Various ideas for cutting out subject from background?

[Deaf_Guy]

I'm looking for some tips on cutting out the BG.  I know about magic wand, magic selector, pen etc.  For pen there has to be a better easier way.

I even tried making a layer of image and blowing out the levels to easily select the BG but that did not work.

Here is image:

Any tips?  I know there's a ton of videos out there but just like to see and hear what works best for you.  I know too that this is a easy one to do as subject does not have fluffy hair all over the place.  Thanks.

[davescm · Accepted solution]

If you are running CC2018 version 19.1.0, try clicking Select Subject. One press did this (the mask shown in black and white in the Select & Mask Workspace):

Then showing the result:

Dave

[Trevor.Dennis]

davescm  wrote

If you are running CC2018 version 19.1.0, try clicking Select Subject. One press did this (the mask shown in black and white in the Select & Mask Workspace):

Dave

One of the best new features in a very long time, and incredibly clever.  It has several times surprised me with images I felt sure would be too complex for it.  I have taken to hitting the W key and using the button on the Options bar, but I'll be assigning a G-key to it when configuring the new system.

btw davescm​ SFTW5 has slipped to page 4. Do we need to bump it?

[davescm]

It is indeed clever.

I'll give SFTW a bump.

Dave

[Deaf_Guy]

Sorry but what is SFTW?

[davescm]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Deaf+Mike  wrote

Sorry but what is SFTW?

Sorry Mike - we got side tracked. STFW is Something for the weekend - a weekly Photoshop challenge on the forum that we kicked off a few weeks ago. This week's was ideal for pen tool practice. If you want to join in and have a go please do .

Dave

[Deaf_Guy]

OK thank you appreciate it.

One more thing - any other suggestions beside select subject?  It seems like a nice option but just wanted maybe one more older way of doing it (e.g., maybe how you did it before select subject)?

Thanks.

[davescm]

On that particular example I would have just opened Select & Mask then used the quick mask tool. If there had been more hair I might have used refine edge with it.

Not so much for this one, but it is always worth checking the channels panel for the channel with the best contrast as you can often make a mask from a channel, albeit with some additional adjustments applied to increase the contrast.

Dave

[Deaf_Guy]

Thanks for everything appreciate it.