Selecting fine hairs

[Fiddlin_Mom]

Hi,

I have a portrait of which I'd like to fool around with different backgrounds. The child has a lot of wispy hairs around her, some of which are backlit, so they stand out fairly well. But they are single hairs, and it looks like a lot of painstaking work to select them. I'm not even sure what tools would be best for this task. I do have MaskPro 2.0 although in honesty, I've never used it. Not even sure if it is supported under Photoshop CS.

Any suggestions?

Thanks much,

Deb

[Mike_Ornellas@adobeforums.com]

<http://www.earthcurves.com/tutorials/hair_tute_intro.htm>

[Peter_Figen@adobeforums.com]

That link seems to be all about digitally rendering hair, not masking.

In my experience, the absolute best masking tool, bugs and all, is Knockout 1.5.1 operating in OS 9. For some reason (I thing just the fact that Corel is in control of KO) Knockout 2.0 sucks, is missing important tools and just plain doesn't work as well.

You may also want to try downloading the MaskPro 3.0 30 day demo and see how that works.

In any event, one of those options will let you select your people, hair and all and plop them into whatever background you want.

[Debby A. Joyce]

Just took a quick look at Extensis' site and they have a tutorial on masking hair. I'll try out 3.0 and see if it's worth an upgrade.

I love it when I ask questions in the right place! Thanks much!

[Mike_Ornellas@adobeforums.com]

Peter, I agree with you.

[Phosphor@adobeforums.com]

Pete Bauer's running a tutorial over at PlanetPhotoshop.com now, as well.

[Peter_Figen@adobeforums.com]

Mike,

.... about how Corel could take a great program from Ultimatte and completely ruin it. I mean, has anyone up there (in Canada) actually tried to use v2.0, and if they did and liked what they saw, then you really have to wonder about them... or were you talking about something else?

[Mike_Ornellas@adobeforums.com]

An example of a superior product in the hands of amateur engineers is what I meant.

;o/

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Peter,

That was a very timely endorsement of Knockout 1.5. 1. I have just bought Knockout 1.5 from the PowerOn web site <http://shop.poweron.com/1-800-673-6227/index.asp?CartId=1345-ACCWARE-9218HRUKI77> for just under $10, picked it up myself this afternoon (they just happen to be located in my neck of the woods) in order to save all shipping charges and downloaded the 1.5.1 updater from MacUpdate. It is indeed very good and amazingly easy to use.

Thanks.

[EDIT: I may have bought the last copy, because it now shows up as "back ordered" at PowerOn.]

[Peter_Figen@adobeforums.com]

Mike,

I remember talking to Ultimatte around the time they licenced KO to Corel, and they had no clue to what kind of idiots they were handing there baby off to. It seems like it was going to the highest, or maybe the only bidder.

Ramon,

1.5.1 still seems to have an intermittant conflict with the Wacom drivers, causing your selections to go totally wonky just about the time you've finished. I now use it on a computer with no tablet and it works fine.

The new 2.0 version, inexplicably, is installed as a Photoshop plugin, using Photoshop's ram allotment, but actually functions as a standalone application (after you choose it in the filter menu) with it's own preferences and scratch disc. It's as if those bozos at Corel never actually used the program. The scratch disc feature doesn't actually work and what's worse, is that you can't close Photoshop in order to maximize the amount of ram that KO can use, which was and is the way to use KO 1.5. Corel also seems to have left out the VERY important syringe tool from 2.0, drastically reducing the effectiveness of any selection KO tries to make.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Peter,

Thanks for the cautionary note about the conflict with the tablet drivers. I haven't bought a new tablet yet and I can't use the old ADB Wacom on my new computer. So far I'm very impressed with KO 1.5.1.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Corel also seems to have left out the VERY important syringe tool from
2.0




Yikes! This just sank in. How unbelievaly stupid of them!

[macmanx@adobeforums.com]

Couple questions:

Is Knockout 1.5.1 compatible with OS X (10.3.3)..?

How does KO compare to Mask Pro?

TIA...

[Peter_Figen@adobeforums.com]

Ramon,

When I get a free moment, that might be after April 15, I'm going to call them and try to understand what's going on. It certainly seems like they are in need of some beta testers who actually use the product. I have friends who have called and gotten nowhere.

I hadn't really needed KO for some time, as other means usually are much faster and just as effective, but I had to knock out a cat (the orange cat, Matthew, in the Princeton monitor ad running in PC World) and nothing worked except KO, but when you need it, you REALLY need it.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Macman,

No, KO 1.5.1 is not OS X compatible. That's the whole point of the unhappiness over its successor, 2.0, which is for OS X but lacks features and does not work as well. Read all of Peter's posts again.

[Zeb@adobeforums.com]

Corel also seems to have left out the VERY important syringe tool from
2.0




It's still there in v2.

[macmanx@adobeforums.com]

Read all of Peter's posts again.




Ok, I did just that. This is what he wrote:

In my experience, the absolute best masking tool, bugs and all, is Knockout 1.5.1 operating in OS 9.

This doesn’t tell me (or anyone else) that 1.5 is NOT compatible with OS X. Anyhow, no harm—I kinda suspected as much, just wanted to verify it.