Editing out frizzy/flyaway hair?

[Queenie]

Hi all,

I was hoping someone could advise me or send me a link to a tutorial on editing out flyaway hairs from photos? As an example of the problems I have, here's a pic DH took of me at the weekend:

Is there any way to smooth that down so I don't look like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards??? It's rather worrying considering I'd brushed it through less than 15 minutes before that was taken as I knew I'd be photographed. Several of my wedding pics look like that too.

I'm using Paint Shop Pro 8 but any advice/tutorials will be useful as I do have a copy of Photoshop in storage that I can install at some point, I just prefer PSP at the moment.

 

[MICKEY88]

with a solid background that should be fairly simple with your cloning tool

 

[zackiedawg]

Clone tool is definitely the easiest way. PSP has everything PS does, just in different layouts. I use PSP8 myself...so you should have no problem. Select the clone tool. Enlarge the photo at least to 100%, or even larger at 200% - best to do cloning in small brush sizes and closeup detail. You'll probably want to set the clone tool brush size to something small, like 5 or 10. Opacity should be 100%. Then, you'll want to find a section of background fairly close to the hair, and right-click your mouse on that spot. That will be where the brush is cloning FROM. Then, move over the hairs you want to remove, hold down the left-click button on the mouse, and start brushing over the hair. You'll essentially be copying part of the background from where you right-clicked over the section you are left-clicking. Make sure you watch where the cloning source crosshairs move to - you may stray off into a different color or part of the hair, and start cloning that instead. You can at any time re-right-click anywhere in the photo to choose a new cloning source.

That's it!

 

[MICKEY88]

on second thought I have to disagree with my initial reply,

with this picture there is a much easier way, since it has a solid background, you can use the eyedropper to sample the background color, then use a paintbrush to simply paint the whole background, painting over the fly away hairs..

you could also just use the paint brush and make the background a different color if you want

 

[Queenie]

Many thanks guys. This is just one of dozens of pics where my hair (and other peple's too) is doing this and in many cases the background isn't a nice solid colour block. Are there techniques I can use when that is the case?

 

[MICKEY88]

Many thanks guys. This is just one of dozens of pics where my hair (and other peple's too) is doing this and in many cases the background isn't a nice solid colour block. Are there techniques I can use when that is the case?

then it takes very caareful cloning..

althought if younever have fly away hair in your pics they aren't going to be realistic......

 

[GrillMouster]

On this photo the clone tool would help reserve the grain/noise in the background. If you just used the paintbrush tool, the areas that you paint out will stand out because they will lack grain. I notice this a lot when people use gaussian blur to fake shallow depth of field. They blur out the noise in the background, and forget to add grain afterward to match grain/noise in the subject that remains in focus.

By the way, the flyaway hair in the image you posted isn't nearly as disturbing as the lack of focus. Before doing any kind of extensive selective retouching I'd evaluate whether the image is worth the effort. If it's just a snapshot, or if it's poorly exposed, poorly composed, or unintentionally out of focus, I usually won't bother with anything more than a batch exposure/color adjustment.

Something that I find helps tame stray hairs prior to a photo is to run wet hands through the hair immediately prior to the shot. I don't really wet it down; I just spritz my hands with a spray bottle or run them under the tap then shake off the excess. The small remaining moisture is often enough to tame stray hair without making the hair look flat or wet.

 

[Queenie]

The pic above is just my head cropped out of a much larger pic, it's important as I'm sat in a hospital ward (hence the terrible wall colour) holding my 6hr old baby neice. DH doesn't use the camera much, it's mostly mine, and as he couldn't really use flash without disturbing the other mums and new babies so he just did his best.

I'll have a go at cloning my flyaways out. I have a graphics tablet which should hopefully make it a bit easier.

 

[MICKEY88]

On this photo the clone tool would help reserve the grain/noise in the background. If you just used the paintbrush tool, the areas that you paint out will stand out because they will lack grain. .

that's why I suggested painting the whole background, so it is all the same..

 

[GrillMouster]

Queenie, I just noticed the countdown in your signature. You're expecting your own little one. Exciting! Perfect your cloning technique, because if you think stray hairs are a problem now, wait until after the baby arrives!

Right after my son was born I developed a white skunk stripe in my goatee (more accurately a circle beard). We all have our badges of parenthood.

 

[GrillMouster]

that's why I suggested painting the whole background, so it is all the same..

that's why I mentioned adding grain to the background later.

 

[MICKEY88]

that's why I mentioned adding grain to the background later.

you could do that or filter the grain, or leave as is for more seperation