all noise (grain). This lack of texture can ruin the effect. To fix this, let's add some noise.

I zoomed the photo up to 330% to show the difference between the retouched and untouched areas. But this difference is noticeable even at 100% magnification.

Make sure you're working with a blur layer and not a mask. Then go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise(Filter> Noise> Add Noise).

In the dialog box that appears, select the items Gaussian(according to Gauss) and Monochrome ( monochrome). Adjust the sliders until the area to apply the filter is identical to the rest of the image. This small correction will perfectly hide the traces of the retouching done by you.

Conclusion

Photo Before

Photo After

When you get a great portrait, the hair that's out of the crowd can be a real problem. Using the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools you can achieve good results, but these methods have some limitations. But in alliance with the Surface Blur technique, you can not only improve the resulting retouching, but also significantly save your time.

With a little practice, you will understand which technique to use for specific portraits.

Instruction

Using the Open option in Photoshop's File menu, open the image you want to tidy up. By shifting the slider located in the bottom area of ​​the Navigator palette to the right, zoom in on the area of ​​the photo you are going to work with.

Use Shift+Ctrl+N to paste a retouch layer over the image. Having turned on the Clone Stamp tool, specify a fragment of the photo from which the program will copy the necessary to mask the hair. To do this, click on the appropriate part of the picture, located next to the strand that you want to remove from the face, while holding down the Alt key.

Release the button and click on the hair to be removed. To make the result look neat, use a brush with a small diameter. By turning on the Sample all layers option in the Clone Stamp settings, you will be able to copy the background pixels, working on the layer that lies above it.

Working with Clone Stamp requires patience and a fair amount of time. If you need to quickly remove short dark hairs from skin with a well-defined texture, which is often done when processing male photographs, you can use the Dust & Scratches filter (“Dust and scratches”).

Use Ctrl+J to add a copy of the snapshot to the file. Apply the Dust & Scratches filter to it by turning it on with the option from the Noise group of the Filter menu. Adjust the blur settings so that the hair in the picture is no longer visible.

Using the Add layer mask button from the bottom panel of the layers palette, add a mask to the processed image. With the mask selected, invert it with Ctrl+I. As a result, the blurry layer will completely disappear.

Using the Brush tool, paint the mask white in those places from which you want to remove the hair in the picture. To restore some of the skin texture to the blurry fragments, overlay the top layer on the background in the Lighten mode (“Replacing light”).

Use the Save As option on the File menu to save your edited photo.

Sources:

  • Face retouching with texture preservation
  • how to clear face in photoshop

Often when taking photos, photos come out overexposed, underexposed, blurry, or noisy. Noise is a consequence of insufficient sensitivity of the camera matrix. They are especially noticeable in the dark areas of the image. The degree of noise directly depends on the model and class of the camera and the set matrix sensitivity mode (ISO). The lower the resolution of the matrix and the cheaper it is, the more noise will be expressed on it even at the lowest ISO. Here are some ways to deal with them.

You will need

  • - Adobe Photoshop software

Instruction

The "Dust & Scratches" filter removes some small amount of noise from the photo.

In order to apply the filter, open the photo in Photoshop, go to the menu Filter - Noise (noise) - Dust & Scratches.

Related videos

If you want to make yourself more attractive in a photo, you can adjust the image settings in Photoshop. Consider the two most simple Photoshop tools that allow you to correct color faces On the photo.

You will need

  • Computer, digital photography, photoshop.

Instruction

If you want to have long ones in your photo, you can “build them up” without any problems using Photoshop. Using a simple way to lengthen hair in Photoshop, you can also give the hairstyle the desired volume, as well as change other details of the hairstyle.

Instruction

Select the Lasso Tool (L). Feather set within 9-12 pixels.

Outline the part of the hair you want to lengthen with the Lasso tool.

This will create a new layer icon in the Layers palette.

We will do the same on the other side of the hair, selecting part of the hair and creating a new layer. For a change, you can use the "Edit" / Edit - "Transform" / Transform - "Deformation" / Warp command (or simply select the "Deformation" item instead of "Distortion"). This method allows you to fine-tune the hairstyle settings.

The hairstyle is ready, but in the photo there is a defect in the light halo at the bottom of the hair. This undesirable effect appeared as a result of the transformation, when part of the background was applied to the hair. This defect must be corrected.

Click on the third icon from the left in the Layers palette. A white layer will appear on the top layer. The image itself (photo) will not change.

Select the Brush Tool (B).

In the "Brush" tool menu (at the top of the screen, just below the main menu), set the hardness to zero, and also select the brush size.

Also make sure the foreground color is set to black.

Then you need to circle the light halo with a brush and slightly correct the resulting hairstyle. Now click on the second layer to work in it and do the same on the other side. Your new hairstyle is ready.

Sources:

  • website
  • how do i color my hair in photoshop

The face is always the hallmark of a woman. And if it is decorated with a scratch, then the business card will turn out to be useless. The red stripe is striking, disfiguring your appearance. For a man, this problem may seem trifling. But a woman will spoil her mood for a long time.

Instruction

First of all, carefully clean the wound from possible dirt, wash it with soap and water. Be sure to do this if you do not want a dark pigmented spot to form in place later.

At the pharmacy, buy 3% hydrogen peroxide and disinfect the scratched area. Do not use for disinfection or iodine. Greens and browns on yours will look no better than red scratches. After peroxide treatment, dry scratch and cover it up with concealer or foundation.

In the same pharmacy, ask if there are special products for healing skin lesions. Gels such as "Solcoseryl" or ointments like "Actovegin" will help you. Means accelerate the healing of the wound without scars and crusts.

Take a teaspoon of propolis and pour a quarter cup of alcohol or vodka. Insist for 3 days. Use for healing scratches, processing and. This tool should always be at hand. Make it ahead of time just in case and keep it in the fridge.

All of these remedies are good for treating minor scratches. But if you have received a sufficiently deep damage to the skin, it is better to consult a surgeon. He will decide scratch With faces. Do not delay a visit to a specialist, because after a while the edges of the wound may disperse. And then your face will surely "decorate" the seams.

Well, while the scratch is in place, apply a pure trick. Disguise the nasty red streak with a skillfully done hairstyle. Put the bangs on the forehead or wrap the curl to the cheek. This will help you get rid of prying eyes.

Sources:

  • how to get rid of scratches fast

Spots, which appeared in the picture due to dust on the camera lens, which arose due to the reflection of light from the built-in flash in snowflakes, and for a number of other reasons, can be removed from the photo using the correction tools in Photoshop.

You will need

  • - Photoshop program;
  • - image.

Instruction

Using the Open option of the File menu, open the image in Photoshop. Leave the background image layer locked. This will allow you to have the original image on hand, which will come in handy if the correction at some stage turns out to be excessive.

In order to remove spots from areas of the image that do not have a high degree of detail, the Dust&Scratches filter is suitable. To apply it, add a copy of the image with spots to the document using the Duplicate Layer option of the Layer menu, and open the settings with the Dust&Scratches option of the Noise group of the Filter menu.

Set the Threshold parameter to its minimum value and set the Radius value to its maximum. By decreasing the radius value and gradually increasing the threshold value, achieve the disappearance of spots when the image is not completely blurred. Hide the processed image under the mask by using the Hide All option of the Layer Mask group of the Layer menu.

Use the Dodge Tool in Shadows mode to lighten the mask where the spots are. If the correction of some of the areas does not suit you, darken the mask in this place using the Burn Tool.

If there are areas on the image, with the help of which you can close the spot without damaging the image, use the Patch Tool. To use this tool, copy the original image onto a new layer or, if some of the spots are already covered by an adjustment layer, apply the combination Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E. A layer will appear in the document, consisting of visible fragments of all the layers below.

Turning on the Source option in the tool settings, circle the fragment with the spot. With the left mouse button held down, drag the selection to an area of ​​the image suitable for covering the spot, and release the button.

You can remove stains from image fragments on which you want to preserve the texture using the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools. Use the Create a new layer button from the layers palette to add a transparent layer for the correction results. Turn on the Sample all layers option in the tool settings and, holding down the Alt key, specify the area of ​​the image from which you will copy pixels to cover the spot. Paint over the broken fragment by releasing Alt.

To save the image without spots, use the Save As option of the File menu.

Sources:

  • Healing brush will save you from pigeons
  • how to remove stains in photoshop

Graphic editor Adobe Photoshop provides a variety of tools for professional photo retouching. With it, you can rework the entire composition beyond recognition. For example, change the proportions of the limbs and facial features of a person, repaint his eyes, remove or add hair.

Digital photographs, corrected by means of graphic editors, have not surprised anyone for a long time. The most powerful and multifunctional among all photo programs is, of course, Adobe Photoshop, the development of which is a rather complicated process that takes a lot of time and effort for beginner photoshoppers. Let's take a small step into the world of correction and retouching with the help of Photoshop and its simple tools to help remove excess hair from the face.

Download and install on your PC any version of Adobe Photoshop CS graphics editor. Launch the program by clicking on the "Ps" icon on the desktop. Open the photo you need for retouching using the command in the main menu of the program "File"\u003e "Open" - the picture will appear in the working window of Photoshop. Use the slider on the Navigator palette to enlarge to the required size the area in the photo that you want to put in order - i.e. remove excess hair. Select the command "Window" > "Navigator" in the main menu - this palette will appear in the program window. To remove excess hair in a portrait photo, use the Stamp tool, which will perfectly clone a clean area of ​​\u200b\u200bskin in the desired place. Activate the "Stamp" on the toolbar - it is always located on the left side of the workspace by default. Click the left mouse button while holding "Alt" on a good part of the eyelid - this area will be indicated by a target circle. Then, releasing the keyboard key, but clicking with the mouse, retouch first one hair, and then all the others, remembering to select the area for cloning. Increase or decrease the Stamp tool's brush diameter using curly brackets ( ). Experiment with another good retouching tool called Spot Healing Brush. Select this tool - it is located just above the stamp. Move the circle-brush on a part of the hair and click with the mouse, or select the entire hair with the restoring brush, as if drawing over it, and release the mouse - the hair will disappear. For good photo processing, it is necessary to maximize the correction area using the Navigator palette, and on the contrary, it is better to reduce the diameter of the brush with the button (. If the Stamp and Healing Brush did not help you, you can try your hand with the tool « Patch", which is located in the same place as the "Healing Brush", but a little lower. Outline the unwanted area with the patch, closing the line, and drag the tool, holding it with the left mouse button, to a clean place.

Thanks to the painstaking work of Photoshop and the basic retouching tools, you can remove excess hair not only on the face, but also on any other part of the skin, which always catches the eye in photos with its unkemptness, if such a moment takes place, of course.

Selecting and then cutting out complex objects, such as hair, tree branches, grass and others, is not a trivial task even for experienced Photoshoppers. Each image requires an individual approach, and it is not always possible to perform this procedure with high quality.

Consider one of the common ways to select hair in Photoshop.

It is the hair that is the most difficult object to cut out, as it has many small details. Our task is to preserve them as much as possible, while getting rid of the background.

Reference image for the tutorial:

Working with channels

  1. Go to tab "Channels", which is at the top of the layers panel.

  2. On this tab, we need a green channel to click on. Others will automatically be de-visible and the image will be desaturated.

  3. Create a copy by dragging the channel onto the new layer icon.

    The palette now looks like this:

  4. Next, we need to achieve maximum hair contrast. This will help us "Levels", which can be called by pressing the keyboard shortcut CTRL+L. Working with the sliders under the histogram, we achieve the desired result. Particular attention should be paid to ensuring that as many small hairs as possible remain black.

  5. Click OK and continue. We need a brush.

  6. Turn on channel visibility RGB by clicking on the empty box next to it. Notice how the photo changes.

    Here we need to perform a number of actions. First, remove the red zone in the upper left corner (it is black in the green channel). Secondly, add a red mask in those places where you do not need to remove the image.

  7. Brush in our hands, change the main color to white

    and paint over the area mentioned above.

  8. Change the color to black and go through the places that should be preserved in the final picture. This is the face of the model, clothes.

  9. Next comes a very important step. You need to lower the opacity of the brush to 50% .

    Once (without releasing the mouse button) we paint the entire contour, paying special attention to those areas on which there are small hairs that do not fall into the red area.

  10. Removing visibility from the channel RGB.

  11. Invert the green channel by pressing a keyboard shortcut CTRL+I on keyboard.

  12. We clamp CTRL and click on the copy of the green channel. As a result, we get the following selection:

  13. Turn visibility back on RGB, and turn off the copy.

  14. Let's move on to layers. This completes the work with channels.

Selection Refinement

At this stage, we need to very accurately fit the selected area to draw the hair as clearly as possible.

  1. Select any of the tools with which to create a selection.

  2. Photoshop has a smart feature to refine the edge of a selection. The button to call it is on the top panel of options.

  3. For the convenience of work, we will configure the view "On white".

  4. Then we increase the contrast a little. Will be enough 10 units.

  5. Now check the box next to "Clear Colors" and reduce the impact to 30% . We make sure that the icon indicated in the screenshot is activated.

  6. By changing the size of the tool with square brackets, we process the semi-transparent area around the model, including the outline and all the hair. Do not pay attention to the fact that some areas will become transparent.

  7. In the block "Conclusion" choose "New Layer with Layer Mask" and click OK.

    We get the following result of the function:

Mask refinement

As you can see, transparent areas appeared on our image, which should not be so. For example, this one:

This is eliminated by editing the mask, which we received at the previous stage of processing.


This completes the selection of hair in Photoshop. Using this method, with sufficient perseverance and scrupulousness, you can achieve a very acceptable result.

The method is also great for selecting other complex objects.