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Living In Layers - The OFFICIAL Layers Magazine Blog

Viewer Mail: Masking | Sharpening Tutorial | What is Flex? | Contest Winner

CATEGORIES: Living In Layers | RC | March 21, 2008

Happy Friday everyone. I figured I’d start off today’s post with a little viewer mail. Peter Huisenga sent an email asking about how to make a selection of problem areas: branches, hair, wisps, etc. without getting grey hairs of his own. Peter, I feel your pain, and while I’m not going to get into great detail on this (yet), I will point out a recommendation, and a (very oversimplified) general concept. (and no, it’s not that kind of mask.. and no, that’s not me)

When you are making a mask, you are invariably creating a layer that has a region that is hidden (in black), and a region that is shown (white). That layer (for the lack of a better word) is saved in the Channels portion of your image, as an Alpha Channel. The problem with hair and branches is making the selection around it so that it can get painted into black, or white.

However, what if you took and used what you already have – like the image itself?
I’ll talk a little bit more about this after the jump – I want to get a couple of other things here for the skimmer readers (oh you know who you are.. )

Digging around the interwebs, Polygeek rocks a ten minute tutorial that explains what Flex is. For the programming inclined, it’s an awesome app. Check out the tutorial by clicking on this link

Dave Cross has promised to get a couple of images from a Trash The Dress session in the desert. I cannot even begin to say how jealous I am that Dave got to hang with people like Matt Adcock, Sol Tamargo, Kevin King (I SO want to check his Radiopopper) and the Don’t Box Us In group. Those websites alone should get you wanting to become a wedding photographer in no time!

Cool tutorial, masks, and the contest winner after the jump.

Masking and Book Recommendation
Where was I? Oh, that’s right, masking. Think of it: If you copy your image into a new layer, and use all of those tools that you use to correct an image (equalize, levels, curves, fade), to ruin it to a black and white, you could then use that as a basis for a mask! It’s a bit of a reach to talk about it in just a couple of sentences, but there is one book that is completely dedicated to the topic. Katrin Eismann is considered one of the foremost authorities on the subject, and she has an amazing book covering nothing but masking and compositing. It’s called, Photoshop Masking and Compositing, and it’s filled with examples on how to take masking to the next level. If you guys are interested in seeing a video of this in action, send me some comments, and I’ll try to work one up for you.

Sharpening Tutorial
Want to make something sharp? Like really, really, print-ready sharp? Check out Sean Duggan’s tutorial on how to do output sharpening here

Contest Winner
Congratulations to Marc-Andre Lacombe for winning an autographed copy of Scott Kelby’s Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers. If you didn’t win, have no fear. We’ll be back on Monday with a brand new contest.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Visitor Comments »

C’mon RC. I know you moonlight as El Lassodor Gigante at the local wrestling events.

Comment by Doug Zeliff | March 21, 2008 @ 9:46 am

“If you guys are interested in seeing a video of this in action, send me some comments.”

Comment by Ryan | March 21, 2008 @ 9:51 am

Hey RC, would love to see a short video of that technique if you have time to russel 1 up dude. Have to ask though, instead of going through all the trickery, would it not be easier to simply use a photoshop plugin like onOne Mask Pro? Have a good Easter weekend.

Comment by David Corb | March 21, 2008 @ 1:17 pm

What about Matt’s OUTSTANDING new book, LAYERS?????

cooksfriend

Comment by cooksfriend | March 22, 2008 @ 12:56 pm

Hey RC. This is sweet! First time I win anything. Thanks a whole bunch. Keep up the great work you guys are doing on the show!

Comment by Marc-Andre | March 23, 2008 @ 10:29 am

Raising both hands here for a video on masking out a subjects’ wispy long hair from a green screen. I’ve looked into the costly plugins — so, how can this be accomplished simply and quickly? Right now I know of three ways to do this in PS, but none of them do it well.

Comment by Bill Sheck | March 23, 2008 @ 6:48 pm

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