How do I make a hard edge (hair) look more natural?

[onlooker]

<p>I am giving my niece who's getting married one of the few photos that exist of her and her boyfriend when they first met. The problem was that the background was very ugly, so I made it solid. The photo looks great, except the left side of her long wispy hair looks like it was cut and pasted -- the edge is too hard. I tried blurring the edge, but that didn't really do the job. Any suggestions?<br>

Thanks. </p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Within the past couple of weeks a similar question came up either on this forum or the beginner forum. Michael Chang posted a link to a tutorial, possibly a video, that shows some tips for dealing with hair in this sort of editing. Dig around the threads from the past couple of weeks and you may be able to find it.</p>

[pge]

<p>How did you remove her from the background? Did you use a mask or just cut her out? There are some fairly advanced methods for creating masks of hair. I learned by watching a set of videos on Lynda.com. I would say that your issue is likely the original mask and the way to have a more natural look is to do the mask better. <br>

If you did use a mask, feather that bit of the mask a pixel or two rather than blur the hair.</p>

 

[Bill C]

<p>You might try a different sort of background, something where the colors and brightness are closer to the original scene.</p>

<p>I've done quite a lot of investigation into "green screen" systems, which essentially do the same thing as you are, but on a more automated basis. One large problem is that hair tends to show what's behind it - either by being partly translucent or by reflections. So if you try to change the background too much, it often has a "fake" look. And our eyes are really good at noticing subtle little clues that reveal the fake, resulting in the "cut and pasted" look as you say.</p>

<p>It could be issues with your masking techniques, but if you don't get anywhere with this, try changing the background.</p>

[Kent Shafer]

<p>You might want to have a look at <a href="http://www.topazlabs.com/remask/">Topaz Remask</a>.</p>

[raczoliver]

<p>I think Lex may be referring to my question from around a month ago:<br /><br /><a href="/digital-darkroom-forum/00c0Ro">http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00c0Ro</a></p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>That's the one, Oliver, thanks for the reminder and link.</p>

[steve_bingham]

<p>I hope you have the original! Masking is necessary but you will need the original. PS CS6 requires a GREAT deal of skill and practice. Something like Topaz Remask or Vertus Fluid Mask will make the job a LOT easier. I prefer Vertus Fluid Mask. Here is a quick tutorial I made years ago. <a href="http://dustylens.com/masking_tutorial.htm">http://dustylens.com/masking_tutorial.htm</a></p>