Refine edges (3)

To refine the edge more, we have two tools.

The first is “Refine Radius Tool” and the other is “Erase Refinements Tool”.

With the first in the image, we can extend the beam, for example, to see more detail of the hair. The second tool “Erase

Refinements Tool” does just the opposite and erases the excess from the edge.

Select this tool and click and drag in the image.

If you do not know where exactly the hair is in the image, switch to another view, eg “Low visibility” (1), and you can continue drawing on the parts that you wish to disclose (2).

And to further improve our selection, we have one last option.

When we zoom into the image we see that there are “gray” pixels around the hair.

This is because the picture of the girl stood on a white background.

Should this have been on a blue background, they would have had a little blue in it.

We solve this by selecting the “Decontaminate Colors” option and set the degree of purification by the slide lever, or by typing a percentage in the textbox.

When this is selected, Photoshop will change ‘non similar’ color pixels more into ‘similar’ colors.

In the “Output to”, choose “New Layer with Layer Mask”. This is also the default setting when you purify the colors.

You also have the possibility to output to a new document, which will open a new document. This is useful when the young lady still wants to use the other photo.

When we see the girl in the new background, we see that it nearly reached perfection.

For your information:

The option “Output to: New layer with Layer Mask” has a new layer with Layer Mask (1) added to the image.

So you can delete the layer with the girl, by dragging it to the trash icon (2).

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