Is Photoshop’s Improved Object Selection Tool Any Good?
Adobe introduced the “Refine Hair” button to Photoshop in 2021, and it has been evolving ever since. In addition, the company has improved the Object Selection tool, which can recognize the subject in your portrait and provide a nearly accurate selection. The tool works surprisingly well for humans, pets, and rugged woolen clothes.
The feature is impressive and should help enable you to mask more images in double quick time. Still, there is a notable space for improvements considering you have to manually refine the edges to make the selection good enough to use. That said, let’s see how you can use the feature and the small additional steps you should take to refine your selection.
How to Use the Object Selection Tool for Refined Hair
Let’s see three different examples with various backgrounds and hair colors so that you can get a fair idea about the tool. You can follow the below-mentioned steps to select your portrait and edit the image as you please, like replacing a background using Photoshop or adding effects limited to your subject.
Import the image in your Photoshop window. Select the Object Selection tool from the left panel and hover above the subject. Now, click once and let Photoshop create the selection. Then, click the Select and Mask button from the top-right corner to refine your selection. Click the Refine Hair button for precise hair outlines.
That’s it. You will have a good-to-go selection of your subject, including fuzzy hair. I recommend using the Refine Hair option more than once until you get the best-automated output possible.
Furthermore, you can use the Refine Edge tool from the left panel to improve your selection. Save your output as a selection or mask (whichever serves your needs the best) from the options provided in the bottom-right corner.
How to Improve the Results From Photoshop’s Hair Preservation Feature
Here are some insights for you to use the Object Selection tool for the best hair selection.
The first image shows a girl with brown hair sitting on a beach. The tool hasn’t picked the hair similar to the sand color. In such cases, you should use the Refine Hair multiple times and use the Refine Edge brush to manually select the missing hair. Still, there is a high chance that the AI tools can differentiate between similar colors.
Alternatively, you can replace the background with a rough selection and then select your subject again for better results.
The second image shows a girl with golden curls on a white background. I was happy with the initial results and still used the Refine Edge tool to make the selection precise. Honestly, the output was better than I expected after spending only two minutes on the portrait.
It means the hair selection won’t work correctly if your subject’s hair color and background share similar shades. It would be best to keep the background in contrast while clicking the picture. Or use a similar background if you want to place the subject in a new environment. However, the selection is good enough if you want to transform your portrait photos using Photoshop.
The third image shows a white sheep on a brown background. I used the Object Selection and Refine Hair once to get the stunning results shown below.
Photoshop picked out the solid curls perfectly in the first attempt and provided the best result. It shows if your hair is frizzy and cluttered, you might have to work on it manually. Otherwise, the AI-generated selection is perfect, saving you a ton of work and time.
Photoshop’s Object Selection Is Getting Better
Photoshop 23.4.1 has improved the Object Selection tool beyond our expectations. The feature can now select hair perfectly. However, there is still considerable scope for improvement in selecting the single strands that run in every direction.
That said, the tool has minimized the time and effort required for creating minute selections and is worth appreciating.
