A young monk artist went up to his teacher who was reciting Photoshop keyboard shortcuts under a Himalayan tree and asked him “Teacher, when will I become a master artist like you?” The teacher replied “When you can select all the feathers of a morning sparrow without missing a single one, only then will you be a true Photoshop master.” (source)
Ok, that story didn’t actually happen ???? but we all know how difficult it is to cut complex objects like hair, fur and feathers in Photoshop. To make life easier for designers, Nathaniel Dodson (Nate) from Tutvid has come up with an excellent tutorial that offers tips, tricks and suggestions. Check it out below.
00:35 – Start every selection with Quick Selection
03:35 – Use Select and Mask to cut out hair
07:14 – bonus tip: Getting back to the older Refine Edge feature
08:58 – Poly Lasso tool + tips and tricks for straight selections
12:42 – The mighty Pen Tool
16:54 – Using a channel to create a complex selection
22:54 – Calculations for complex selections w/ lots of straight lines
26:19 – Color Range to create selections based on color or tone
29:09 – Quick Mask tools to paint selections FAST
31:13 – What do I do once I have a selection?
32:26 – Defringe your selections and objects for amazing edges
Some more good tutorials on the same
1. How To Cut Anything Out in Photoshop: Chris Spooner of Spoon Graphics showcases some cool Photoshop techniques you can use to cut hair, fur and other complex objects.
2. How to Cut Out Hair in Photoshop: Here’s another one from Phlearn that deals with hair specifically.
3. How to Remove Unwanted Objects from a Photo in Photoshop: A handy tutorial that shows how to remove unwanted objects using the clone stamp tool and more.
Hope these come in handy. Share this post with a designer friend and voice your views in the comments below.