Whats the best way to make a selection with hair?

well with a mouse you can first use the extract tool.

Then the history brush to get some of the hair back that will be lost.

Then small eraser and zoom in alot, and take lots of time.

Alot of work, but if it is important in the end it looks good.

hey folks as patterman suggested try my tut here
http://www.heathrowe.com/tuts/extracttool.asp
believe me works well on those nasty strands and uncontrollable flyaways...

and also check out portions of this one (step 11)
http://www.heathrowe.com/tuts/photomanip.asp

couple of things to note:
1. most of photoshops shortcuts work inside this tool, and i find my best extractions are done zoomed in (Ctrl+ Plus sign) to say 300%..... then use the Space bar shortcut to move as u draw the transformation line

2.since you've zoomed in - use a smaller brush size

3.make sure theres enought contrast between the hair your trying to extract and the immediate background (behind it). otherwise your extract will appear scratchy

4. the key to a nice clean extract is NOT to pain too far outside of the areas in question

hope these tips help
cheers
heathrowe

...I've found yet a way of doin it...

Paint along the edges of the thing you wanna extract.
A thumbrule is not to exceed 1/3 of the tools width inside the object edge, thus parts of it can vanish ;)
Clear edges - small brushsize
Fuzzy edges - big brushsize

Zoom alot, fill the "selection" you've just made.

Click preview in order to get a glanze at what you just did.

If you need to adjust, click "show highlights" and use the erasertool/edge highlighter tool to fix whateva'. Fill and preview again. now uncheck the "show highlights" and "Show fill"...

The final adjustment kinda fixup thingy, U do with the "cleanup tool". Takes away pixels, but also adds pixels if you press alt at the same time.

With "Edge touchup tool" you get sharper edges.

When you're satisfied, click OK.



This is what I do now since goin thru Heath's tut and a few more, and it works wunderful...Takes no time at all, really...;)

Patric.