Improving Quick Selections

[jeremy_wakefield]

<p>Hi<br>

<br />I'm in need of some advice about Photoshop. I'm not really all that keen on using Photoshop, and most of my stuff is completed with some simple edits in LR4 and I don't do stuff like this very often.</p>

<p>Using the Quick Selection Took, I'm trying to select a couple of people from a group, both women one of whom has fairly unruly hair! I can just about manage her hair because she happens to be standing in front of some green foliage and once I've made a fair selection I can disguise some of the patchy stuff between her locks with a similar leaf background. I've tried this and it looks fine.</p>

<p>However, the young lady with long blonde hair is proving to be a problem. Using the QS tool, one side of her hair remains semi-transparent and when I try to put her onto the new background it shines through this area.</p>

<p>What I want to know is how to "fill in" this selection using the Brush tool or similar once the QS tool has done the heavy lifting.</p>

<p>Can anyone help?</p>

<p>Thanks so much to anyone who can.</p>

<p>William</p>

<p> </p>

[William Kahn]

<p>It's hard to say what's needed without seeing the photo. Can you post it?</p>

[jeremy_wakefield]

<p>Will try but can't do it now I'm afraid. Once I'm at my desktop tomorrow I will give it a go.</p>

<p>The pic is of a group and she is standing in front of another person when I select the area of her hair, the background is visible through it ( as if the layer opacity was reduced at that point ) if that helps in the meantime. If not I will wait until tomorrow when I can send the picture in question.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>William</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>Unfortunatly William, i dont really need to see the photo to tell you this; its a hard technique, and if you are not at ease with Photoshop.. it will not only be a hard thing to do, but it could be a imposible thing to do. Of course, it all depend of your level of quality, and the result needed.. for most, it work perfectly..<br>

<br />Maybe if you like the result that the qucik selection have done, maybe use a hue saturation adjustment layer + mask and desaturate the green foliage with the bursh.. and by using the stamp tool at some lower opacity you can probably paint over some hairs and make it look more natural...</p>

[jeremy_wakefield]

<p>Hi Patrick.<br>

It is hard for me for sure. The thing is most of the selection was all right and I thought I'd be able to use the brush tool to "paint in" the semi-transparent bit. Is there any way I can do that?<br>

William</p>

[sheldonnalos]

<p>Try using the "Refine Edge" tool. Some quick google searching should locate you some tutorials on Youtube of how to use it properly.</p>

[jeremy_wakefield]

<p>Thanks Sheldon. I know about the refine edge thing. The problem is this patch of semi-transparent selection. I would have thought it should be possible to paint in a more solid selection using the Brush tool but can't figure out how to do it.</p>

<p>William</p>

[digitaldog]

<p>Be aware that ALL auto selection tools use the very important Magic Want settings (Tolerance & sampling) to do their thing so always check that. They also use the sampling size set for the tools there so be sure to set 3x3, 5x5 etc as that sampling will affect what gets selected based on what you clicked on and the sampling. Lower value, less sampling and less auto pixels selected, higher value, the opposite. </p>