AV News 184 - May 2011
In our picture of the bottle of liquid opaque on a box of Kodalith ortho film
masking the background was very simple because it consists mostly of
straight edges, only the bottle top and bottle lid have any curves. Several
different Photoshop selection tools could have been used to determine the
outlines for this mask i.e. Magic Wand, Quick Selection Tool, Polygonal Lasso
Tool, Magnetic Lasso Tool, Pen Tool, or even the Colour Picker within the
Color Range Selection palette. Of course if you had clicked on the 'Add Mask
Icon' at the bottom of the
Layers palette then you
could have simply painted
black around the image
outline with a brush size of
your choice. Now let's
consider something more
complex and much more
demanding. This example
of the bearded gentleman
required masking to isolate
him, his whiskers and also
his interesting hairstyle
from this landscape. Some
of the hairs and whiskers on the original image are only one or two pixels
wide, precise masking therefore is needed. First a
copy layer is made to preserve the original, then
a selection made in Photoshop CS5 on the copy
layer using the Lasso tool close to and just inside
the edge of his profile and also close to the edge
of his hair and whiskers.
With the marching ants still active click on the
'add mask icon' at the bottom of the layers palette,
this looks like a rectangle with white circle in its
centre, a rough sharp edged mask will now
appear next to the image icon. If you want to see
the effect of this rough mask place a new layer
filled with a solid colour under the layer being
worked on. Right click on the mask icon, then
choose 'refine mask' from the drop down menu. A
new 'Refine Mask Adjustment Palette' will now appear. In the section named
'View Mode' select 'Overlay' from the drop down menu and then place a tick
in the top right side box to 'Show Radius'. Move down to the section named
'Edge Detection' and place a tick in the box named 'Smart Radius'. Now adjust
the 'Radius Slider' to a visually suitable width, you may find this