Remove background behind the curly hair in Photoshop

This one is a bit longer but still easy to finish. Learn how to remove background from a photo featuring person with a curly hair.

Open a photo with a person who has curly hair.

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Duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl (Command in MacOS) and J at the same time.

Make the original layer invisible (see picture).

Duplicated layer should be still be active (see picture).

Choose the Eraser Tool (E for a keyboard shortcut).

Right-click the document and set an appropriate eraser size for your image (see picture).

Press Enter to confirm the brush settings.

Now delete the area around the person (see picture).

Background should now be checkered (transparent) as mine.

I removed as much as I could and I wasn't being to precise.

You can also keep changing the eraser size like you did in Step 4 for a better result.

Now select the original layer but leave it "invisible" for now.

Create a new layer.

In the menu click Layer, New Fill Layer and choose Solid Color...

Click OK.

Now choose a color you like and click OK.

Select the duplicate layer (see picture).

Choose the Background Eraser Tool.

Hold your mouse on the Eraser Tool until other eraser tools show up as well.

Right-click the document, set an appropriate brush size for your image  and set Hardness to about 82%.

Set spacing to 1%.

In the toolbar above set limits to Discontigious and Tolarence to 50%.

Enable the Protect Foreground Color option as well.

Now click somewhere inside the curls ...

... and drag over the od background to remove it.

Keep doing that carefully and slowly. If you mess up, click Edit in the menu and choose Undo.

Repeat the procedure everywhere where you spot the old background.

You can also try and disable the Protect Background Color at some parts for the better result.

Ok, I did.

Double-click the Color fill layer left thumbnail (see picture).

The top duplicated layer should stay active.

In the color picker window choose a darker color in case you chose the light color and your old background is bright like in my case.

Click OK.

Choose the Burn Tool.

If your old background is in darker color, you might want to choose the Dodge Tool.

In the toolbar above, set Range to Midtones and Exposure to 100% (see picture).

Now carefully click the parts where background is still visible.

As I chose the darker color, the old background pops out a bit more making it easier to spot.

Done!

I chose the background color once more, do you remember how we did that?

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