3 Must-Know Tricks for Photos with Perfect Cutouts (VIDEO)
Precision cutouts of difficult subjects can be a time-consuming challenge depending on the approach you take, and there are several methods for handling this common process. The good news is that this straightforward video reveals three foolproof secrets for simplifying the task and achieving exceptional results.
Instructor Brenden Williams is a professional retoucher whose YouTube channel and website are dedicated to helping others unlock their creativity with practical tips for improving the image-editing workflow in Lightroom and Photoshop. Today’s episode is quite comprehensive, so we suggest being prepared to take a few notes for future reference.
Williams’ trio of techniques for refining cutouts are each tailored to different scenarios, providing you with the flexibility to choose the most appropriate approach depending on the style and complexity of the photo at hand. As he says, “mastering these tricks can dramatically speed up your workflow and instantly improve the quality of Photoshop extractions.”
Before you can benefit from these straightforward tricks it’s necessary to have a firm understanding of Channels—a selection technique when a photo includes complex edges like trees and portraits with flyaway hair. Williams provides a quick overview of the concept and then moves on to demonstrating his three cutout tricks.
The first method uses Select Subject in combination with Select and Mask, and Williams explains that “this works best on clean portraits with clear contrast from the background.” As you’ll see, it’s perfect for quick isolation and edge refinement.
Approach number two leverages the power of Color Range selections, enabling you to target and remove backgrounds based upon color similarity. This one is particularly useful when a subject is surrounded by solid or uniform tones like landscape scenes with a wall of foliage in the distance.
The lesson concludes with an easy Channels technique that involves picking the channel with the most contrast, applying Levels to boost separation, and manually refining the selection with a brush for clean cutouts of hair or translucent details. Once you’re done watching be sure to update your everyday Photoshop workflow accordingly.
We also recommend taking a look at the earlier tutorial we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates a four-step color-grading workflow for creating landscape and nature photographs with perfectly balanced tones.
