Help selecting Trees

[walefisch]

I want to mask the trees in front of the building for ana rchitecture visualisation. I already tried the mask and selection tool and channels. For the parts that have sky in the back it works, the rest not so much. How would you go about this? Is there a tool that could help me here?

[Brett.PSD]

Hello, I think this is a prime example to break out the generative AI. Here's an example with gen AI, specifically choosing Gemini 3 by selecting the model on the contextual taskbar. I use the rectangular marquee tool (M), select all on the layer I want to edit (ctrl/cmnd+a) then choose model/type prompt on the taskbar and it will make a new layer upon generation. Frequently there will need to be adjustments, like how the chimney in this case that still had limbs on it. In addition, notice the background has been altered and would need touching up if being accurate is important. This does use up your generative credits.

Prompt:"remove the trees"

In case you were wanting the inverse:

Prompt: remove the building

In addition, if you were specifically needing a layer with just the trees, removing the building will at least give you a head start. If you couldn't get a prompt to get you closer to that, I would use a mix of select/color range and then refine it with the quick selection tool (W) and then the brush (B). 

[Trevor.Dennis]

There really is no argument against that approach, other than the resolution issue, and you can bypass that to some extent by down sizing, running Gen Ai, and then Gen upscale.  The other issue is one of how authentic t he background needs to be.  A photojournalist, for instance, would be sacked for doing this because then end result is not the same building.