🧑‍🦱 Even Beginners Can Do It: Cut Out a Furry Portrait with the Pen and Smudge Tools

The Pen tool alone can't pull out a fluffy hair edge — the Smudge tool fills in the rest. Trace the main outline with the Pen, copy it to a new layer, then switch to a small brush and draw the flyaway strands one by one. Step five swaps in a new background to check the result. On Online PS, patience matters more than technique.

The original photo: plenty of hair, blended into the background

The finished cutout: clean hair on a replaced background

✅ Step 1: Open the image and trace an outline with the Pen tool

Open PS (or zaixianps.cc) and drag your photo in.
Select the [Pen tool] (shortcut P) and slowly trace a path around the clearly defined edges of the subject.
- Where the hair is very messy and merges into the background, leave it for now! Trace only what you can see clearly.
- For example: the face shape, shoulders and the edges of clothing — the hard contours.

📌 Tip: the path doesn't need to be perfect. Just enclose the "main subject"; the detail comes later.

Tracing a path along the clear edges of the subject with the Pen tool

✅ Step 2: Copy the traced part to a new layer

When the path is done, press Ctrl+Enter to convert it into a selection.
Press Shift+F6 and set the feather radius to 0.2px (this keeps the edge natural rather than hard).
Press Ctrl+J to copy the selected area onto a new layer.
Go back to the original layer and lower its opacity (to 50%, for example) so you can still see the hair outline underneath — handy when you "add hair" later.

Converting the pen path to a selection, copying it to a new layer and lowering the original layer's opacity

✅ Step 3: "Paint" the hair strands by hand with the Smudge tool

This is the main event! 🎉

Select the [Smudge tool] (find it in the toolbar — the icon looks like a pointing finger).
Set the brush size to 4px (start a little thicker; it's easier to control).
On the hair edges of the new layer, gently drag along the direction of the hair showing through from the original below.
- It's like "drawing" the hair, following the original direction.
- Where there's a gap, "add" hair; where it's thin, make it denser.

📌 A graphics tablet is better: pressure control lets you draw strands of varying thickness.
📌 No tablet? No problem: a mouse works too. It's slower, but the result is just as good.

Using the Smudge tool on the new layer, following the direction of the original hair to complete the strands

✅ Step 4: Switch to a small brush for curls and details

Reduce the brush size, for example to 2px.
Keep dragging along the hair edges, this time with more precision:
- Draw the little wavy curls.
- Give the hair layers and a sense of direction.
- Pull in a few different directions to create a realistic, uneven look.

Using a smaller brush to render hair detail and curls

Smudging from different directions to strengthen the realism and depth of the hair

✅ Step 5: Swap the background — done!

Drag in the new background image you want and put it at the very bottom.
Adjust the position and size and check the result.
Save as PNG (transparent background) or JPG (with background), and you're finished!

Placing the cut-out subject on a new background: the final result

💡 Key points at a glance:

Step	Key action	Trick
1	Trace the outline with the Pen	Trace only the clear parts and leave the blurry ones
2	Copy the selection + lower the opacity	Makes it easy to reference the original when adding hair
3	Fill in strands with the Smudge tool	"Draw" along the direction of the original
4	Small brush for the details	Build curls and a sense of depth
5	Swap the background	Free rein — put it wherever you like

🎯 Who is this for?

Anyone who retouches photos for friends, makes posters or swaps backgrounds
Online sellers who need clean product and model shots
Beginners studying design or learning PS
Perfectionists who don't mind the fuss 😄

Once you have this method down, no "furry and messy" image will scare you again. Give it a try!