How Refine Selection When It's Similar to Background?

Question

CS6
What's a good way to refine a selection when it's a similar color to the background?
I  have a photo of a dark skinned, black haired person in a white hoodie  against an off-white background.     I got a pretty good overall   selection with the Quick Selection Tool; then I went to Refine Edge.     That worked good on his hair, but it made the edge of the white hoodie  blotchy, as if it had worn part of it away.       This part of the  selection was pretty good already.    I just wanted to improve it a  little bit if possible.     I think the problem is a lack of strong  contrast between the selection and the background.

Answer 1

It depends on the image of course. As suggested, you can use a combination of best tools for different areas of the target selection, and combine, but if you like to try and get it with Quick select and refine edge, one trick is to copy the layer, and increase the contrast in the most challenging locations.  Apply Curves directly to the copied layer (not an Adjustment layer). Use the hand icon to target the tricky area boundry tones and increase contrast, then use Quick select and refine edge on this layer.
The selection will be equally valid for the unedited original layer.
You can do a similar think with either a Selective Color adjustment, or even a B&W adjustment, by exagerating color contrast using the scrubby sliders.  Or you can do both.  So long as you are using copies of the target layer.