Whats the best way to make a selection with hair?

Hair is hard to make a selection without making it look like a cutout, and not very clean. I want a clean selection but it's almost impossible with the magic wand, the mask mode, I even tried select colour range, and I cant get a good selection.

What do you guys do to select hair?

Extract Filter.

It can do a near perfect job. Do some basic reading on it and you should be golden. I've cut out fuzzy animals near flawlessly with it.

The pen tool. Learn it...use it always.

1) magic wand is impossible cause of all the variations in color and light. Also if you do somehow tackle all the variations in the hair (upping the tolerance)... then the small strands of hair that are important wont be selected all that great (usually most of the background will be selected too cause there isnt much variation/color in a strand of hair). Basically you cant win with this tool......not for something this complicated.

2) mask mode is ok. problem is unless your skilled with a tablet...your hand isnt steady enough to paint around all of that (nevermind trying to paint around a 1 or 2 pixel width strand of hair). Also this would take a long time....its not a very productive way to do it.

3) color range is a good option..but again...your not going to get those small strands.

4) you could use masking w/ magic wand (or color range) with channels...but again.....another unproductive way

pen tool.........just draw around...adjust your curves and really your good to go. Trust me. Go learn it!!

Originally posted by Rodder454
The pen tool. Learn it...use it always.

1) magic wand is impossible cause of all the variations in color and light. Also if you do somehow tackle all the variations in the hair (upping the tolerance)... then the small strands of hair that are important wont be selected all that great (usually most of the background will be selected too cause there isnt much variation/color in a strand of hair). Basically you cant win with this tool......not for something this complicated.

2) mask mode is ok. problem is unless your skilled with a tablet...your hand isnt steady enough to paint around all of that (nevermind trying to paint around a 1 or 2 pixel width strand of hair). Also this would take a long time....its not a very productive way to do it.

3) color range is a good option..but again...your not going to get those small strands.

4) you could use masking w/ magic wand (or color range) with channels...but again.....another unproductive way

pen tool.........just draw around...adjust your curves and really your good to go. Trust me. Go learn it!!

Efficiency man, efficiency. Sure he could do that, but he'd be there all week. Extract is there for this exact purpose. Once you know what you are doing (it's not hard), it takes very little time. I'd bet money that a person with some experience with Extract could do a quicker and better job then a person with even the most experience in using the pen tool.

In short, use the right tool for the right job. :D

*never learned to use the extract tool*

.. maybe i should learn it :P

(im with you casual...)

And i do join the two "nonextractors", haven't used it at all, didn't quite know what to do with it, but now I do, and will go learn it ;)

Thanks alot for the suggestions guys, I''l try the extract tool, and if I have trouble I'll use the pen tool. Hopefully I dont find the extract to be too hard, I usually make my selections without this tool, I really never used this tool. I guess now is a good time to start.

where can i find a tut on extracting?

Our man, Heathrow has one, go here