Cut out hair and objects precisely

Step 1: make a rough selection

The selection does not need to be perfect around hair; Select and Mask will refine it. It should be solid inside the subject.

• Select ▸ Subject selects the main subject automatically. It works best with people and with objects that stand out from the background.
• Quick Selection (press W, which switches between the Magic Wand and Quick Selection) grows the selection as you paint and stops at edges. Shift+drag adds, Alt+drag subtracts, and [ and ] change the brush size.
• For hard-edged products with straight sides, the Magnetic Lasso or the Polygon Select (both under L) follow the outline point by point.

Step 2: refine hair in Select and Mask

1. With the selection active, open Select ▸ Select and Mask… (Ctrl+Alt+R). The workspace fills the window with its own view, tools and settings.
2. Choose a View that contrasts with the hair: On Black (A) for light hair, On White (T) for dark hair, or Overlay (V). Show Edge (J) displays only the area being refined.
3. Under Edge Detection, raise Radius until the band covers the flyaway hair, and turn on Smart Radius so that hard edges, such as shoulders, stay crisp.
4. Pick the Refine Edge Brush (R) and paint over areas the band missed, like loose strands or fur. Alt paints in subtract mode.
5. Use the Brush (B) to add or remove solid parts of the selection, for example a gap between an arm and the body.
6. If the old background tints the edges, turn on Decontaminate Colors under Output Settings and adjust Amount.
7. Set Output To and click OK.

Choose the right output

Decontaminate Colors changes pixels, so with it on only the new layer and new document outputs are available.

• Layer Mask: hides the background on the current layer without deleting anything. Click the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel and paint with black or white to adjust it later.
• New Layer: a cut-out copy of the subject on a new transparent layer above the original, which is hidden.
• New Layer with Layer Mask: a full copy with the refined mask, the most flexible option.
• New Document: the cutout in its own document, ready to export as PNG.
• Selection: just the refined selection, to keep working with other tools.

Tips for difficult edges

• Global Refinements smooth the outline (Smooth), soften it (Feather), sharpen it (Contrast) and move it in or out (Shift Edge). Use small values; they act on the whole edge.
• Show Original (P) toggles the unrefined selection, to see what changed.
• Hold Space or press H to pan, Z to zoom, and Ctrl+Z undoes strokes inside the workspace.
• Turn on Sample All Layers when the subject is spread over several layers.