Photoshop 2021 brings us a small but significant improvement to the Select and Mask Task Space with the Refine Hair Button and a new Refine Mode called Object Aware

To set the edge refinement method used by Edge Detection, Refine Hair, and the Refine Edge Brush Tool click on either

Color Aware: Choose this mode for simple or contrasting backgrounds.

Object Aware: Choose this mode for hair or fur on complex backgrounds.

Managing Your Expectations

It is important when using tools like this that you manage your expectations. It is highly unlikely that you will ever get a perfect cutout where hair is concerned, so don’t expect it then you won’t be disappointed. There is a good reason why this tool is not called “The Perfect Extraction Tool”. The alternative was “The Gets it Right Most of the Time Tool but sometimes does not”. That did not have a catchy ring to it.

Many things control the quality of a selection edge. Understand that Photoshop is a computer program and has limitations. One of the strongest tools in its armory is contrast, if there is enough it can select it, if not it will struggle.

One such area is depth of field where one area is in focus and others are not. Photoshop will not produce great results in the “are not” areas due to lack of contrast. So temper your enthusiasm with reality.

This does not mean that you can’t get to near perfection with a few Photoshop skills and a little time but the likelihood is that a one click solution will not give you selection nirvana.

Every new addition to the tool will cut down the time it takes to get a good selection but mostly you will need to bring other tools to bear to get that perfect hair selection.

Examine the images that you want to composite, don’t assume that every combination will work. Look at the tones in the images, if you have dark hair against a dark background then the job will be so tough as to make trying a waste of your time so move onto the next image if you want a quick result.

Really busy backgrounds will not be good for your stress levels, they will leave you with a heck of a clean up job to do.

So let’s have a look at the new additions to Select and Mask and see how it performs

 The Mountain Man

In this example there is an image of a man that I wish to cut out and use in another image.

Step 1-  Make an Initial Selection

You can use any selection tool to create this selection, but by far to quickest is the Select Subject Tool. To access the tool you must have a tone selection tool active.

One click and we have a good selection of the major subject in the image.

Step 2 – Enter The Select and Mask Workspace

Click the Select and Mask Button on the Tool Options Bar.

Select the On Layers view mode from the View modes dropdown so you can see the cutout and the layer underneath it.

The tool produces a pretty good cutout as a starting point. It’s not perfect but we can do more.

There are some light halo pixels around the top of the hair that need some attention.

Step 3 – Select The Refine Mode

The two Refine modes available are Colour Aware, which was available in the previous version which is for simple or contrasting backgrounds and Object Aware which is new and is for hair or fur and  more complex backgrounds.

For this example lets try Colour Aware.

Now click on the Refine Hair Button in the Tool Options Bar.

It does make a slight improvement to the flyaway hair. But there are some of the finer hairs that have lighter halos around them. These are the hairs that Photoshop has problems correctly selecting.

Step 4 – Decontaminate Colours

In the Output Settings section we have a tick box called Decontaminate Colours. If we tick this box Photoshop will examine the light halos and if they differ a lot from the hair colour will colour those pixels the colour of the hair.

This is where the magic happens.

If you find there are areas that need some more work you can still the use the Refine Edge Brush to work on these areas. In this case we did not need to as the Refine Hair tool does more of the work for us.

Step 5 – Output To

Finally we need to output the image back to Photoshop. There are a few options. My favorite is New Layer with Layer Mask.

Click OK and we are returned to Photoshop with a layer complete with a layer mask generated from the selection.

If need be you can work further on refining the selection by painting with black or white on the layer mask.

*Disclaimer – No people were frozen in the making of this tutorial, for Barnsley folk this is T Shirt and Shorts weather.