Comments to highpass-masking

From Sarah (2008-08-06 04:10:46)

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:10:46 +0200

can someone help??? i get to the first 2 steps and when i do the color invert it goes greenish blue?

From Poganka (2008-07-24 07:25:02)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:25:02 +0200

Great tutorial, thank you! To achieve desirable results I had to play with contrast of the BW layer. Actually, ended with maximum. Then I used (gaussian) Blur. Working with four layers I could see the result right away. Thanks again!

From doubled (2008-07-10 21:34:27)

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:34:27 +0200

something like this is VERY case sensitive. I think you really need to have a good understanding for the entire program toget good results. Yes, some images are easy to extract, yes some tutorials work for some other images, but you need to have multiple methods. I have one method I use for every image but it uses a combination of different masking techniques and explaining it would be near impossible, theres just to many steps. What you can look into is Highpass, selective color, desaturation, the pen tool with vector masks/clipping masks, threshold, brightness/contrast, curves, laso tool and color channels. for EVERY image i try to extract I use a combination of all of the mentioned above. Some used more then others in different cases, but all of them will be used. Thats how you get a perfect extraction. different parts of the image call for different things. read up on all of them and try to understand them. it will help yoy extract images and understand photoshop a lot more.

From devvv (2008-05-26 17:03:17)

Mon, 26 May 2008 17:03:17 +0200

yes, i know. this is another efficient way to do this - and a more common way. you should however know all ways to do such things to combine them. not all photos are the same

From Alex Railean (2008-05-26 16:55:29)

Mon, 26 May 2008 16:55:29 +0200

I found it, there you go: http://www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/SimulatedDOF/ This is how you obtain the mask. And this is how you use it to remove the background: http://www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/ReplaceBackground/

From Alex Railean (2008-05-26 16:49:33)

Mon, 26 May 2008 16:49:33 +0200

Interesting, but it is not the most efficient way; there is a similar tutorial that explains how to do this by splitting the image to its individual channels and then ehnancing the contrast on the layer where the shapes are distinct (usually one channel has better contrast). By the time you do that, nothing but the object itself is seen - so you get your mask "for free", with no manual actions. Unfortunately I can't find that turorial anymore.

From Greg (2008-05-24 02:38:46)

Sat, 24 May 2008 02:38:46 +0200

This is a very helpful method for certain types of backgrounds. Some people are complaining, but as a professional designer, I can tell everyone that you HAVE to know several different ways to do this. Hair is one of the more complex things to extract from a background. Great tut, another weapon for the arsenal.

From mulder (2008-02-28 17:55:50)

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:55:50 +0100

nice, don't know thats so simply to cut out the background from an complex image

From Rich (2007-12-18 05:41:32)

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:41:32 +0100

This is my second time tring this. and the first time it looked really bad, but I must say if you follow step by step it does really work very well. Thanks

From ei! (2007-12-03 07:25:37)

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:25:37 +0100

the tutorial is awesome, but not applicable to all photos... specially those with complicated backgrounds... but its helpful anyway!!>.<

From meh (2007-11-15 15:58:25)

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:58:25 +0100

Only useful where the background is neutral enough to select with the magic wand.

From Litchi (2007-11-10 14:46:27)

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:46:27 +0100

I think this tutorial is great ! I used it to extract a girl with a lot of hair falling before the background and the result is very satifying. It might work only on simple backgrounds, but it is nevertheless a useful manipulation. Thanks !

From devvv (2007-10-25 10:38:02)

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:38:02 +0200

of course this works best with backgrounds like mine. but nevertheless, this is a common technique in image manipulation, you should know it, its really helpful in some specific situations. of course you may combine some techniques together to get best results. however, this is not the typical tuitorial for most of you guys. you're better with manual doing with the bezier/paths-tool.

From M.rSnow (2007-10-18 18:51:40)

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:51:40 +0200

Extremely awfull results whit strong backgrounds. extremely meany better ways of doing it. The tool u get when u press [I] is better.(I dont know the name)

From SasQ (2007-10-15 13:49:43)

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:49:43 +0200

I have some questions about this technique: 1. Which one is better: more blur or less? 2. What if there are light background fragments left on hair? [on thin hair lines, especially on their ends]. 3. What to do if the background contains hard edges? This technique amplifies them too.

From Gimp Fan (2007-09-28 04:04:43)

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:04:43 +0200

Awsome! It worked great following your instructions step by step! Thanks!

From Anonymous (2007-09-25 15:46:52)

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:46:52 +0200

Awful, simply awful results. Only good for an image with an incredibly neutral background.

From anon (2007-09-23 11:30:21)

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:30:21 +0200

rubbish. left me with a total mess. do you honestly thing painting over something will give you good results?

From Kushal Abrol (2007-09-19 10:00:47)

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:00:47 +0200

One of the most useful tutorials ever seen

From tyewonk (2007-09-15 21:45:01)

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:45:01 +0200

I couldn't finish because Add Alpha Channel was grayed out. My image is set to RGB.