Photoshop Compositing Secrets - Matt Kloskowski [47]
STEP THREE:
We’ll use the Quick Selection tool (W) to start our selection. This one took a little finessing, though, so make sure you zoom in and get all of the edges with a smaller Quick Selection brush—especially, around the microphone area. The Quick Selection tool is probably going to select too much, so you’ll have to zoom in even more, press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key, and paint to subtract from the selection, refining it a little more in that background area near his shoulder, microphone hand, and face.
STEP FOUR:
Once the overall selection is looking good, press the Refine Edge button in the Options Bar, and in the Refine Edge dialog, set the Radius to 10. The selection will look a lot better now and, honestly, there’s not much more we can do here. The Smart Radius checkbox won’t help here, since we don’t have many rough edges or wispy hair. And the Refine Radius tool won’t help much either, because there are not really any areas that haven’t been selected. So, from the Output To pop-up menu, choose Layer Mask and click OK.
STEP FIVE:
Now you’ve got the selection on a layer mask and you’re ready to tweak the edges a little. First, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a new blank layer below the singer. Then, go to Edit>Fill, choose Black from the Use pop-up menu, and click OK to fill the new layer with black. I think black contrasts strongly with the singer and gives us a good way to see if any of the edges need refining.
STEP SIX:
Zoom in and check the edges of the singer. I won’t lie to you here (well, I guess I wouldn’t lie to you in any of the tutorials actually, but especially this one). This image requires a little more manual refining than we’ve had to do in the past, mainly because Photoshop is getting confused between the tones and colors of his tattoos and the overall background itself. So, when you zoom in on some of the edges, you’ll see what I mean. Here’s an example of where the edges aren’t all selected. At first glance, it looks like they are, but we’re definitely missing some detail. Also, keep in mind that your selection is always going to be a little different than mine, so the places I see problems may not be the exact spots that you see them in.
STEP SEVEN:
We’ll fix the edges just as we have in the past. Click once on the singer layer’s layer mask to target it. Then, select the Brush tool from the Toolbox (or press the B key), set the blend Mode in the Options Bar to Overlay, and then press X to set your Foreground color to white. When you see an edge where the skin seems to be missing some detail, use a small, soft-edged brush to paint it back in. Remember, because we’re painting on the layer mask in Overlay mode, you don’t have to worry about painting outside of the edge of the skin. Brushing in this mode sees the existing hard edges and keeps them intact. Work your way around the edges of the singer and continue to paint on the mask in Overlay mode. Again, this photo took a little more work than some of the others, so be patient and get all of the missing areas. When you’re done, go to File>Save and save it as a PSD file, so we can still use the Smart Object and layer mask later.
STEP EIGHT:
Next, open the photos of the arms. The only lighting difference with these photos is that I turned off the main light (the beauty dish), and just used the two strip lights on the sides to give the arms some depth and contours. Oh, and yes, I felt silly asking random people around the office to come in and hold up their hands. I got a few weird looks when I told them what I was doing, but it was just their arms after all, so everyone had fun with it.
STEP NINE:
On the first arm photo, use the Quick