I have tried every trick in the book without succeeding to remove the ugly white halo around the hair in this portrait I am beginning to despair. The worst of it is that I once saw a guy who had a way with the smudge tool… But I cannot for the life of me remember how. I am really from another forum at here at Renderosity but I have to ask, can it be done?

I found this, which I think has something to do with it, but I don't understand it.

http://www.persimmongrove.org/IFFSnoop/IFFSNew1.html

 

I'm sure everyone has different ideas on this. Since the color you are trying to get rid of is white you can use the magic wand tool with contiguous unchecked at top. Click on the white edge. It will select all white areas throughout the image. You can then use the quick mask to erase the selection of white that will happen with mostly on collar. Go back to normal mode when happy with selection and hit delete key.

"The magic wand"

If I isolate the head I can do that and its get a LITTLE better but nowway near what I think is possible with the smudeg-tool-method in the above link, if I only can find out how to use it!

Attached Link: http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=4

their forum rules allow me to post links to items, if somebody asks. I thought I had mask pro installed, but apparently not.  maybe somebody else can mask the image using it.  I daresay several of the pros use this all the time.

Corel Knockout2 is another masking program that I have. Can you post the original image? With the Halo it would be pretty hard to do.

I downloaded a demo version of Mask Pro 4 and as you can see, it did the job.

I still like to know what the guy at
http://www.persimmongrove.org/IFFSnoop/IFFSNew1.html

meant though. So if anybody could demystify it it would be greatly apprishiated!

The orginal file is here,

http://www.filedropper.com/pc180029
 

 

yeah, it was knockout that I had.  it was o.k., but
I hadda uninstall it for some reason.  maybe the selection process was brain-dead
or something.  like having to do two lasso selections; one inside the feather edge and
one outside the feather edge. it'd be worth buying maskpro just to avoid that IMVHO.

the persimmon guy is referring to some novice 3d users' problems with poser and other
apps that produce a 3d render with a z-buffer (mask, alpha channel).  if they do it right
there's no problem, but if they use the wrong render settings, they'll get an halo of
the same colour as the render background/backdrop. 

re: the persimmon guy at
http://www.persimmongrove.org/IFFSnoop/IFFSNew1.html

Thank you Nancy, for your time!  But if you go to the end of his tutorial you see that the manual jobb of deleting the Halo is done by the smudging tool, INSIDE the model. Somehow he has arranged so he can edit the mask by EXPANDING it,  while seeing the result.

It seem to me that that techique would be useful, not only for getting rid of halos, but many other things as well.

This is the best I could do.

These are the steps I took in my method;

Import image to Photoshop. In the layer palette add a plain black background so that the imported image layer is just above it. Selecting the image make a copy layer of it placed on top of the original image. In the menu chose Image->Adjustments->Brightness/Contrast and slide contrast to +100. Do this three times. Then again in the menu chose Image->Adjustments->Threshold and click “OK”. You now have reduced the image to black/white. This will be used as a mask to trap light areas around the hair. But we must first get rid of the none-essential areas that we don’t want taken out such as the face, neck and sweater. We do this by using a hard brush to fill those areas with solid black. Once we have all the light areas around the hair we then need to convert the layer to an alpha mask in the channel palette by selecting the Red channel and making a copy of it. Using the magic wand we select the black area behind her shoulder and then using Ctrl+Shift+ click on alpha channel we add the alpha mask to the selection. We invert the selection pressing Ctrl+Shift+I and use this to lift the entire person from the background. This will get most of the highlight from the hair out but leaves some artifact colors. We select a dark color from the subject’s hair and using a small brush we paint over the off-colored artifacts. We then set blur at 25% and using a small brush we finely blur the outskirts around the hair. Finally, we flatten our image.

The ultimate answer. Quest answered the quest. :)

 

What can I say? The last word is said and the question was settled definitely once and for all for all eternity, at last coming to rest after this long serie of process or progress. Totally free and devoid of any ambiguity, uncertainty or obscurity. The quest finally came to its end! I have scored the earth from high to low without finding such a detailed and thorough explanation. Before now that is. Despite that cutting out and replacing object must be the most common task you do in Photoshop.

 

What is wrong with the world is that masters don't take the time or has the patience to show the others who are still on the way to enlightenment.

 

On behalf of all the beginners in the world, I thank you.

 excellent job quest!

thanks for the clear and detailed explanation. i think one of the great things about this forum is the sharing of knowledge. i know we all have different ways of accomplishing the same thing, but there is always someone who can teach us all new tricks!

:)
retrocity

Were you calling Obie Juan Kanobe or Obie Don Quixote ?? If the latter the "You suck at photoshop" series is both informative and fun to watch - I think there are at least six of them.
Here's the first...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_X5uR7VC4M

good conversion btw ... now, about the glare on the glasses frames ...

 

"now, about the glare on the glasses frames"

haha, nay, that would be too easy.  I am a beginner since 4 months, not a COMPLETE idiot. By the way I found out the persimmon guy's method: Make a copy of the black background and paste it in a layer ABOVE. Using the smudge tool set to 65% strength with a 3 to 5px brush, paint in the lower layer.  In the end merge the (untouched) layer down.

This method does not give quite as good finish (as you can see), but as it is a manual method it might come in handy as a complement to Quest's solution.
 

iT seems to have rid the image of some of the Aliasing as well, nice job!!!

Hi, Why so complicated? Here's my solution for the problem. 1. Make a Vektormask for Layer 1 and select it 2. Choose black as your pencil colour and set the pencil to smooth. 3. Draw around your figure with different thickness of your pencil 4. Make a new black layer

With this you get a very smooth edge

Finito

Quote - Hi,
Why so complicated?
Here's my solution for the problem.

1. Make a Vektormask for Layer 1 and select it
2. Choose black as your pencil colour and set the pencil to smooth.
3. Draw around your figure with different thickness of your pencil
4. Make a new black layer

With this you get a very smooth edge

Finito

that method would take you hours when drawing around the hair. in effect, It would be no different from trying to use the lasoo tool to draw around your subject and invert selection to select the background and remove it.

Unless I misunderstood what you're method.