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Recently, a coworker asked me if he should grow his hair out "like Bradley Cooper in The Hangover." This was an impossible question to answer, but a discussion inevitably followed. We discussed how long the transition might take. We discussed the dreaded 'awkward phase' that has thwarted many attempts by lesser men to grow out their hair. We discussed if the end result would be worth the sacrifice. Then it dawned on me that this didn't have to be a theoretical discussion.

Using my fairly limited knowledge of Photoshop, I knew I could quickly mash together images of my coworker and Bradley Cooper's hair, and give us an accurate estimation of the finished product.

The joys of technology and the Select Color Range tool

This process wasn't complicated. First step was of course finding images of both parties that were fairly similar in composition. Then the magic of Photoshop took over. I accomplished this using only a few tools that make the process much easier than it should be. They were:

1. The Select Color Range tool.
2. The Free Transform tool.
3. The Distort tool.
4. Copy and Paste.

The Select Color Range tool (Select->Color Range) is great for selecting an area of an image with slight variations in color (like hair) because you can adjust how exact the tool is. With certain images, this can save lots of time compared to the Quick Selection or Magic Wand tools.

The Free Transform tool (Edit->Free Transform) is a very quick and easy way to resize selections on the page. Just make sure to hit 'Enter' once you are done resizing.

The Distort tool (Edit->Transform->Distort) is perfect for roughing a selection into a slightly different shape or alignment. I am going to make the assumption at this point that if you have managed to navigate your way to this page, you are familiar with Copy and Paste.

The Photoshop Process

I used the Select Color tool to select all of Bradley Cooper's flowing locks. I had to adjust the 'Fuzziness,' or sensitivity, of the tool, but it eventually gave me just what I needed.

Then I Copied and Pasted them in all their glory onto the image of my coworker.

I then used the Free Transform tool to quickly resize the hair, and finally the Distort tool to shape my digital wig roughly to the shape of my coworker's hairline. And voila! If only getting Bradley Cooper-esque hair were this easy in real life...

Though Photoshopping a celebrity's hair onto coworkers isn't exactly an everyday occurrence at Vodori, it does in a weird way reflect our approach to all our projects: gain an understanding of what our client needs, gather the required resources, and then leverage proven technologies (in this case Photoshop) to accomplish the desired end result.