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Extract a Person Using Pen Tool in Photoshop CS6 | TrickyPhotoshop

Hello guys I am Vaibhav and in this tutorial I am going to show you how to extract a person using Pen Tool in Photoshop CS6. Last time I discussed about Softening of Skin without Loosing Skin Texture which is really a important tutorial for studio and fashion photographers. Few months ago I also wrote a tutorial on extracting a person using Quick Selection Tool. Basically in this tutorial we are also going to do the same thing but the output will be so accurate this time. This method is very much time consuming if you are beginner as compared to the “Extraction using Quick Selection Tool”. Here I am going to use Pen tool and Refine edge box to refine my selection. If you are a beginner and it’s your first time to use Pen tool then you may face some difficulty otherwise this is an easy tutorial.

Stock: http://mariaamanda.deviantart.com/art/Colours-of-Autumn-Stock-356194208

FINAL

final

INITIAL

initial

STEP 1

Open your image in Photoshop. Grab the pen tool from the tool panel or you can press Shift+P again and again until it comes. Now duplicate your layer by pressing Ctrl+J/Cmd+J. Make sure that your mode is “Path“. You can check that from the option bar (top panel). Now the next question is from where should we start to extract a person. The answer is pretty much simple. Start from any point you want. I am going to start off with her neck.

1

STEP 2

Now the only thing that you need to do is to follow the edges. Move your mouse cursor along with her body. If there is a sharp turn then just click at the corner point to create a new anchor point. By creating a new anchor point you will be able to change the direction of your pen tool.

2

STEP 3

Whenever you want to want to trace a curvy line then you just need to follow step 2 but the only extra effort you need to do is to drag the anchor point as per your requirement.

3

STEP 4

Just follow step 2 and step 3 and trace the whole body. The most challenging part is to select her hairs as the structure of hair is pretty much complicated. What I usually do is to leave the stray hairs and I just draw a rough outline across the hairs. You may not not be able to see the line created by pen tool but if you look closely then you’ll be able to find the line created by pen tool.

4

In the above image you might have also noticed that the area between her hand and ribs is still there. So we need to eliminate that area.

STEP 5

Now create a new anchor point and start tracing the edges.

5

Your path should look like this.

6

STEP 6

Do the same with other side also.

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STEP 7

Now go to Windows>Path. Click on Load Path as Selection.

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This will load your path as selection.

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STEP 8

Now go to Select>Refine Edge. I am going to put my

  • Smart Radius: Turned On
  • radius: 5.4 pixels
  • Smooth: 0
  • Feather: 1.7 pixels
  • Contrast: 26%
  • Shift Edge: –16%
  • Output to: New Layer with Layer Mask

Above settings works fine for me but note that these settings varies from images to images and also with the way you used your pen tool. After that Press OK. I have written a whole tutorial on Refine Edge tool which might be helpful to you

10

STEP 9

Your extraction should look like this.

11

And guys we are done here. Thank you for reading this article.

Read my next tutorial where I will be talking about Removing Blemishes in Photoshop.

Thank you for reading this article. Hopefully we’ll meet again in four days.

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