Can anyone tell me the best way to Select/cut out parts of an image that are very fine? Like the picture for the comp on the 25th (Dandy Shedding)

I'm having lots of trouble with this one as i suspect many others are also.

Hope someone can help

as far as i know the pentool, there are turtorials for this, good luck

Use your scissors!
Pen tool could work but is hard with this photo, so you could go for a mask...
I don't know wich PS you use? CS3 has also some new features for very fast cutting, but is not always useful, depends on the photo!

Good luck!

I have CS3.
But its not easy which ever way i try, may have to change what idea i had and think of something els.

Thanks for the comments guys

Blow on the screen...some of it may go away.

I have not opened this photo in PS yet..so hard to say. By looking..either "Color Select" and a low setting on the slider bar....or maybe one of the colors in the channels tab will seperate it better. No matter which way you do it....the very fine hairs will most likely have to be drawn back in then duped and blurred.

wrong pic dewdude

You got me confused then Dew.

Any ideas Splodge?

I seen that too. Hey its early for me... "Dandy Shedding"...."Window bedding"...it all looks the same thru matted eyes.

I fixed it now.

I've had a play with the levels and layer options to see if it helps, but like you say Dew it seems like i may have to draw the finer bits back it.

Thanks for your reply

The Color select...under the select tab will get rid of the BULK grey around the Dandi'lion. A tip on drawing hair and i guess "floaty flower seeds" once you draw the hairs on a layer..dup the layer and put it under your first layer. Then Blur slightly. This gives it a softer look like real hair while keeping some sharpness.

Channels. Somewhere I posted a link to an ebook that was really good at showing how to use channels to make masks and do selections (especially for fine detail like hair).

I'm swamped today (literally had time to pop in and check the boards) but I'll search for it when I get home. Or you can look for it with Google.

playing with the Color select is the best bet, lots and lots of layers

A few things to keep me goimg for a while.

Thanks guys i'll let you know how i get on later.

Splodge can you please find the link....i need it again. Ooh and i need one from a TONTO forum that was closed...it has inkscape and a lot of other freeware for graphics. I lost everything due to a virus about 2 weeks ago. 4 years worth of PHOTOS..PROGRAMS...FAMILY HISTORY.... Nothing like a complete crash to make you go out and but a external hard drive.

For noobs...FIND THIS LINK AND POST HERE. This book will start you on your long never ending PS journey. Hell if it can make me start taking PS a little more serious it should do wonders for you NORMAL folks.

have you tried using "extract"