Photoshop question

[Ballatician]

Hello hello

I am a complete newbie at using PS so let me just put that out there.

So I have a picture of a man wearing a black fedora and with a mostly dark brown/auburn/black beard. What I'd like to do is use only his head and little bit of neck and have a dark background. The beard and fedora are both pretty dark so it would be cool to have them blend into the dark background so it gives the appearance of a floating head. I've seen this done before but after googling for more than a week, I still have no idea how to do this. Any pointers? Right forum?

I cannot post the image. I thank you in advance for pointing me to any tutorials or for your tips on how to do this!

 

[Ballatician]

Cmon AT SfW, I wouldn't want this to get answered in the All Things Apple thread 😉

 

[slatr]

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/blending-advanced-photoshop-technique-4744

and google using masks in ps.

 

[jhansman]

You didn't note which version you have, but Adobe TV has lots of video tutorials on PS basics. Here's one on masking:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/the-russell-brown-show/masking-basics-in-photoshop-cs5/

 

[Ballatician]

Thanks I'll look at those soon. Here is an example of the type of picture I was talking about.

https://500px.com/photo/3655355?from=popular

 

[Ballatician]

bumpity

 

[LongTimePCUser]

bumpity

Why Bumpity?
The Adobe TV Link shows you exactly how to do it in Photoshop CS5.

Which version of Photoshop are you using?

If you are using Elements 9 or 10 you need a different recipe. Elements does not have the Masking Panel shown in the video.

 

[rivan]

• Put target image on a layer (double click the "Background" layer)
• Create background color (black or whatever) layer behind target image
• Add an image mask to target image
• Paint mask black to cover up, white to expose; gray level controls each pixel's opacity.... black = 0% opaque/totally clear