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This tutorial discusses three methods for selecting hair, and other hard to select objects.

Your selections may be better, but alas, they won't be much easier.

Hair is tough to select, especially the curls and strands that extend over the face and background.

Done poorly, the selection can make the hair look like its encased in a hair net.

To make a better selection, two principles are used:

• Discard image information that's not needed.

• Increase the tonal and color contrast of the hair, relative to the face and background.

The first method uses a Levels adjustment layer to increase the contrast.

Image information can be discarded by changing the Channel box to Red, Green, or Blue.

The second method uses one or two Hue/Saturation adjustment layers.

The saturation of the entire photograph, or one color is varied, to discard picture information.

Then, a Levels adjustment layer may be used to increase the contrast.

Hue/Saturation adjustment layers offer the advantage of being able to select for any one of six colors: red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, and cyan.

The third method simulates the Channel Mixer of Photoshop.

A possible disadvantage of this method is only being able to select red, green, or blue.

A Levels adjustment layer may also be used to increase the contrast.

Try the methods in the order presented, until you get a better selection.

Be sure to check off as you go along.

1) Preserve your original file.

If you haven't already done so, go to Preserve Your Original File.

2) Create a Background copy layer.

If you haven't already done so, go to Create a Background Copy Layer.

Go to File > Duplicate, and make a duplicate of your photograph.

After producing a selection on the duplicate photograph, you can drag the selection to the original photograph.

As mentioned, the first method uses a Levels adjustment layer.