Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

Sharp Selections, Extractions and Montages March 2007 Using Masks (Ian Cran) When you want to move a subject to another image or another position in the same image, or to refine the background in an image, you need a selection that isolates the subject and does not include any of the rest of the image. One of the tools that you can use to make this tight selection is a brush on mask. After a few easy steps to make the mask, brushing is the easiest and most reliable method of making a tight selection of a smooth subject. With time and patience a good selection is assured. These notes are long because in writing them I have assumed no knowledge of layers or choosing a brush. This knowledge is perhaps “Beyond Basics” but it is quite simple and good to learn. If this is old hat to you my apologies, just speed-read. On the other hand if there is something in the notes that is not explained well enough please let me know. There are two types of mask, both work well. Quick Mask With “Quick Mask” you make a mask and then, on exiting “Quick Mask”, a selection is made, which you then use to isolate or move the subject.

1. Open your image and click the Quick Mask icon or, it is faster, type q. You can toggle Quick Mask on and off by typing q.

2. Click the Brush tool or, faster, type b. In the Brush Options bar click on the arrow beside Brush and choose a brush size of 10 to 20 px and a hardness of 80%. While you work alter the size of the brush to suit the job using the right and left Square Brackets. If using a very small brush you may need to reduce the hardness to 70%. Also choose Mode Normal and Opacity 100%.

3. The Foreground Colour has to be black. Here it is white. To get the default black and white Foreground and Background Colours type d, or, slower, click the black and white icon beside the Colours, and to change a white Foreground Colour to black type x, or click on the double headed arrow above the Colours. Typing x is quicker and later you will need to toggle back and forward between black and white, so type x.

Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

4. Now zoom in to the edge of your subject. Don’t use the Zoom tool on the Tool Bar because as you click the Zoom tool you will loose the Brush tool and will have to reopen the Brush tool when you have finished zooming; a distraction and a waste of time. Either press and hold Control [Command] and type + to enlarge or – to reduce, or press and hold Control [Cmd] and the Space bar to get the Zoom tool temporarily. With the Zoom tool now active you can click in the image to zoom in or ALT [Option] click to zoom out. You can also click and drag a marquee over the area you would like to see enlarged. This latter option is the method of choice. Use it and you will never use any other. The Brush tool is not lost with either of these methods because as you release the modifier keys the Brush tool returns and you can continue brushing. Zoom in to the subject edge till you can just see the edge pixels. Zoom in too far and you will not be able to see the details of the edge. About 300% is right.

5. Now start painting. Click and drag along the edge of your subject so that the edge pixels are covered in the pink mask. If you make a mistake and paint too far into the subject type x, which changes the Foreground Colour to white, and paint over the mistake to restore the original image. If you see that a halo is left it means that you have not painted close enough so go over it again. Two other short cuts will help the workflow. Firstly, to scroll on to another part of the edge, press and hold the Space bar to get the Grab Handle temporarily. You can now click and drag in the image to see more of the edge, and when you release the Space bar you will be back painting. Secondly, to paint straight lines, which I can’t do free hand, click at the start of the straight part, then press and hold Shift and click at the end of the straight. Keep a hold of Shift and you can continue clicking along the edge to lay down a series of short straights that will look just like a curve. Change the size of the brush, using the Square Brackets, to get into the corners

6. With the edge complete enlarge the brush and fill in the rest of the image outside the subject. The subject will now be clear and the background pink. Type q again and the pink colour will go and marching ants will ring the subject to mark the selection. If part of the selection is not right type q again and touch up the fault. It is a good idea to save the selection. There will be no need to feather if you have used an 80% hard brush.

Layer Mask This method works well when you are moving the subject to another image or elsewhere in the same image. Also, unlike Quick Mask, it stores a permanent copy of the mask in the Channels palette. Making a Layer Mask uses layers, and, if you have not used layers before, this is a good place to start.

1. Open your image and copy the Background Layer. 2. Open the image that is to receive the subject, and copy the Background layer. 3. Click on the Title bar of the first [donor] image to make that image active, and make a rough

selection of the subject with the Lasso or Polygonal Lasso.

Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

4. Using the Move tool [top right on the Tool bar] click in the selection and drag it onto the second image, and drop it in roughly the right position.

5. The first or donor image is no longer wanted so close it. The second image will now be active.

6. Open the Layers Palette. The slow way to do this is Menu > Window > Layers. If your screen resolution is 1024 x 768 or larger there will be, in CS2, a palette dock top right into which you can drag palettes, such as the Layers palette, and drag them out when you need them. Just as quick, and the choice of many, is to type F7 {F11 in Elements} to open the Layers palette and F7 again to close it. In the Layers palette you will see that Uanee has a separate layer. Using the Move tool you can click and drag Uanee to where ever you like.

7. Add a Layer Mask to Uanee’s layer. Make sure Uanee’s layer is active. The slow way is to go Menu > Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All, as shown. Much smoother and faster is to click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the foot of the Layers palette. It is black square with a white circle.

Uanee’s layer now has a white mask as well as the thumbnail of the image. As the mask thumbnail is white the mask will reveal the entire image. The mask thumbnail has a double line round it

indicating that it is active. If the image thumbnail had a double line round it the image would be active and any painting you did would cause marks on the image. To change activity from the image to the mask, if necessary, click on the mask thumbnail.

8. Now choose a brush in the same way as for the Quick Mask, and confirm that the Foreground Colour is black. Zoom in on the edge as before.

9. This time, as you paint on the mask with a black brush, the remnants of the original image will be hidden leaving Uanee on his own. Again toggle x to get a white brush to correct mistakes. The softness of

the edge is determined by the hardness of the brush. If you would like a softer edge reduce the hardness to 70%.

10. With the Free Transform tool [Menu > Edit > Free Transform] you can move, rotate, and resize Uanee.

11. If you wish to adjust the background click on the Background layer and any adjustments you make will be applied to that layer alone.

12. When you have finished flatten the layers. Click on the sideways pointing arrow at the top right of the Layers palette and scroll down to Flatten image.

Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

13.

After adjusting the background and cropping this is my final image, and how I would like to remember Uanee. Using the Extraction Filter (Shelley Cusbert) The Extract filter is a useful tool that can make the extraction of images from one photo to be placed on another an easier task. Select the photo

Go to Filter> Extract or use the keyboard shortcut ALT+CTR_X Choose the Highlighter edge tool (top left) You can zoom in to see the edges better using the zoom tool, move the image around in the window using the Hand tool

Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

Select a brush size from the Tool Options menu at right, select a highlight and fill colour and check Smart Highlighting. For the moment make no changes to the Extraction Options. In the Preview Options make sure Show highlight and Show fill are checked.

With your pen/mouse highlight over the edges of the image you wish to extract. Try and keep it fairly tight to the edges. The cursor has a crosshair – try and keep the line in the middle of the cursor. Trace around the entire image. Try to be as clean as possible.

Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

Choose the Fill tool from the pictograms at left and click inside your image. The area you have highlighted will fill with the color your selected. If you have any gaps in your line your whole page will fill. If that happens click on the photo, choose the highlighter tool again and close the gap, then fill again.

Select Preview to see the current results. If the transparent check background obscures your view, you can choose a different mat from the Display drop down box under preview. You can also change mats to better pick up areas you may have missed.

If required, with the highlight tool selected zoom in and touch up the line or select the eraser tool, or clean edge tools to erase or restore areas of the highlight you may need but don’t be too concerned. Fill the area again and choose Preview and then OK to return to the Photoshop Workspace.

Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

Now you can use the eraser to remove any additional unwanted areas. Alternatively select the History brush to paint back in details that may have been unintentionally erased.

Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

You can now place the extracted object on its new background.

Your image is then ready to be placed on its new background

Move the image onto the new background, adjust size etc as required. You may wish to apply a slight feather (no more than 2 pixels) to help with the transition, and don’t forget shadows!

Club Taree Photography Club March 2007

Other Resources: Video Tutorial: Advanced Background Extraction (Pen Tool) - scroll down the list to find. http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html Selecting and Extracting Hair http://www.photoshopsupport.com/elements/tutorials/extract-hair/masking-tutorial.html Video Tutorial: Extract http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=250 Combining Images http://www.arraich.com/ps6_tips_combine1.htm How to Swap Heads http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/97766/photoshop_tutorial_how_to_swap_heads.html Quick and Easy Montage http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/montage/index.html