Though a monkey could paint a mask Humans can create better mask then a monkey. Some time it is extremely easy even. There are a few simple rules one should keep in mind when creating mask. Let Photoshop tools do most of the work. Don't use the paint brush in fringe areas like hair. Leave gray areas in fringe areas like hair. This lets you tweak the layer mask later using Levels move the gamma slider and watch the effect. Again Gray matter and white background
Ctlr+Alt_~ luminosity selection
Save selection as Mask
Channels Pallet
Mask channel selected
Apply Image mode screen check mask
Levels move black slider in to 15 white slider in 240
Paint with Black blending mode overlay fill in face.
vidoprof wrote:
Which one would you say does a good job on generally most photos?
Ryan
I don't think there is any such tool, because I don't think there are extraction problem found generally in most photos.
Start by looking at the specific image. That's the only intelligent way to decide on tools. I've seen images that called for a combination of four or five different techniques to make one extraction.
Takes some time to get over the learning curve but
mastering the "pen tool" will take you far.
Not the best for all applications but probably
the most used by me.
Image1 wrote:
Thanks to everyone for all their help and suggestions! I see this is a very complex part of postprocessing, and I don't think there is any way of doing it Quickly or Easily! I am looking into this because I have a large amount of P/U truck photos that would look a lot better, if backgrounds were different.
Also, when masking you want to run a small amount of blur on the mask so that the transition zones will look more natural. Masking is one of those Photoshop operations, like using the pen tool, that seems very complicated to the learner, like it requires a secret password to understand, but it's really easy as pie, and has a zillion uses. The problem usually is that tutorials sling lingo around that the learner doesn't know in the first place, so gets more confused. If you do a little reading about selections and masking (essentially the same thing) in different sources, one or another writer will explain in way that clicks.
No it looks very good
Did you use the QS tool? I am still using the magic eraser, or eraser tool and taking 46 mins for each photo, and they are pretty easy ones that aren't flyaways.
No I used my gray matter for it to be of any use it first needed to accumulate Photoshop knowledge. Unfortunately it takes my feeble mind time to get it. It takes practice and time.
Which one would you say does a good job on generally most photos?
None of the above. If you want a general answer IMO it would be masking. Maskings will work in all possible cases. However some times there are easier ways and sometime its all but impossible to do. Even when it is impossible to mask an image perfectly one can create a mask that will as you wrote "Looks pretty good to you"]
Ryan
My minds logic using accumulate knowledge realized immediately that it would be extremely easy to do the brunet with a white background. It knew exactly how to do it and that it would only take a few minutes.
I posted how I did the image but you wrote you did not understand what I did that is because your gray matter lacks some knowledge. Let me see if I can help your knowledge department some. This should also help somewhat with images that do not have white backgrounds.
General answer Masking can always do the job. A mask is nothing more then a selection that is placed in a layer mask. A layer mask can be applied to a layer or a group of layers. The background layer can not be masked however a background layer can be converted to a normal layer and masked. Selections can be saved and worked on. These saved selections appear as alpha channels in the channel pallet. A layer mask is a pattern that is applied to layers makes layer like a stencil. An image with holes. Holes can also have translucent areas of varying opacity. The layer mask itself is a gray scale pattern. White area are fully intact gray areas transient and black areas are completely cut away. Gray areas are very important for you can use Photoshop tools on layer mask. Using tools like levels and curves on a layer mask lets you tweak the mask and you can observe the effectiveness while making the adjustment.
Now I'll do a step by step of what I did for the image.
Load the image into Photoshop.
Knew(knowledge) I wanted to create a mask. For a layer that I would place over the original background layer because I would be blending the layer with the original image because the original image had a white background. The mask therefore should look like a black silhouette that let the brunette show through the overlaying layer..
Need a selection of the brunette. Could easily have started with a copy of one of the color channel but since a layer mask is a gray salt image and our image has a white background Photoshop has a perfect feature built in for this case. It call the luminosity selection. Shortcut keys Alt+Ctrl+~ or the first icon in the bottom of the channels pallet or Ctrl Clicking the RGB channel in the channels pallet. Photoshop often has more the one way to do something.
Knew(knowledge) I needed to work on the mask channel to make it look like a silhouette. That it should be a bit small for I did not want white fringe areas to be in the final image.
Ctrl-D de select get ride of the marching ants.
Click on the Mask channel in the channels pallet to target it.
Menu Image>Apply Image.
In Apply image Dialog layer Background mode screen checked mask box OK. This lighten the white even more and shrunk the selection a bit by changing the very light gray edge areas to white.
Ctr-L levels move black point in to 15 white point in to 240 clicked OK
Mask channel now looks like http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/ModifiedLumonsitySelectionMask.jpg
Click on RGB channel to select it
click on layers tab to return to the layers pallet.
click on add new layer icon in bottom of the layers pallet
Select gradient tool spectrum gradient radial option click and hold in center of the image and drag to corner let go.
Menu Filter>Distort>Glass
in dialog Glass texture frosted play with sliders click OK
Image now looks like this http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/replacement.jpg
menu Select>Load Selection>Mask
Click on add layer mask icon in bottom of layer pallet
This add the layer mask with the loaded selection and becones the current target.
Ctrl-L levels move gray gamma slider watch image I settled on .4
Image has some missing hair looks like this http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/missinghair.jpg
Change top layer blending mode to multiply to recover missing hair. http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/WhiteIsEasy.jpg
