How to Mask Hair in Photoshop

Photoshop's Quick Mask lets you select hair.

Adobe Photoshop is frequently used by professionals and amateurs both to alter and to repair photos or other images. It has a wide range of tools that can be used for this purpose, but it also has a number of tools that allow you to protect sections of the image from changes you make. Perhaps the most versatile of these is the "Quick Mask" function. Used in conjunction with Photoshop's other tools, the Quick Mask allows the user to carefully select certain sections that they don't want to make changes to or, used differently, select an area they do want to alter. One of the primary uses for this tool is to mask hair, which is otherwise one of the most difficult selections to perform.

Instructions

1. Load the image that you want to work with onto your computer.

2. Open Photoshop. Select "File," and click "Open." In the dialog that pops up, browse to the image you loaded and open it.

3. Click on the "Quick Mask" icon located at the bottom of the toolbar (just under the colors). Now select the "Brush" tool. Adjust the brush size to medium to start with.

4. Start painting over the hair. The "paint" will be a transparent red representing the mask. Adjust the size of the brush as you work to get all of the smaller strands. When you are done, click the "Quick Mask" icon again. The area you did not paint has been selected and can be edited without affecting the hair.

5. Edit the masked hair by selecting "Select" from the menu and clicking "Inverse." The hair is now selected, and the rest of the image is deselected.

References

• ilike2Photoshop: Using Quick Mask