IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 |
(MUSIC).
Hello.
| | 00:04 |
I'm Tim Grey.
I'm a self confessed control freak, so as
| | 00:07 |
a photographer, I really appreciate the
power of Photoshop.
| | 00:11 |
When it comes to exercising control,
optimizing the appearance, or perhaps
| | 00:14 |
creative effects for you photographic
images.
| | 00:17 |
To me there's nothing more powerful than
the ability to create composite images and
| | 00:21 |
to apply targeted adjustments in
Photoshop.
| | 00:25 |
In this course I'll start off by teaching
you some of the key concepts related to
| | 00:28 |
selections and layer masks in Photoshop.
I'll then guide you through all of the
| | 00:33 |
selection tools Photoshop offers so you'll
understand how to put them to use.
| | 00:37 |
Then we'll delve into some more
sophisticated techniques for creating and
| | 00:40 |
fine tuning selections.
To ease our way into the use of layer
| | 00:44 |
masks, I'll show you a number of
techniques for creating composite images,
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blending elements from two or more photos.
We'll then focus on what is easily my
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favorite topic in Photoshop: the targeted
adjustment.
| | 00:56 |
You'll see how you can employ selections
or painting to identify which areas of a
| | 01:00 |
photo you want to adjust in a particular
way and how to use sophisticated
| | 01:03 |
techniques to maximize the flexibility of
your workflow and the quality of your results.
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When you finish this course you'll have an
arsenal of powerful tools that will allow
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you to truly maximize your ability to
create remarkable images.
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So join me as we work together to master
the incredible capabilities of selections
| | 01:23 |
and layer masking in Photoshop.
| | 01:27 |
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1. Basic ConceptsSelections, alpha channels, and layer masks, oh my!| 00:02 |
Layer masking is easily my favorite
subject in Photoshop and that's in large
| | 00:05 |
part because I'm admittedly a control
freak.
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And I love being able to exercise maximum
control over my photographic images.
| | 00:15 |
Layer masking makes it possible to create
very cool and interesting composite images
| | 00:19 |
and also to apply targeted adjustments.
In other words, adjustments that only
| | 00:23 |
affect a specific area of a photo, and yet
layer masking is often perceived as a very
| | 00:27 |
challenging subject, one that is very
complex.
| | 00:32 |
There's certain amount of truth to that,
but I would suggest that the complexity is
| | 00:36 |
not as complex as it seems when it comes
to layer masking in Photoshop.
| | 00:41 |
Let me show you a really good example of
that.
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In the context of layer masking, we have a
variety of different topics that seem like
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disparate topics.
We have selections, which allow you to
| | 00:51 |
select a particular area of the image.
We have layer masks which allow you to
| | 00:55 |
identify which areas of an image will be
visible or which areas will be affected by
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a particular adjustment.
And then we have channels.
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You're familiar, I'm sure, with the RGB
channels.
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The red, green, and blue channels that
identify the color values for an image.
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But there are also alpha channels.
And alpha channels are usually described
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as a channel that reflects the visibility
of pixels within an image.
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That's only one example of how an alpha
channel gets used.
| | 01:24 |
But, suffice it to say there are
selections, layer masks, alpha channels.
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Lots and lots of things to understand when
we simply want to create a composite
| | 01:34 |
image, or apply a targeted adjustment.
But actually, things are not as
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complicated as they seem.
To begin with, selections, alpha channels,
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layer masks, these are all essentially the
exact same thing.
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Sure, they're implemented in different
ways, and you use them for different
| | 01:52 |
purposes, but they're really quite simple
when it all comes down to it.
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In fact, so simple that they're really
just a black and white image.
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Let's take a look.
In this image I have a saved selection.
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Well, the saved selection is really just
an alpha channel.
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So I'll go to my Channels panel, you could
choose Window > Channels from the menu, if
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your Channels panel is not visible.
And you'll see that I have a sky channel.
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There's the usual RGB composite channel.
We have a red channel, a green channel,
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and a blue channel.
Those identify the color in the image.
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But we also have the sky channel, and if I
click on it, you'll see that the name
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seems to fit.
This channel reflects the sky.
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The sky is white and the foreground of the
image, the rest of the image, everything
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except the sky is black.
Well this reflects a selection.
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The sky is selected, and the foreground is
not selected.
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Or this could reflect a layer mask.
The sky is visible or being affected by an adjustment.
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And the foreground is not.
So, we have an alpha channel that could
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simply reflect a selection, which could
reflect a layer mask.
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They're all the same thing.
They're all just a black and white image,
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where white represents something that is
enabled or visible.
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Black represents something that is
disabled or not visible and shades of grey
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represent values that are partially
visible or partially enabled.
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In fact, I can create a selection based on
this channel.
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I'll just click on the Load Channel as
Selection button.
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I'll click on the RGB tile to get back to
the color image here.
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And you can see now I have a selection of
the sky.
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And I can use that selection to apply a
targeted adjustment.
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In fact I can add an adjustment layer and
utilize that selection as the basis of a
| | 03:34 |
layer mask so that my adjustment only
affects the sky.
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But you can see they're all essentially
the same thing.
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A selection is just a representation of
the actual layer mask or of the alpha
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channel or whatever it may be, but
Photoshop is thinking of this selection
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not as a dashed outline that is animated
like marching ants, but rather as a black
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and white image, where white represents
selected and black represents not selected.
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Or as a layer mask where white represents
the area being affected by the adjustment
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and black represents areas not being
affected by an adjustment.
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As would be the case with a layer mask
used in conjunction with an adjustment
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layer, but also a saved selection is an
alpha channel.
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You'll notice my sky selection, and
because my layer mask, associated with my
| | 04:22 |
levels adjustment layer is currently
active, I'm also seeing a temporary mask.
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Showing me, once again, that Photoshop is
thinking about all of these things,
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selections, alpha channels, layer masks,
all of them are reflected as black and
| | 04:36 |
white images.
So when you understand that basic concept,
| | 04:41 |
a couple of things happen.
To begin with, suddenly the subject is not
| | 04:45 |
quite so complex.
We have essentially one construct, a layer
| | 04:49 |
mask or an alpha channel or a selection,
call it what you will but it's just a
| | 04:52 |
black and white image being used in a
variety of different ways.
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But also you get a sense of the underlying
issue in terms of layer masking or
| | 05:02 |
applying targeted adjustments, creating
composite images.
| | 05:07 |
And that is an object essentially that is
defining attributes of an image based on
| | 05:11 |
another black and white image that can
reflect the shape of that image or
| | 05:14 |
portions of that image.
In the context of layer masking, creating
| | 05:20 |
composite images or applying targeted
adjustments really understanding that a
| | 05:24 |
black and white image is what's being used
in the background by Photoshop to identify
| | 05:27 |
specific regions of the image.
Well, that knowledge will prove very, very
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helpful for you.
So as you can see, things aren't as
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complex as they might initially appear.
And actually it's relatively straight
| | 05:39 |
forward, all things considered.
And with that knowledge you'll be able to
| | 05:43 |
perform incredible tricks with your
images.
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| Anti-aliasing and selections| 00:02 |
As you work with a variety of the
selection tools in PhotoShop, you'll come
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across the option for anti- alias.
So that begs the question, what exactly is anti-aliasing.
| | 00:13 |
Well anti-aliasing relates to the shape of
pixels.
| | 00:17 |
The fact that pixels are squared and
therefore have corners.
| | 00:20 |
And that can actually create some minor
issues when it comes to creating selections.
| | 00:24 |
At least if those selections are not
comprised of perfectly vertical or
| | 00:28 |
horizontal lines.
So let's create a visual example of what
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anti-aliasing is.
I'll start off by creating the selection.
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I'm going to use the Polygonal Lasso tool
here, so that I can create a selection
| | 00:40 |
that is comprised of straight lines.
To access the Polygonal Lasso tool, I'll
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click on the button for the Lasso tool on
the tool box and hold the mouse button
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down for just a moment.
That will bring up the fly out menu
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associated with the Lasso tool.
And from that File menu, I can choose the
| | 00:56 |
Polygonal Lasso tool.
And I'm going to click on the image here.
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I have an empty canvas that I've created.
That will create my initial anchor point.
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And then I'll just go downward.
I'm going to hold the shift key though to
| | 01:08 |
create a perfectly vertical line.
And then I'll click once again to define
| | 01:12 |
my next anchor point.
I'll move over to the right.
| | 01:15 |
Then I'll hold the shift key so that I get
a perfectly horizontal line in this case
| | 01:19 |
and I'll click on more time and now I'll
take my mouse back to my original starting
| | 01:23 |
point so that I'm creating a diagonal line
and then I'll click on my original point
| | 01:26 |
in order to close out that selection.
So I've created a selection here that is
| | 01:33 |
comprised of a vertical line and a
horizontal line and a diagonal line.
| | 01:38 |
And all the while, you may have noticed
that up on the options bar, the anti-alias
| | 01:42 |
check box is turned on.
So whatever that anti-aliasing option
| | 01:47 |
does, it's doing it to this selection.
To see the effect I'll go ahead and fill
| | 01:51 |
the selection with black.
So I'll just go to the Edit menu.
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And I'm going to choose fill.
I'll make sure that the use pop up is set
| | 01:58 |
to black.
And that the blend mode is set to normal.
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And the opacity is at 100%.
And then I'll click the OK button in order
| | 02:05 |
to fill that selection with black.
I'll then go to the Select menu and choose
| | 02:09 |
Deselect, so that we no longer have that
selection and we can more clearly see the shape.
| | 02:14 |
A shape which, whether we realize it or
not, reflects anti-aliasing.
| | 02:19 |
So let's create another triangle, this
time without anti-aliasing so we can
| | 02:23 |
compare the difference.
I'll turn off the anti-alias check box up
| | 02:27 |
on the Options bar.
And I'm going to create another triangle
| | 02:30 |
that's very close to this one, so that
we'll be able to zoom in and compare them
| | 02:33 |
side by side.
So I'll click once again up here near
| | 02:37 |
where I started the first triangle, I'll
hold the Shift key to create a perfectly
| | 02:40 |
horizontal line, and I'll roughly align it
with the other triangle here.
| | 02:46 |
I'll click to add that anchor point, and
I'll move down toward the other triangle,
| | 02:49 |
holding the Shift key once again to create
a perfectly vertical line, and then I'll
| | 02:52 |
click to add that anchor point, and
finally come back to my starting point for
| | 02:55 |
this triangle.
And click once more in order to create the
| | 03:01 |
final selection.
Once again in the shape of a triangle,
| | 03:04 |
just flipped essentially, but it is
comprised similarly of a horizontal line,
| | 03:08 |
a vertical line, and a diagonal line.
But this time, with the anti-alias option
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turned off.
So, I'll go to the edit menu once again
| | 03:16 |
and choose fill.
And with my same settings, I'll click OK
| | 03:20 |
in order to fill that selection with
black.
| | 03:23 |
And then once again I'll deselect the
selection.
| | 03:25 |
Now, zoomed out you might not be able to
tell exactly what's going on, or what the
| | 03:29 |
difference is between these two triangles.
But let's go ahead and zoom in, and get a
| | 03:35 |
better sense of what is going on.
And admittedly, the result is relatively subtle.
| | 03:42 |
But I think still rather helpful in terms
of understanding exactly what this anti-
| | 03:46 |
aliasing is.
The upper triangle of course, has the
| | 03:51 |
anti-alias option turned off, and there
you can see a very crisp, and distinct
| | 03:55 |
zigzag pattern.
A stair step pattern, caused by the fact
| | 04:00 |
that this selection, of course, reflects
pixels.
| | 04:04 |
In other words, it needs to be identified
based on actual pixel values.
| | 04:07 |
The selection can't cut across the pixels,
because the pixels are actually what are
| | 04:11 |
being used to define the selection.
And so, since pixels are square and
| | 04:16 |
therefore have hard edges that have
corners, our selection, and therefore, the
| | 04:21 |
triangle here, reflects that shape.
I'll go ahead and zoom out for just a
| | 04:25 |
moment, and then zoom in to the top left
corner, here.
| | 04:28 |
And you'll notice that, along the edges,
the straight lines, we don't have anywhere
| | 04:32 |
near as much of a difference.
But let's take a closer look at the
| | 04:36 |
triangle that was created with the
anti-alias option turned on.
| | 04:41 |
You'll still see that stair step pattern
you can still see the fact that pixels are
| | 04:44 |
at play here.
We can see all of the individual little
| | 04:48 |
squares, but there's a difference and it's
a subtle difference to be sure but it can
| | 04:51 |
have a very significant impact on the
overall affect and that is that instead of
| | 04:55 |
having only black and white pixels.
We now have some shades of grey in
| | 05:01 |
between, which help to smooth out that
jagged line.
| | 05:05 |
You could think of it as almost blurring
effect, creating a smoother appearance by
| | 05:09 |
blurring or averaging out some of those
values.
| | 05:14 |
The result is that we don't have a jagged
selection edge.
| | 05:17 |
I'll zoom out just a little bit.
And I think you'll get a much better sense
| | 05:23 |
of how much smoother the triangle edge is
in the case because that anti-alias option
| | 05:26 |
was turned on.
Now of course, anti-aliasing is not a
| | 05:30 |
significant issue for vertical lines or
horizontal lines But more often than not
| | 05:34 |
you'll find that your selections are
comprised of somewhat random shapes.
| | 05:39 |
And so, keeping that anti-aliasing option
turned on helps to ensure very smooth
| | 05:43 |
results along the edges of those
selections.
| | 05:47 |
To be perfectly honest with you, in most
cases you're probably going to blue the
| | 05:50 |
edge of that selection anyway.
But it is still a good idea that whenever
| | 05:55 |
the anti-alias option is available for the
selection tool you're using, you should
| | 05:59 |
turn it on to help ensure smoother edges
for your selections.
| | 06:03 |
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| The case for not feathering selections| 00:02 |
One of the options available to you when
you're creating selections in Photoshop is
| | 00:05 |
to feather that selection.
You can perform the feathering as part of
| | 00:09 |
the process of creating the selection or
you can apply the feathering after the
| | 00:13 |
selection has already been created.
But my recommendation is to not feather selections.
| | 00:20 |
Now I'll be the first to tell that when it
comes to utilizing that selection you
| | 00:24 |
always or at least almost always want a
feathered result and yet I never feather selections.
| | 00:31 |
Well, okay, I feather selections only when
I'm showing someone why I'd recommend not
| | 00:36 |
feathering selections.
So let's feather some selections so that
| | 00:40 |
you can see why I recommend not feathering
those selections.
| | 00:43 |
Instead essentially saving that step for
later in your work flow.
| | 00:47 |
I'll start off by creating a selection of
the sky here.
| | 00:50 |
I'm not going to worry that it's a perfect
selection.
| | 00:53 |
I just want to be able to illustrate the
concept here.
| | 00:55 |
Now this image, of course, is rather
subtle.
| | 00:58 |
But we're not going to be subtle at all
when it comes to applying a targeted
| | 01:02 |
adjustment in this case.
So I've created a selection.
| | 01:06 |
But it is not a feathered selection.
I'm using the Quick Selection tool here
| | 01:11 |
and it does not feather the selection in
any appreciable way or it doesn't offer
| | 01:14 |
any way an option to adjust the feathering
as part of the selection creation process.
| | 01:20 |
But we could feather the selection after
the fact.
| | 01:23 |
Well, let's take a look at why you need to
have the effect of a feathered selection
| | 01:26 |
in the first place.
I'm just going to add an adjustment layer here.
| | 01:31 |
So I'll add a curves adjustment layer.
And then I'm going to apply an exaggerated
| | 01:35 |
adjustment for curves.
This is in no means aimed at trying to
| | 01:39 |
produce a good result in the image.
I'm simply trying to make sure that we
| | 01:43 |
have a very obvious effect in the sky.
And so I'll create a dramatic adjustment
| | 01:49 |
that darkens down that sky a bit.
And I think even without zooming in you'll
| | 01:54 |
be able to clearly see that we have a
little bit of an issue here.
| | 01:58 |
The transition between the area that's
being adjusted and the area that's not
| | 02:02 |
being adjusted is rather harsh.
So we need some transition there.
| | 02:06 |
Maybe just the tiny, tiny bit of
transition.
| | 02:10 |
But we do need some transition
nevertheless.
| | 02:12 |
I'm going to reload my selection.
Now don't worry about the particular steps
| | 02:16 |
on performing here.
Just focus on the effect of this feathering.
| | 02:20 |
Because I want you to understand that
concept first and foremost at the moment.
| | 02:23 |
So I have that selection once again.
This is as we have already seen, a non-
| | 02:27 |
feathered selection.
So let's go ahead and feather the
| | 02:31 |
selection so that we'll get a smoother
transition between the adjusted versus non
| | 02:35 |
adjusted areas.
I'll go to the select menu, and I'm going
| | 02:39 |
to choose modify followed by feather.
That will bring up the feather selection
| | 02:45 |
dialogue where I can enter in the number
of pixels by which I would like to feather
| | 02:49 |
the selection.
And there's the rub.
| | 02:53 |
I don't know, I have no idea how many
pixels I would need to feather this
| | 02:56 |
selection by in order to get a smooth
transition.
| | 03:00 |
or more to the point an appropriate
transition based on the area of the image
| | 03:04 |
that I'm working on as well as the
strength of my adjustment, because I'll
| | 03:08 |
need to be much more careful about that
feathering, about that transition when I'm
| | 03:12 |
working with a very, very strong
adjustment.
| | 03:18 |
I'm not sure what to do.
Well, I actually, of course, from
| | 03:21 |
experience have a pretty good sense of
what numbers I might use in terms of this
| | 03:25 |
radius value in different situations.
But let's just assume that I figure maybe
| | 03:30 |
ten pixels will be a good feathering.
I'll click OK.
| | 03:34 |
My selection is now feathered.
And so I'm going to add another curves adjustment.
| | 03:39 |
And I'll apply a similar adjustment to
this curve right about there.
| | 03:43 |
And I'll pull the black point in and bring
that curve down a little bit.
| | 03:47 |
And I'm sure you can see a rather obvious
effect.
| | 03:49 |
Fact there, I'll zoom out just a little
bit.
| | 03:52 |
We have this halo effect, so I'm darkening
the sky, but there's a transition between
| | 03:56 |
the sky and the building.
So I'm blending that adjustment into the
| | 04:01 |
building a little bit, and also of course
transitioning so that the edge of the sky
| | 04:05 |
has that halo effect.
I'm darkening a lot here and then not
| | 04:09 |
darkening quite as much until we get to
the point where there is no more darkening.
| | 04:14 |
So it would appear that that feathering of
ten pixels was way too much.
| | 04:18 |
So I need less feathering.
I'll go ahead and turn off my curves two
| | 04:21 |
adjustment layer, and I'll reload my
original selection.
| | 04:25 |
I'll go to the Select menu.
I'll choose Modify followed by Feather.
| | 04:29 |
I'll try five pixels and click OK.
And I'll create yet another curves adjustment.
| | 04:34 |
Now of course under normal circumstances
you wouldn't be creating multiple
| | 04:37 |
adjustment layers.
You would just be using the right
| | 04:40 |
technique in the first place.
And you can see that I still have a little
| | 04:43 |
bit too much feathering.
And this is the crux of the problem.
| | 04:47 |
When you're feathering a selection you
don't necessarily know how much to feather by.
| | 04:51 |
The alternative, though, is very, very
easy.
| | 04:54 |
I'll go ahead and turn off that Curves
adjustment layer and I'm going to go back
| | 04:57 |
to my original Curves adjustment layer.
You'll recall that this adjustment had no
| | 05:02 |
feathering at all, and so the transition
is rather abrupt.
| | 05:06 |
But now I'm going to go to the properties
panel and choose the masks option, and
| | 05:10 |
you'll see that I can feather my layer
mask.
| | 05:13 |
In other words, I'm feathering the
selection After I've created an effect
| | 05:17 |
with that selection.
So, in this case, I used the selection as
| | 05:21 |
the basis of a layer mask with an
adjustment layer.
| | 05:25 |
Don' t worry about the particulars of all
of that, but just bear in mind, that when
| | 05:28 |
you're creating a selection, you're
probably going to be using it for some
| | 05:30 |
particular purpose.
And, in the context of creating composite
| | 05:35 |
images or applying adjustments that only
affect a specific portion of the image,
| | 05:39 |
it's better to apply that feathering based
on the final effect in the image.
| | 05:44 |
In other words, in this case, based on the
actual adjustment.
| | 05:48 |
So I'll click on my curves adjustment
layer to make sure that the layer mask is
| | 05:51 |
active, and now I can feather.
I'll go ahead and bring this value up to
| | 05:55 |
ten, for example, and you'll see that we
get exactly the same result as thought we
| | 05:59 |
had feathered the selection by 10 pixels.
And now when I see that too much, I don't
| | 06:06 |
have to undo a couple of steps and redo
some steps and make changes.
| | 06:11 |
I simply drag a slider to a different
position.
| | 06:15 |
And so I can fine tune the degree of
feathering after the fact.
| | 06:18 |
Now of course in this case, the selection
was far from perfect, and the adjustment
| | 06:22 |
is absurdly exaggerated.
But the point here was not to create a
| | 06:26 |
good adjustment for the sky, obviously.
But rather to illustrate this concept of feathering.
| | 06:31 |
So this illustrates the reason why I never
feather selections, except to show you why
| | 06:36 |
it's best not to feather selections, and
instead to essentially feather the result,
| | 06:41 |
to feather whatever it is that you're
doing with that selection later in your workflow.
| | 06:50 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding, subtracting, and intersecting| 00:01 |
Under the best circumstances, you'll be
able to create a selection in a single step.
| | 00:07 |
But more often than not, you're going to
find that you need to build up your
| | 00:10 |
selections in a series of steps.
Adding to a selection or subtracting from
| | 00:15 |
selection in order to clean up that
selection, and just overall make sure that
| | 00:18 |
it reflects exactly the portion of the
image that you want to work on.
| | 00:23 |
Let's take a look at the options that are
available to most of our selection tools,
| | 00:27 |
in terms of adding to, subtracting from,
and even intersecting with in order to
| | 00:31 |
modify our selections.
In this case, I just have a simple image
| | 00:37 |
of a couple of overlapping circles.
And we'll use this as our case study for
| | 00:41 |
looking at the options to add to, subtract
from and intersect with our selections.
| | 00:46 |
Since I'm working with circles I'm going
to use the Elliptical Marquee tool.
| | 00:50 |
So I'll click and hold my mouse on the
button for the Rectangular Marquee tool on
| | 00:54 |
the toolbox.
That will bring up a fly out menu where I
| | 00:58 |
can choose the Elliptical Marquee tool,
and then I'm simply going to click and
| | 01:01 |
drag in order to draw an ellipse.
Specifically this is a circle, so I'm also
| | 01:07 |
then going to hold the Shift key so that
I'll get a perfect circular selection, and
| | 01:11 |
then I can also use the Space Bar, our key
in order to move the selection while I'm
| | 01:14 |
in the process of creating it.
And in this way I'll adjust the overall
| | 01:21 |
position and then of course the size and
shape of the selection.
| | 01:25 |
I won't worry about getting it absolutely
perfect in this case, but we'll at least
| | 01:29 |
get it reasonably close.
So, right about there looks to be pretty good.
| | 01:36 |
So once I have that selection aligned to
the best of my ability with the circle,
| | 01:40 |
I'll go ahead and release the mouse button
in order to create that selection.
| | 01:45 |
So not quite perfect, but reasonably
close, and certainly fine for our purposes
| | 01:49 |
here of just illustrating the concept.
You can see that I have the circle on the
| | 01:54 |
left selected.
But what if I wanted both circles to be selected?
| | 01:59 |
I'm using the Elliptical Marquee tools, so
I can create selections of an elliptical shape.
| | 02:04 |
Unfortunately, a double overlapping
ellipse is not part of the equation there,
| | 02:08 |
at least, in terms of creating a selection
in a single step but I can add to the selection.
| | 02:14 |
So I'll go ahead and choose the Add a
selection option up on the Options bar.
| | 02:18 |
And then I can click and drag to start
drawing another ellipse.
| | 02:23 |
I can once again use the Space Bar key as
needed in order to adjust the position for
| | 02:27 |
that selection.
And then I'll work to align that selection
| | 02:32 |
with that second circle here.
And you can see of course that the
| | 02:36 |
circular selection I'm creating follows
the second circle which happens to overlap
| | 02:39 |
with the first circle.
But one I release the mouse I'll have a
| | 02:44 |
single selection representing that overall
shape.
| | 02:48 |
So I just added to that selection.
In a similar fashion I can subtract from
| | 02:54 |
the selection.
So let's assume that I didn't want this
| | 02:57 |
entire shape to be selected.
I just wanted that sort of crescent moon
| | 03:00 |
shape over on the left to be selected.
I'll go to the Edit menu.
| | 03:04 |
And I'm going to choose the Step Backward
option in order to undo the last step, so
| | 03:08 |
that I once again have the entire left
circle, or at least most of it hopefully, selected.
| | 03:15 |
Now I want to essentially cut out this
additional shape.
| | 03:19 |
But that additional shape is really just
part of the overlap of this other circle
| | 03:22 |
so if I subtract this circle from the
selection then I'll end up with the shape
| | 03:25 |
that I want.
That crescent moon shape over on the left side.
| | 03:31 |
I could of course use a variety of
different options but in this case
| | 03:34 |
essentially following this right circle
with the Selection tool, in this case, the
| | 03:38 |
Elliptical Marquee tool with a Subtract
from Selection option will take care of it.
| | 03:44 |
So, on the Options bar I'll click on the
third button, the Subtract from Selection option.
| | 03:49 |
And then I'll simply reproduce the same
selection I had created just a moment ago
| | 03:53 |
of that right circle.
And if I overlap exactly with that circle,
| | 03:57 |
that means I'll just be cutting out that
portion, the overlap portion from the
| | 04:02 |
other circle.
So, when I release the mouse, because I
| | 04:06 |
had that subtract from selection option,
the area of this circle was subtracted
| | 04:10 |
from the existing selection.
Of course, this right portion of the
| | 04:14 |
circle on the right was not part of the
selection to begin with.
| | 04:19 |
But that's okay, it just means that it's
still not selected.
| | 04:23 |
Whereas this area of overlap has now been
truly subtracted from the existing
| | 04:26 |
selection so that now my selection
reflects that crescent shape over on the left.
| | 04:32 |
Lets assume though that what I actually
wanted to select was this shape in the
| | 04:36 |
center the area of overlap between those
two circles, I'll go ahead and press
| | 04:40 |
Ctrl+Z on Windows or Cmd+Z on Mac to undo
to take a step backward.
| | 04:46 |
So that I have that original selection of
the left circle and then I'm going to
| | 04:50 |
choose the overlap option up on the
options bar and once again I'll create.
| | 04:56 |
Create the exact same selection or as
close to it as I can possibly manage.
| | 05:00 |
I'll use the Space Bar key once again to
change the position of that selection
| | 05:04 |
while I'm in the process of creating it.
And then release the Space Bar and
| | 05:09 |
continue dragging to adjust the position
of the selection.
| | 05:12 |
So now I have an existing selection of the
left circle and I am creating a selection
| | 05:16 |
of the right circle so that when I
release.
| | 05:20 |
Only the overlap between these two
selections will actually be selected.
| | 05:27 |
So, I'll go ahead and release that mouse
and sure enough you see that central area,
| | 05:31 |
the area of overlap is actually selected.
Another way of thinking, this intersect
| | 05:37 |
option is subtract everything except this.
Let's take another look at that, I'll
| | 05:43 |
press Ctrl+Z on Windows or Cmd+Z on
Macintosh to undo that step.
| | 05:46 |
And I have a selection of this left
circle, now I'm drawing a selection of the
| | 05:51 |
right most circle, but what I'm really
saying is I want to subtract Everything
| | 05:56 |
except what falls inside of this
selection.
| | 06:02 |
In other words the selection I'm making
right now.
| | 06:04 |
The right circle, I want to subtract from
the existing selection.
| | 06:08 |
The selection of the left circle.
Everything except the area that falls
| | 06:12 |
inside the current selection.
The selection that I'm in the process of
| | 06:16 |
making right now.
So id the intersect option seems a little
| | 06:19 |
bit confusing to you.
Just think of it as the subtract
| | 06:23 |
everything except this option.
Either way you end up with a result that
| | 06:28 |
is a selection of only the overlap between
those two selections.
| | 06:33 |
Of course, in some cases, you may want to
create a brand new selection, in other
| | 06:36 |
words, to just start over.
You could certainly deselect the selection
| | 06:40 |
and start over again.
But you can also choose the new selection
| | 06:43 |
option, that first button, on the options
bar.
| | 06:46 |
And then when you click and drag, for
example, to create a new selection.
| | 06:51 |
You're creating a new selection.
You're replacing the existing selection.
| | 06:54 |
So once again we can create a new
selection, replacing any existing selections.
| | 06:59 |
We can add to the selection, in order to
add additional areas of the image to the selection.
| | 07:05 |
We can subtract from the selection, in
order to cut away portions of an existing
| | 07:09 |
selection, and we can intersect with a
selection, saying, essentially, subtract
| | 07:14 |
from the selection everything except this
area.
| | 07:19 |
So with those options, you've got a great
deal of flexibility for modifying the
| | 07:23 |
selections that you create in order to
produce composite images or apply targeted
| | 07:28 |
adjustments in Photoshop.
| | 07:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Inverting a selection| 00:02 |
Sometimes when you need to create a
selection of a particular area of the
| | 00:05 |
image it's easier to create the opposite
selection.
| | 00:09 |
And this is something that's really worth
keeping in mind especially if you're
| | 00:12 |
struggling at all with a particular
selection.
| | 00:15 |
Let's take a look at a fairly basic
example that illustrates this concept.
| | 00:19 |
I'll go ahead and choose the Quick
Selection tool from the tool box and then
| | 00:22 |
I'm simply going to include increase my
brush size a little bit in this case just
| | 00:25 |
by using the right square bracket key.
You can adjust that brush size with the
| | 00:30 |
left and right square bracket keys on the
keyboard.
| | 00:33 |
Left square bracket key to reduce the
brush size.
| | 00:36 |
And right square bracket key to increase
the brush size.
| | 00:38 |
And then I'll simply click and drag across
the roofline here as well as the metal chimney.
| | 00:45 |
The idea is that I want to apply an
adjustment that specifically affects this
| | 00:48 |
portion of the image.
And you can see that I'm having a less
| | 00:51 |
than ideal time trying to create a
selection of this area.
| | 00:56 |
It's doing a pretty good job, but now I
have to go back and paint over some
| | 00:59 |
additional areas.
It's not that it's back breaking work,
| | 01:02 |
it's just that it's not as efficient as it
could be.
| | 01:05 |
You'll notice, for example, I'm having to
go over to the right here, right against
| | 01:08 |
the line.
The transition between the roofline and
| | 01:11 |
the sky, but at this point I now finally
have a good selection, so not too bad,
| | 01:14 |
certainly in this case.
Although of course this is a pretty
| | 01:19 |
straight forward situation since the
foreground subject contrasts so well with
| | 01:23 |
the background.
But the point is, is that selection wasn't
| | 01:27 |
the easiest to make.
That is was slightly complex requiring me
| | 01:31 |
to paint around in a variety of areas.
I'll press Ctrl+D on Windows or Cmd+D on
| | 01:35 |
Macintosh to deselect that selection, and
then I'm going to select the opposite of
| | 01:40 |
what I want.
In other words, the sky in this case.
| | 01:44 |
With my Quick Selection tool, I'll simply
click and drag and you'll notice that I
| | 01:48 |
don't need to paint very carefully.
I just swooped the brush around a portion
| | 01:53 |
of the sky and I end up with a great
selection.
| | 01:56 |
Probably about the exact same selection
that I had created initially by painting
| | 02:00 |
through various areas of the roof and up
into the chimney.
| | 02:04 |
And so the point is that it's easier
sometimes to create a selection of the
| | 02:07 |
opposite area that you actually want and
then you can simply invert that selection.
| | 02:14 |
To do so, you can simply go to the Select
menu and then chose Invert.
| | 02:17 |
You can also press Shift+Ctrl+I on Windows
or Shift+Cmd+I on Macintosh in order to
| | 02:22 |
invert that selection.
So you'll see that at the moment the sky
| | 02:26 |
is selected when I chose inverse.
Now, I have the chimney and the roof selected.
| | 02:33 |
And it was very easy to create.
Easier than creating the selection that I
| | 02:37 |
really wanted.
Again in this case, it's not that
| | 02:40 |
dramatically different, creating one
selection versus the other, and then
| | 02:43 |
inverting that other selection as needed.
But the point is simply to keep in mind
| | 02:48 |
that oftentimes the selection that you're
looking for might be more difficult to
| | 02:52 |
create than the opposite of that
selection.
| | 02:55 |
And when that's the case you can simply
select that opposite area, and then invert
| | 02:59 |
your selection.
| | 03:01 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Mixing and matching selection tools| 00:02 |
Sometimes you may find that you get so
caught up working with a particular tool
| | 00:05 |
or technique in Photoshop that you don't
stop and think that it might be easier if
| | 00:09 |
you switched tools.
And one of the things I think it's helpful
| | 00:13 |
to keep in mind when creating selections
in Photoshop is that you can switch back
| | 00:17 |
and forth between multiple tools.
In order to create and fine tune your selections.
| | 00:23 |
Let's take a look at a basic example just
to illustrate this concept.
| | 00:27 |
If I want wanted to select the snow
pillows I could start off perhaps with the
| | 00:30 |
Quick Selection Tool.
So I'll choose the Quick Selection Tool
| | 00:33 |
from the Toolbox, and then simply click
and paint across those snow pillows to
| | 00:37 |
create a basic selection.
You can see that the selection is not
| | 00:42 |
quite perfect.
Well okay it's far from perfect, but it's
| | 00:45 |
at least a really good start.
If I need to subtract an area from the
| | 00:48 |
selection I can do that.
I'll just hold the Alt key on Windows or
| | 00:52 |
the Option key on Macintosh for example.
To access the subtract from selection
| | 00:56 |
option, and then I'll click and paint into
this area of the selection that I don't
| | 01:00 |
actually want to have selected.
I could also add to the selection.
| | 01:07 |
I can hold the Shift key to access the Add
to Selection option, but with the Quick
| | 01:10 |
Selection tool, that's actually active by
default.
| | 01:14 |
And so I'll go ahead and add to the
selection, and this additional area.
| | 01:17 |
But in some case, you may find that it's
actually just easier to use a different tool.
| | 01:22 |
For example, the Quick Selection tool
might get you a quick start, but then you
| | 01:25 |
might find that it's not really working
all that well in specific areas of the image.
| | 01:31 |
Perhaps it's not following along on the
shadow line here, for example.
| | 01:35 |
And so, you might want to clean things up.
But instead of fighting with the quick
| | 01:39 |
selection tool, you can just switch to a
different tool.
| | 01:42 |
And so I'll select the Lasso tool from the
toolbox for example.
| | 01:46 |
And then to access the Subtract From
Selection option I can hold the Alt key on
| | 01:49 |
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh.
And then I'll simply click and drag within
| | 01:55 |
the image to identify the area that I want
to subtract from the existing selection.
| | 02:01 |
And I could continue in this way cleaning
up various areas of the selection, of course.
| | 02:06 |
But the key thing to keep in mind is that
we can mix and match all of the various
| | 02:10 |
selection tools in order to create and
fine tune the selections.
| | 02:15 |
So if a particular tool just isn't working
for a particular portion of a selection,
| | 02:19 |
find another tool that will help in that
particular area and take advantage of
| | 02:22 |
those add and subtract options, for
example, in order to clean up the selection.
| | 02:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Deselect and Reselect| 00:02 |
Once you start working with selections in
Photoshop, the notion of creating a
| | 00:05 |
selection is pretty straightforward.
The notion of not having a selection is
| | 00:09 |
also pretty straightforward.
And of course it's not too much of a
| | 00:12 |
stretch to think about deselecting your
selection.
| | 00:14 |
In other words, taking an active
selection, and essentially turning it off,
| | 00:18 |
making it no longer active.
Now in most cases, when you create a
| | 00:22 |
selection in Photoshop to use for some
particular purpose, that process is
| | 00:26 |
actually going to cause the selection to
go away.
| | 00:30 |
For example, if I create a selection of
the sky and then add an adjustment layer
| | 00:34 |
in order to adjust the sky, the selection
goes away and is essentially replaced by a
| | 00:38 |
layer mask that reflects that selection
associated with the adjustment layer.
| | 00:44 |
But at times you may need to deselect and
then bring that selection back.
| | 00:48 |
And we can do that with the reselect
command.
| | 00:51 |
Let's take a look at how it works.
I'm going to start off by creating a
| | 00:54 |
simple selection of the sky.
I'll choose the Quick Selection tool and
| | 00:58 |
just drag across the sky and that gives me
what appears to be a pretty darn perfect
| | 01:01 |
selection of that sky.
So let's assume that I'm going to apply a
| | 01:06 |
targeted adjustment that affects only the
sky.
| | 01:09 |
But then I realize that I think I'd like
to get rid of some of those clouds off in
| | 01:12 |
the distance and I'd like to do that
first.
| | 01:16 |
Not because I have to but because I simply
want to and so I'm going to deselect this selection.
| | 01:22 |
To do that I can go to the Select menu and
choose Deselect.
| | 01:26 |
I can also press Ctrl+D on Windows or
Cmd+D on Macintosh in order to deselect
| | 01:31 |
the selection and when I do that the
selection goes away.
| | 01:35 |
Now of course you might assume that it
would have been better for me to simply
| | 01:40 |
undo the last step.
In other words, to press Ctrl+Z on Windows
| | 01:45 |
or Cmd+Z on Macintosh, or to go to the
Edit menu and choose Step Backward, for example.
| | 01:51 |
But then, the selection will not be
preserved.
| | 01:55 |
And what I mean by that is that I'll have
to recreate the selection from scratch.
| | 02:00 |
In this case, that's not a very big
challenge.
| | 02:02 |
You already saw how quickly I was able to
create the selection.
| | 02:05 |
But in some cases that selection might
have been a little more challenging.
| | 02:09 |
And so I'd like an easier method of
recreating that selection.
| | 02:13 |
So let's go ahead and clean up those
clouds.
| | 02:15 |
I'll create a new layer, for example, and
rename it to image cleanup.
| | 02:19 |
And then I'll choose the Spot Healing
Brush tool and adjust the brush size as
| | 02:23 |
needed, and simply paint over those clouds
in order to remove them.
| | 02:29 |
Obviously I'm just sort of applying some
arbitrary changes here, so that I can
| | 02:33 |
illustrate the concept involved in
re-select.
| | 02:36 |
But in this case I did some image cleanup
work, working with the separate layer, and
| | 02:40 |
now I think I'm ready to get started
applying that targeted adjustment.
| | 02:44 |
But I don't want to have to recreate the
selection from scratch.
| | 02:48 |
And if I were to try to undo to get back
to my selection, of course, I would be
| | 02:52 |
undoing the image cleanup work that I've
done, as well.
| | 02:56 |
So instead, I basically want to tell
Photoshop, hey, remember that selection
| | 02:59 |
that I made just a few moments ago?
Can you bring that back, because I'd like
| | 03:03 |
to use it to apply a targeted adjustment.
And the way we tell Photoshop to do that
| | 03:08 |
is to go to the Select menu, and then
choose Reselect.
| | 03:13 |
You can also press Shift+Ctrl+D on Windows
or Shift+Cmd+D on Macintosh to reselect.
| | 03:19 |
In this case I'll just choose it from the
menu.
| | 03:21 |
And when I do, that selection comes back.
It's important to realize of course that
| | 03:27 |
only the most recently created selection
will come back when I use the reselect command.
| | 03:32 |
But as you can see in some situations
where you want to go back and forth
| | 03:35 |
between various tasks and you just decide
you're not quite ready for the selection
| | 03:39 |
that you've created, the deselect and
reselect options can be quite helpful.
| | 03:44 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Temporarily hiding a selection| 00:02 |
When you create a selection, the selection
is actually displayed as what's often
| | 00:05 |
referred to as a marching ants display.
It's a dashed line that's animated.
| | 00:11 |
And that presentation can certainly be
very helpful.
| | 00:13 |
It shows you where the selection begins
and ends.
| | 00:15 |
But it can also be a little distracting at
times.
| | 00:18 |
Sometimes you might want to hide it from
view.
| | 00:20 |
And there's a very quick and easy way to
accomplish exactly that.
| | 00:24 |
I'll start off by creating a selection.
In this case, just a selection of the sky.
| | 00:27 |
So I'll choose the Quick Selection Tool
and then I'll drag across the sky in order
| | 00:31 |
to create a selection of that sky.
And perhaps I'm evaluating a portion of
| | 00:36 |
that selection.
Trying to make sure that the selection
| | 00:39 |
edge follows exactly along the area that I
want it to, at the edge of the rock versus
| | 00:43 |
sky in this case for example.
But I'm finding that the selection display
| | 00:47 |
is getting in the way.
I can't really see very clearly exactly
| | 00:51 |
where the rock versus the sky begins and
ends.
| | 00:53 |
And so I'd like to hide that selection for
just a moment so that I can kind of get my bearings.
| | 00:58 |
I can hide that selection edge by going to
the View menu, and then choosing Show,
| | 01:02 |
followed by Selection Edges.
You can see that that option is currently
| | 01:08 |
turned on, by the check mark that appears
before it.
| | 01:11 |
And when I choose that option, it gets
turned off.
| | 01:14 |
If I want to reveal that selection edge
again, I can go to the View menu, and then
| | 01:17 |
choose Show once again, followed by
Selection Edges.
| | 01:20 |
And that selection edge appears once
again.
| | 01:23 |
I can also use a keyboard shortcut to
accomplish the exact same thing.
| | 01:27 |
I can simply hold the Ctrl key on Windows
or the Cmd key on Macintosh, and then
| | 01:31 |
press the letter H.
To hide and then to reveal the selection edge.
| | 01:37 |
So Ctrl or Cmd+H to hide, and Ctrl or
Cmd+H once again to reveal.
| | 01:42 |
It's just as important that you keep in
mind when you've hidden a selection that
| | 01:46 |
there actually is a selection there,
because otherwise you might have some
| | 01:49 |
unintended effects.
As you, for example, apply adjustments to
| | 01:53 |
the image.
But by hiding or revealing that selection
| | 01:57 |
edge, you're able to better evaluate the
image in situations where you find that
| | 02:00 |
display to be a little bit distracting to
your work.
| | 02:04 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Saving and loading selections| 00:02 |
If a selection that you're going to use is
the basis of a targeted adjustment, or a
| | 00:05 |
composite image takes any effort at all to
create, it probably makes sense to save
| | 00:09 |
that selection.
Of course, it's worth pointing out right
| | 00:13 |
from the start that if you utilize a
selection as the basis of a targeted
| | 00:16 |
adjustment, or a composite image You're
probably already saving that selection,
| | 00:20 |
even if you don't know it.
Let me show you what I mean.
| | 00:24 |
I'll start off by creating the selection
of the sky and I'll just chose the quick
| | 00:27 |
selection tool and drag it across the sky.
Let's assume that this selection is
| | 00:32 |
absolutely and I want to use it as the
basis of an adjustment that only affects
| | 00:36 |
the sky.
I'll go ahead and create the new
| | 00:39 |
adjustment layer.
Simply choose curves, and then I'll adjust
| | 00:43 |
my curves adjustment so that you can see
I'm only affecting the sky.
| | 00:48 |
Well, that's because by adding an
adjustment layer with an active selection,
| | 00:51 |
the layer mask for that adjustment layer
will automatically reflect the shape of
| | 00:54 |
the selection.
That means that essentially I've preserved
| | 00:59 |
the selection right here as part of my
adjustment.
| | 01:03 |
The layer mask perfectly matches my
initial selection.
| | 01:06 |
Of course, that could change.
What if I modify this layer mask?
| | 01:11 |
Just to illustrate the point, I'll go
ahead and apply some feathering to this mask.
| | 01:15 |
You'll notice now that we get a bit of a
halo effect.
| | 01:18 |
And if I show you the mask itself, you'll
see that it has a soft edge.
| | 01:22 |
Whereas the original selection was
unfeathered.
| | 01:25 |
It had a crisp edge.
Well now if for any reason I need to get
| | 01:28 |
back to my original selection, I don't
have it preserved anywhere, well,
| | 01:31 |
technically I could just set the
feathering back down to zero pixels, and
| | 01:34 |
then reload the selection based on this
layer mask.
| | 01:39 |
But let's assume that I've done other
things to modify that layer mask and
| | 01:43 |
therefore I no longer have my selection
available.
| | 01:47 |
In this case I could certainly recreate it
without much trouble, but it's even easier
| | 01:50 |
in many cases, if I've saved that
selection.
| | 01:54 |
In fact, in many cases, when I create an
initial selection, I'll save that as my
| | 01:57 |
baseline saved selection.
Because I know I'm probably going to
| | 02:01 |
modify the results when I create a layer
mask later for example.
| | 02:05 |
And sometimes I want to be able to get
back to that original selection.
| | 02:09 |
So let's take a look at how we can save
selections, so that they're very easy to
| | 02:12 |
get back to later.
I'll just go ahead and throw away my
| | 02:15 |
adjustment layer by dragging it down to
the trash can, and then I'll recreate my selection.
| | 02:21 |
And now, I'll go the Select > Save
Selection, from down at the bottom of the menu.
| | 02:27 |
That will bring up a Save Selection
dialogue.
| | 02:29 |
I need to type a name for it.
And this name should be something that is obvious.
| | 02:34 |
In other words, so that when you see the
name on a list, you'll know exactly which
| | 02:37 |
portion of the image it relates to.
I'll type sky for example, that seems to
| | 02:42 |
make a lot of sense here, and then, I'll
click OK in order to create that saved selection.
| | 02:47 |
I'll then press Control+D on Windows or
Command+D on Macintosh to deselect that selection.
| | 02:54 |
And now, the question is where is that
saved selection?
| | 02:58 |
I can certainly go to the Select > Load
Selection.
| | 03:03 |
Now we'll bring up the Load Selection
dialogue, and I can choose the appropriate
| | 03:06 |
selection from the Load Selection
dialogue.
| | 03:10 |
I can even choose to invert that selection
so that in this case for example, I would
| | 03:13 |
get the Eiffel Tower selected instead of
the sky, and then I can click OK in order
| | 03:17 |
to load that selection.
In this case a selection that's the
| | 03:22 |
opposite of my actual saved selection.
But where is that selection saved, and how
| | 03:27 |
am I able to access it?
Well, it's actually just an alpha channel.
| | 03:31 |
In other words, a channel other than the
red, green, or blue channels that define
| | 03:35 |
color in our images.
So, I can go to the channels panel and
| | 03:39 |
sure enough, you'll see that I have a sky
alpha channel.
| | 03:43 |
That is my saved selection.
And in fact, I can utilize the Channels
| | 03:47 |
panel to create a saved selection or to
load a selection.
| | 03:52 |
So since right now I have a selection that
is the opposite of my saved sky collection.
| | 03:56 |
I could also save this selection if I
wanted to.
| | 04:00 |
I'll go ahead and click on the Create
Channel button.
| | 04:02 |
That's the circle inside of a square icon.
And that will create a channel based on
| | 04:06 |
the currently active selection.
When I click that button you'll see that I
| | 04:10 |
get an alpha channel.
It's called Alpha1 in this case.
| | 04:14 |
And the white area that represents which
portion of the image was selected reflects
| | 04:17 |
the Eiffel Tower.
And the black area, the deselected area,
| | 04:21 |
reflects the sky.
I can double-click on the name for that
| | 04:24 |
alpha channel in order to give it a more
appropriate name.
| | 04:28 |
We'll call it Eiffel Tower, for example.
And I'll press Enter or Return on the
| | 04:32 |
keyboard to apply that change.
And I could also go back to my full color
| | 04:36 |
image, of course, by clicking on the RGB
thumbnail.
| | 04:39 |
So at this point I'll deselect the
selection by pressing Contro+D on Windows
| | 04:43 |
or Command+D on Macintosh.
And we can take a look at how we can
| | 04:46 |
actually load a selection based on the
saved selection.
| | 04:50 |
So we already know that we can save or
load a selection from the Select menu, and
| | 04:54 |
we just saw how we can effectively save a
selection directly on the Channels panel.
| | 04:59 |
Well how can we load a selection?
There are actually a couple of ways I
| | 05:02 |
could simply hold the Control key on
Windows or the Command key on Macintosh
| | 05:06 |
while clicking on the thumbnail for the
particular alpha channel that I want to load.
| | 05:11 |
In other words I could Control or Command
click on the thumbnail for the saved selection.
| | 05:17 |
So here I've loaded the sky selection.
I can also though, click on the alpha channel.
| | 05:22 |
The save selection and then click on the
Load Channel as selection button.
| | 05:26 |
That dash circle icon down at the bottom
of the Channels panel.
| | 05:29 |
And that will load a selection based on
the currently active channel in this case
| | 05:33 |
my save selection in the form of the
Eiffel Tower channel.
| | 05:37 |
And then I'll go ahead and click on the
RGB thumbnail once again, so that we could
| | 05:40 |
get back to the full color image.
But the key is to keep in mind that
| | 05:44 |
selections are saved as alpha channels.
Where white represents areas that are selected.
| | 05:49 |
And black represents areas that are
deselected.
| | 05:51 |
And so, whether we're using the Select
menu to save a selection or load a
| | 05:54 |
selection, or we're utilizing the various
options on the channels panel.
| | 05:59 |
In order to create an alpha channel or
saved selection or to load that saved
| | 06:02 |
selection, we have various options for
making sure that we'll always be able to
| | 06:06 |
get back to our saved selections anytime
we need them.
| | 06:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the cursor for selections| 00:02 |
When you're creating selections, in order
to produce a composite image or apply
| | 00:05 |
targeted adjustments, it's often necessary
that that selection be as accurate and
| | 00:09 |
precise as possible.
You might need, for example, to trace
| | 00:14 |
exactly along an edge of an object within
your image, using perhaps the Lasso tool.
| | 00:19 |
It can, therefore, be very important that
you have the most precise cursor for your
| | 00:23 |
mouse when you're working with those
tools.
| | 00:26 |
And there are actually a couple of options
you can choose from for those cursors.
| | 00:30 |
Let's take a look.
I'll go ahead and choose, for example, the
| | 00:32 |
Lasso tool.
And when I move my mouse out over the
| | 00:35 |
image, you'll see that I have an icon
reflecting that lasso as well as an arrow.
| | 00:40 |
But it's no necessarily obvious with some
of the icons you'll see exactly where the
| | 00:44 |
point of action is.
In this case we do have an arrow but if
| | 00:48 |
for example we were using the magic wand
tool you have this wand and you're not
| | 00:52 |
neccarrily sure exactly where you're
clicking.
| | 00:57 |
But you can change these icons in a couple
of different ways.
| | 00:59 |
If you just want to change them
temporarily, you can press the Caps Lock
| | 01:03 |
key to switch between the iconic
representations of the tools versus the
| | 01:06 |
precise representations, or the cross-hair
display for example.
| | 01:11 |
But you can also change that setting
permanently in preferences.
| | 01:15 |
To do so, we'll go to the Edit >
Preferences > Cursors.
| | 01:21 |
That will bring up the Preferences dialog
set to the cursors page and you'll see
| | 01:25 |
that for painting cursors for example the
brush tool we have the normal brush tip
| | 01:29 |
option selected.
We also have precise option selected so
| | 01:33 |
that we have a cross hair.
But then we don't know the brush size.
| | 01:36 |
And we have the standard option, where we
have the iconic representations.
| | 01:41 |
In most cases, I prefer using the normal
brush tip option.
| | 01:44 |
You could also use the full size brush
tip, which gives you an indication of the
| | 01:48 |
soft edge of the brush, as applicable.
But we want to focus our attention at the
| | 01:53 |
moment on other cursors.
In other words, the cursors for the tools
| | 01:57 |
that are not brush tools.
The default is standard, and that's when
| | 02:00 |
you see the iconic representations.
But you can also change the setting to precise.
| | 02:05 |
So you'll have a cross hair representation
for those other tools, so that you can
| | 02:09 |
work with a bit more precision.
Once you've chosen your preferred
| | 02:13 |
settings, you can click OK.
And then, those settings will be become
| | 02:16 |
the default.
And that makes it much easier to work with
| | 02:19 |
precision as you're creating selection and
performing other work in Photoshop.
| | 02:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Selection ToolsThe Rectangular Marquee tool| 00:02 |
The Rectangular Marquee tool in Photoshop
is probably the simplest tool for creating
| | 00:06 |
selections or at least it generally
creates selections of the simplest shape,
| | 00:10 |
a rectangle.
Of course, while the shapes you're
| | 00:14 |
creating with the Rectangular Marquee tool
tend to be relatively simple, there are a
| | 00:17 |
variety of different options that affect
the behavior of this tool.
| | 00:22 |
Let's take a look at how it works.
I'll start by choosing the Rectangular
| | 00:26 |
Marquee tool from the toolbox and you'll
notice that, that activates the tool of
| | 00:30 |
course but also brings up some options on
the options bar.
| | 00:34 |
We have the controls that determine
whether we're creating a new selection,
| | 00:37 |
adding to an existing selection,
subtracting from an existing selection or
| | 00:40 |
intersecting with an existing selection.
We can adjust the feather and anti-alias
| | 00:46 |
settings as well as the style options.
Let's start off with feathering.
| | 00:51 |
Feathering allows us to have a soft edge
or transition edge, if you will, along the
| | 00:55 |
edges of the selection.
I recommend that you don't feather your selections.
| | 01:00 |
Not that you don't want the effect to be
feathered.
| | 01:03 |
You most certainly do in most cases.
But it's easier to apply that feathering
| | 01:07 |
later when you're actually putting the
selection to use for.
| | 01:10 |
For example for a targeted adjustment, so
I leave the feather option set to 0 pixels.
| | 01:15 |
The anti alias option is not available by
default with the Rectangular Marquee tool
| | 01:20 |
and that's because the rectangular marquee
tool is creating selections that are
| | 01:24 |
comprised of vertical and horizontal lines
and, therefore, aliasing is not On an issue.
| | 01:31 |
In other words, the selections we create
with the Rectangular Marquee tool are
| | 01:35 |
exactly following the shape of the pixels
that we're selecting.
| | 01:39 |
The style option allows us to specify
whether or not our selection will be constrained.
| | 01:44 |
By default, to create a seleciton with the
Rectangular Marquee tool if the style is
| | 01:48 |
set to normal we simply click.
And drag, and we end up with a selection
| | 01:52 |
based on where we click and where we
release the mouse.
| | 01:57 |
The point where I initially click becomes
one corner of the selection and the point
| | 02:00 |
where I release the mouse becomes the
other corner of the selection.
| | 02:05 |
But we can also constrain the shape of the
selection.
| | 02:08 |
I'll change the style pop-up to fixed
ratio, for example.
| | 02:12 |
You'll see the defaults here are one for
both the width and the height, so that
| | 02:16 |
when I click and drag, no matter which
direction I drag, the shape will always be
| | 02:20 |
a square.
Or I can't stretch it out into a ratio
| | 02:25 |
because I have a fixed ratio.
The aspect ratio will be fixed, to a
| | 02:29 |
particular setting.
In this case, a one to one setting.
| | 02:33 |
I can obviously change those values if I
wanted a different ratio.
| | 02:37 |
For example, a width to height ratio of 2
to 1 that would give me a rectangle.
| | 02:42 |
That was twice as wide as it is tall.
I can also create a selection of a
| | 02:46 |
specific size.
I can choose the fixed size option, and
| | 02:49 |
you can see I currently have values of 64
pixels for both width and height.
| | 02:54 |
And so now if I click, I don't even have
to drag, I will get a selection that is
| | 02:58 |
exactly 64 pixels wide by 64 pixels tall.
Starting off with the top left corner at
| | 03:04 |
the position where I clicked.
I'll go ahead and set that style option
| | 03:08 |
back to normal.
And then we can go take a look at the new
| | 03:11 |
add, subtract, and intersect options.
I usually leave this option set to new so
| | 03:17 |
that when I click and drag within the
image, I'm creating a new selection.
| | 03:22 |
But I can also add to an existing
selection by choosing the Add to Selection
| | 03:25 |
option, and then adding an additional
selection in the image.
| | 03:29 |
That additional selection can overlap with
an existing selection or be in a
| | 03:32 |
completely different area.
I can also use the Subtract from Selection
| | 03:37 |
option to cut away portions of a
selection.
| | 03:40 |
And finally, I can intersect, in other
words, I can deselect everything except
| | 03:44 |
the portion of the existing selection.
That falls inside my new selection.
| | 03:51 |
We can also access these options however
with keyboard shortcuts.
| | 03:54 |
And that's why I typically I leave the
options set to new selection, so that if I
| | 03:57 |
don't press any keys on the keyboard,
clicking and dragging to draw a new
| | 04:00 |
selection replaces any existing
selections.
| | 04:04 |
And then I can add to an existing
selection by holding the Shift key and
| | 04:07 |
then clicking and dragging to define that
new selection.
| | 04:11 |
Or I should say, that additional area of
the existing selection.
| | 04:15 |
I can also the subtract from Selection
option by holding the Alt key on Windows
| | 04:19 |
or the Option key on Macintosh.
While i click and drag to define that
| | 04:25 |
selection area.
Or the area that I want to cut from the
| | 04:28 |
existing selection.
And to access the intersect option, I can
| | 04:32 |
hold the Alt plus the Shift keys on
Windows, or the Option plus the Shift keys
| | 04:36 |
on Macintosh.
And the selection I define will determine
| | 04:41 |
which portion of the existing selection,
will still be selected when I release the mouse.
| | 04:47 |
There are a couple of other options
avalible as well.
| | 04:50 |
Those include using a keyboard shortcut to
constrain to a square shape.
| | 04:54 |
And also using a keyboard shortcut that
causes the selection to grow outward from
| | 04:58 |
the point you initially clicked on rather
than having that point be a corner of the selection.
| | 05:04 |
I'll go ahead and deselect the selection
and then I'm going to click And drag to to
| | 05:08 |
define a selection.
You'll see because I have the style option
| | 05:11 |
set to normal, I am able to make that any
rectangular shape I'd like.
| | 05:16 |
But if I would like to make that a square,
I can simply press and hold the Shift key.
| | 05:22 |
You might be thinking that I just got
finished telling you that the Shift key is
| | 05:25 |
the add to selection option, and that's
true if I'm holding the Shift key before I
| | 05:29 |
click my mouse.
But if I add the Shift key after I click
| | 05:34 |
the mouse to draw a selection with the
Rectangular Marquee tool Then I will
| | 05:37 |
constrain that selection to a square.
So what happens if you want to add to a
| | 05:43 |
selection in the shape of a square.
Well for that you'll use the Shift key of
| | 05:47 |
course, twice.
First, hold the Shift key so that you
| | 05:51 |
activate the add selection option and then
click and drag to start creating your selection.
| | 05:57 |
Keep the mouse button down and then let go
of the Shift key.
| | 06:01 |
You're still in the add selection mode
because you were holding the Shift key
| | 06:04 |
when you clicked the mouse.
And now if I decide that I want this
| | 06:09 |
additional selection area to be a square,
I can hold the Shift key while I continue dragging.
| | 06:14 |
And then when I release the mouse I'll
have that additional selection area.
| | 06:19 |
As a square.
To have a selection grow outward from the
| | 06:22 |
point you initially clicked, you can use
the Alt key on Windows, or the Option key
| | 06:25 |
on Macintosh.
Yes, that's the exact same key that's used
| | 06:29 |
to access the subtract from selection
option.
| | 06:32 |
But the same basic concept applies that we
saw just a moment ago.
| | 06:36 |
I'll go ahead and hold the Alt key on
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh,
| | 06:39 |
and you'll see that I'm in the subtract
from selection mode.
| | 06:43 |
But that's because I'm holding that key
before I click the mouse.
| | 06:46 |
If instead I release the Alt or Option key
and then click And drag to start creating
| | 06:50 |
a new selection.
That selection is anchored with a corner
| | 06:54 |
at the point I initially click.
But now that I'm in the middle of creating
| | 06:59 |
my selection with the mouse button held
down and dragging my mouse around.
| | 07:03 |
I can press and hold the Alt key on
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh and
| | 07:06 |
that selection grows outward.
From the point, I can even add the Shift key.
| | 07:12 |
So I'm holding the alt or option key, so
that my sleection is growing outward from
| | 07:16 |
the point that I initially click.
If I add the Shift key, it will grow
| | 07:20 |
outward in the shape of a square.
And if I want to subtract a portion of the
| | 07:25 |
selection, and have that selection that
I'm subtracting come from the center, I
| | 07:28 |
can hold the Alt key on Windows or the
Option key on Macintosh to access the
| | 07:32 |
Subtract from Selection option.
I'll then click and drag, but at this
| | 07:37 |
point I can release that Alt or Option key
and I'll still be in subtract from
| | 07:41 |
selection mode.
I can then press and hold one more time
| | 07:45 |
the Alt or Option key.
To grow outward from the point I initially
| | 07:49 |
clicked, and of course I can also add the
Shift key if I want to, to subtract
| | 07:53 |
growing outward from the center, in a
square shape.
| | 07:57 |
So, a little bit of complexity there but
just a couple of keyboard shortcuts that
| | 08:01 |
change in behavior based on whether I hold
the key Before or after I click.
| | 08:07 |
So, as you can see, while the selection
shapes you'll typically create with the
| | 08:11 |
Rectangular Marquee tool are relatively
simple, there are a variety of options
| | 08:14 |
that give you a surprising amount of
flexibility with this relatively simple
| | 08:18 |
selection tool.
| | 08:21 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The Elliptical Marquee tool| 00:02 |
The Elliptical Marquee tool, as the name
implies, allows you to create selections
| | 00:06 |
in your images that are based on ellipses.
And that makes it possible to select round
| | 00:11 |
or elliptical objects.
Let's take a look at how this Selection
| | 00:14 |
tool works.
It's actually almost identical to the
| | 00:17 |
Rectangular Marquee tool.
The key difference, of course, is that the
| | 00:21 |
resulting selection is elliptical in shape
rather than rectangular in shape.
| | 00:27 |
I'll get started by clicking and holding
on the button for the Rectangular Marquee
| | 00:30 |
tool on the toolbox.
That will bring up the fly up menu where I
| | 00:34 |
can chose the Elliptical Marquee tool.
With that tool active I can now work
| | 00:38 |
directly in the image in order to create
elliptical selections.
| | 00:42 |
But, first, let's take a look at various
options on the options bar.
| | 00:45 |
At the top left, I'm going to set the
option to create a new selection when I
| | 00:49 |
click and drag.
There are also options for add to
| | 00:52 |
selection, subtract from selection or
intersect with selection.
| | 00:56 |
We'll take a look at those in just a
moment.
| | 00:57 |
But for now, I'm going to create a new
selection with each click of the mouse.
| | 01:01 |
I'll make sure that the Feather option is
set to 0 pixels.
| | 01:04 |
I'll apply the effect of feathering later
in my workflow when I actually put the
| | 01:08 |
selection to use.
I also want to be sure that the Anti-alias
| | 01:12 |
checkbox is turned on, so that the
selection edges will be smoothed out just
| | 01:16 |
a little bit.
For the style pop up, I'll typically use
| | 01:20 |
the normal option that allows me to create
an eliptical selection of any aspect ratio
| | 01:24 |
that I'd like.
If I want to constrain that selection to a
| | 01:28 |
particular ratio, I can choose Fixed Ratio
and then set values for width or height.
| | 01:34 |
So for example if I want a selection that
is twice as wide as it is tall, I can
| | 01:38 |
enter a value of two for width and one for
height, and then click and drag.
| | 01:44 |
Inside the image, and as you can see, that
selection, no matter which direction I
| | 01:48 |
drag, is always going to be twice as wide
as it is tall.
| | 01:53 |
I can also create a selection of a
specific size.
| | 01:56 |
I'll choose the Fixed Size option from the
Style popup, and then I can specify values
| | 02:01 |
for width and height.
At the moment I have those set to 64
| | 02:05 |
pixels each.
And so when I click in the image, I get a
| | 02:08 |
selection that is exactly square, 64
pixels in diameter.
| | 02:14 |
I'll go ahead and press Control+D on
Windows or Command+D on Macintosh to
| | 02:17 |
deselect the selection.
And then I'll set the style option back to normal.
| | 02:22 |
And then we can take a look at some of the
other ways you might work with the
| | 02:25 |
Elliptical Marquee tool.
To begin with one of the biggest
| | 02:28 |
challenges of the Elliptical Marquee tool
Is the fact that the selections are elliptical.
| | 02:34 |
Now, that would stand to reason of course.
But the problem is that ellipses or
| | 02:38 |
circles don't have corners, but they do
fit inside of a rectangle and in essence
| | 02:42 |
what we're doing when we're creating a
selection with the Elliptical Marquee tool
| | 02:46 |
is drawing a rectangle inside which the
ellipse will be contained.
| | 02:52 |
Well that's all well and good, but how do
I create a selection when I don't know
| | 02:55 |
exactly where the corner is?
So for example if I want to create a
| | 03:00 |
selection of the inner portion of this
barrel, where do I click?
| | 03:05 |
Well I can go up from the left edge and
try to align with that top edge, and I
| | 03:08 |
think somewhere, right about there is
where I need to click.
| | 03:13 |
So I can go ahead and click and drag to
draw that selection And I find out that I
| | 03:16 |
didn't do a very good job.
My selection is not lining up with the
| | 03:21 |
inside of the barrel, but that's okay.
I don't need to line it up perfectly from
| | 03:25 |
the get go, in fact it doesn't really
matter necessarily where I initially click
| | 03:29 |
because as long as I'm holding that mouse
button down so that I can adjust the size
| | 03:33 |
and shape of my selection I can also move
that selection around.
| | 03:39 |
I'll go ahead and hold the Spacebar key on
the toolbar, and now when I drag you'll
| | 03:43 |
see that my selection is moving around
within the image.
| | 03:47 |
If I get it into the right position, I can
then release the Space bar, still holding
| | 03:51 |
down the mouse button.
By the way, so that I can continue
| | 03:55 |
dragging and re-sizing the selection.
As needed, I can press and hold the
| | 03:59 |
space-bar again in order to move that
selection.
| | 04:03 |
And then release the space-bar when I want
to adjust the overall size and dimensions
| | 04:07 |
of that selection.
And in this way, I can Fine tune the
| | 04:11 |
position and size of my selection until
it's absolutely perfect, then I can
| | 04:15 |
release the mouse to create that
selection.
| | 04:19 |
As with the Rectangular Marquee tool,
there are also some other keyboard
| | 04:22 |
shortcuts you may want to put to use.
First we can choose the Add to Selection,
| | 04:26 |
Subtract from Selection, or Intersect with
Selection options with a keyboard shortcut.
| | 04:32 |
I can hold the Shift key to access the Add
to Selection option.
| | 04:35 |
So holding Shift, I'll then click and drag
in order to add additional areas to the selection.
| | 04:40 |
I can access the Subtract From From
Selection option by holding the Alt key on
| | 04:44 |
Windows and or the Option key on
Macintosh, and then drag to define the
| | 04:48 |
areas that I want to remove from the
selection.
| | 04:53 |
And I can access the intersect option by
holding both the Alt and Shift keys on
| | 04:57 |
Windows or the option and shift keys on
Macintosh and then click and drag to
| | 05:01 |
define the area that I actually want to
keep within the selection.
| | 05:07 |
And all other areas will be deselected.
I will go ahead and deselect that
| | 05:11 |
selection, and then we take a look at
another option.
| | 05:13 |
If I click and drag, and then after I
clicked, I press and hold the Shift key.
| | 05:18 |
Then, I will constrain that selection to a
perfect circle.
| | 05:22 |
If I click and drag and then add the Alt
key on Windows or the Option key on
| | 05:26 |
Macintosh, that selection will grow
outward from the point I initially clicked.
| | 05:32 |
If I add the Shift key at this point, I
can still access that circle option, so
| | 05:35 |
that a selection is growing outward from
the point I initially clicked and the
| | 05:39 |
shape of that selection is a perfect
circle.
| | 05:44 |
So you can see we have quite a bit of
flexibility when it comes to the
| | 05:47 |
Elliptical Marquee tool.
It is a relatively simple tool, at least
| | 05:51 |
in terms of the selection shapes you're
able to create.
| | 05:54 |
But there are some slightly sophisticated
options for this relatively simple tools
| | 05:58 |
as well.
| | 05:59 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The Lasso tool| 00:02 |
The Lasso tool in Photoshop is probably
the most flexible of all the Selection tools.
| | 00:07 |
That's not to say it's the most
sophisticated, it's actually in some
| | 00:10 |
respects the simplest, but it allows you
to create a selection of any shape you can imagine.
| | 00:17 |
And that's because with the Lasso tool,
you're actually creating selections free hand.
| | 00:22 |
You're tracing or drawing to create the
selection.
| | 00:25 |
As a result, I tend not to use the Lasso
tool for creating initial selections, but
| | 00:30 |
rather I use it to modify existing
selections.
| | 00:34 |
In other words, to clean up a selection
that isn't quite perfect.
| | 00:38 |
Let's take a look at the basic use of the
Lasso tool.
| | 00:41 |
I'll start off by selecting the Lasso tool
from the Toolbox, and then we can take a
| | 00:45 |
look at the Settings on the Options bar.
We of course can choose to create a new
| | 00:49 |
selection, Add to an existing selection,
Subtract from an existing selection, or
| | 00:53 |
Intersect with an existing selection, and
then we have the option to Feather our selection.
| | 00:59 |
But I recommend not feathering in the
process of creating the selection.
| | 01:03 |
Instead, saving that for later in your
workflow.
| | 01:05 |
I do recommend having the Anti-alis
checkbox turned on so that the edges of
| | 01:09 |
your selections will be smoothed out a
little bit.
| | 01:13 |
But as you can see, there's not a whole
lot of options for the Lasso tool.
| | 01:16 |
We simply click and drag within the image
to define the shape of our selection.
| | 01:22 |
We can also then hold the Shift key to
access the Add to Selection option if we
| | 01:25 |
need to add additional areas to the
selection.
| | 01:28 |
We can hold the Alt key on Windows or the
Option key on Macintosh if we want to
| | 01:32 |
access the subtract from Selection option
in order to remove areas from the current selection.
| | 01:38 |
And we can hold both the Shift and Alt
keys on Windows or the Shift and Option
| | 01:42 |
keys on Macintosh to access the Intersect
with Selection option.
| | 01:47 |
So that the area we draw will define the
only portion of the existing selection
| | 01:52 |
that should remain selected.
I'll go ahead and deselect that selection
| | 01:56 |
though, because for this image, I have an
existing selection already saved, and I
| | 02:00 |
want to clean that selection up a little
bit.
| | 02:03 |
So, I'll go to the Select menu and choose
Load Selection.
| | 02:07 |
I'll make sure that the appropriate
selection that I've saved previously is
| | 02:10 |
selected from the channel pop-up.
In this case, the only selection.
| | 02:14 |
It's called Chain, and then I'll click OK
to create that selection.
| | 02:19 |
And if we take a look at the selection a
little bit closer, especially, we'll find
| | 02:22 |
that the selection is far from perfect.
There are some areas of the image, for
| | 02:27 |
example, that are selected and should not
be.
| | 02:30 |
And I'm sure we'll find some portions of
the image that are not selected, but
| | 02:33 |
should be.
But here, we find an area that is not
| | 02:36 |
chain but it's included in the Chain
selection, so I want to remove it from the
| | 02:40 |
selection, and that is exactly the type of
task I'll typically perform with the Lasso tool.
| | 02:47 |
So, I need to Subtract from selection, so
I'll hold the Alt key on Windows or the
| | 02:50 |
Option key on Macintosh, and then I'll
start off from a position where the
| | 02:54 |
selection is in the right place and then
I'll click and drag.
| | 02:59 |
And follow the edge of the area that I
need to, in this case, subtract from the selection.
| | 03:04 |
And I'll trace that until I get back to
the area where the selection meets, in
| | 03:08 |
this case, the chain, the object that I'm
selecting in essence.
| | 03:13 |
And then I just loop back to my original
starting point and release the mouse and
| | 03:17 |
that area is subtracted from the
selection.
| | 03:20 |
I'll press and hold the Space Bar key to
access the Hand tool and then I can pan
| | 03:24 |
around the image.
There's a portion here for example of the
| | 03:28 |
chain that is not included in the
selection, so I can hold the Shift key.
| | 03:32 |
And then click, starting from inside the
chain or inside that existing selection.
| | 03:37 |
And then I'll cross over that selection
and follow the outline of the chain as
| | 03:41 |
carefully as I can and then loop back
around to my initial starting point.
| | 03:47 |
And that area is added to the selection as
well.
| | 03:50 |
There's another area here that I think
should be included as part of that
| | 03:53 |
selection but it was not.
That looks much better.
| | 03:56 |
I can also zoom out just a little bit, and
then pan around the image and look for any
| | 04:00 |
other areas that need to be cleaned up.
Overall, the selection looks pretty good,
| | 04:05 |
but there are some areas that were not
quite perfect.
| | 04:08 |
Up here, I need to add to the selection.
So I'll hold the Shift key and then trace
| | 04:12 |
along that edge and loop back.
And here's another area that needs to be
| | 04:16 |
subtracted from the selection.
So I'll hold the Alt key on Windows or the
| | 04:19 |
Option key on Macintosh, and then adjust
that portion.
| | 04:23 |
Looks like I didn't quite trace exactly
along that chain, so I'll hold the Shift
| | 04:27 |
key in order to add to that selection and
clean up that area.
| | 04:31 |
And in this way, we are able to add to or
subtract from our selections, and that is
| | 04:36 |
really in my mind the best use for the
Lasso tool.
| | 04:40 |
Because it is so flexible, it's not the
best tool for creating large selections,
| | 04:44 |
but it's certainly incredibly helpful when
it comes to cleaning up or fine-tuning
| | 04:48 |
existing selections.
| | 04:51 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The Polygonal Lasso tool| 00:02 |
The Polygonal Lasso tool allows you to
create selections in the shape of polygons.
| | 00:07 |
In other words, comprised of straight
edges.
| | 00:09 |
While that might seem to be a bit of a
limiting factor, there are also some
| | 00:12 |
options that make the Polygonal Lasso tool
a bit more flexible.
| | 00:16 |
Let's take a look at the basic use of this
Selection tool.
| | 00:20 |
I'll start off by clicking and holding my
mouse on the button for the Lasso tool on
| | 00:24 |
the toolbox.
That will bring up a fly out menu, and
| | 00:27 |
from that menu, I will choose Polygonal
Lasso tool.
| | 00:30 |
Creating selections with the Polygonal
Lasso tool involves clicking to define
| | 00:35 |
anchor points.
So I can click to create my initial
| | 00:38 |
selection point.
And then move my mouse without holding the
| | 00:42 |
mouse button into the position for my next
anchor point.
| | 00:46 |
And then click again.
And again, and again, defining essentially
| | 00:50 |
all of the corners for my polygon.
When I'm finished defining my shape I can
| | 00:55 |
move the mouse over the initial point that
I clicked.
| | 00:58 |
You'll notice that my mouse pointer has an
indication of the Polygonal Lasso tool.
| | 01:03 |
With a circle, in other words, a closed
shape to the bottom right of it that
| | 01:06 |
indicates that clicking in that spot will
close my selection actually creating the
| | 01:10 |
selection for me.
But, of course, there are additional
| | 01:15 |
options available to us.
I'll go ahead and deselect by pressing
| | 01:19 |
Control+D on Windows or Command+D on
Macintosh.
| | 01:23 |
Let's take a moment to first understand
the options that are available on the
| | 01:26 |
options bar.
There aren't many of them.
| | 01:28 |
We can create a new selection, add to an
existing selection, subtract from an
| | 01:32 |
existing selection or intersect with an
existing selection.
| | 01:37 |
If we leave the option set to new
selection we can also access the Add to
| | 01:40 |
Selection option by holding the Shift key.
We can access the Subtract From Selection
| | 01:45 |
option by holding the Alt key on Windows
or the Option key on Macintosh.
| | 01:49 |
And we can access the Intersect option by
holding both the Shift and Alt keys on
| | 01:53 |
Windows, or both the Shift and Option keys
on Macintosh.
| | 01:58 |
We can adjust the feathering, but I
recommend leaving that set to zero pixels.
| | 02:03 |
Instead, applying the same effect as
feathering later in your work flow.
| | 02:06 |
And I do recommend leaving the anti alias
check box turned on, in order to smooth
| | 02:10 |
out those selection edges.
Which in this case primarily relates to
| | 02:14 |
the portions of the selection that are not
comprised of perfectly vertical or
| | 02:18 |
horizontal lines.
So, having looked at those options, let's
| | 02:22 |
continue exploring the Polygonal Lasso
tool.
| | 02:25 |
Since we use anchor points as the basis of
the selections we create, of course,
| | 02:30 |
you'll simply be clicking to define the
overall shape.
| | 02:34 |
But what happens if you decide part way
through that you haven't created just the
| | 02:38 |
right shape?
You could press the Escape key if needed
| | 02:42 |
in order to cancel out that selection.
In other words, to not create the
| | 02:46 |
selection at all.
But there's also an additional option.
| | 02:50 |
I'll go ahead and click and then click and
click and I'm just creating a random shape
| | 02:53 |
in this case.
Let's assume that I was on the right track
| | 02:56 |
to begin with and then.
Created a problem.
| | 02:59 |
Well, I can also back up.
Keep in mind that each time I click I'm
| | 03:03 |
creating an anchor point and at all times,
that last anchor point is connected to my
| | 03:07 |
mouse with a straight line.
But I can also back up, in other words
| | 03:13 |
remove, previous anchor points by pressing
the Delete key.
| | 03:18 |
So I'll go ahead and press delete and the
preceding anchor point is removed and
| | 03:21 |
delete one more time, and again, and
again, and again and each of those
| | 03:25 |
preceding anchors points is removed with
each press of the delete key.
| | 03:31 |
I'll go ahead and press Escape to cancel
that selection, and let's assume that I
| | 03:34 |
wanted to select the rectangle of the
white boards around the shuttered windows here.
| | 03:40 |
I could click in a corner and then click
at the next corner and then click at the
| | 03:44 |
following corner.
And the next corner and then finally back
| | 03:49 |
to my original starting position.
And of course, in this case, you might
| | 03:54 |
have originally assumed that the
rectangular Marquee tool would be an
| | 03:57 |
effective tool, but things are a little
bit crooked here.
| | 04:01 |
The windows aren't exactly parallel with
each other, and because of perspective
| | 04:04 |
distortion, the shapes are not True
rectangles either.
| | 04:07 |
So, the polygonal (UNKNOWN) proves to be
very, very helpful, but what about a
| | 04:12 |
situation where the polygon you want to
select isn't exactly a polygon.
| | 04:17 |
Let's take a look at the left window, for
example, and I am going to zoom in just a
| | 04:21 |
little bit so that we can get a close look
at the corner here, and you will see that
| | 04:25 |
the shape of the white portion here is not
exactly squared off.
| | 04:32 |
So, let's assume that we are creating a
selection of this white area.
| | 04:36 |
But we ran into that corner, and we want
the selection to follow the actual white shape.
| | 04:41 |
I'll go ahead and just start a selection
midway through.
| | 04:44 |
So I'll start over here and I'll simply
click.
| | 04:46 |
And then I'll click again at the end of
that straight line.
| | 04:49 |
But at this point, I don't want a straight
line.
| | 04:52 |
In theory I could use lots of small
straight lines until I get back to the
| | 04:55 |
portion of this shape that is straight.
But it will actually be easier to take
| | 05:00 |
advantage of an additional option that's
available with the Polygonal Lasso tool.
| | 05:05 |
At any time when I'm in the middle of
creating a selection, I can actually
| | 05:09 |
switch on the fly to the regular Lasso
tool so that I can trace a particular
| | 05:13 |
random shape.
To access taht feature, you'll the Alt key
| | 05:18 |
on Windows or the Option key in Macintosh.
So, I'll get my mouse back to the point
| | 05:22 |
where I want to start tracing freehand.
And then I'll hold the Alt key on Windows
| | 05:27 |
or option key on Macintosh and then click
and drag with the mouse in order to define
| | 05:32 |
that shape.
Once I get back to the portion that's
| | 05:36 |
straight, I can release the mouse button
and release the alter option key and now
| | 05:39 |
I'm back to creating a polygonal
selection, in other words I am adding
| | 05:42 |
anchor points and defining straight lines.
So as you can see, working with the
| | 05:49 |
Polygonal Lasso tool is rather
straightforward.
| | 05:52 |
We're just defining anchor points and
connecting the dots as it were to create a selection.
| | 05:57 |
But we also have the flexibility of being
able to add random shapes along the way by
| | 06:01 |
taking advantage of the Lasso tool.
As part of the polygonal lasso too.
| | 06:07 |
It all adds up to a rather flexible tool.
You might not use it all that often
| | 06:11 |
because you may not find situations all
that often where the selection you need is
| | 06:15 |
comprised primarily of straight edges.
But when you do need to create a selection
| | 06:20 |
that is comprised of mostly straight lines
the Polygonal Lasso tool can't be beat.
| | 06:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The Magnetic Lasso tool| 00:02 |
The Magnetic Lasso tool is one that I find
interesting, because it's sort of a
| | 00:05 |
balance between a manual selection tool
you might say and an Automatic Selection tool.
| | 00:10 |
What I mean by that is it's manual in a
sense that I need to trace around the
| | 00:14 |
object that I want to select, but it's
automatic because it automatically detects
| | 00:18 |
the edge of that object.
Let's take a look at how the Magnetic
| | 00:23 |
Lasso tool works.
To get started I'll select the Magnetic
| | 00:27 |
Lasso tool from the toolbox.
It's hiding, as it were, underneath the
| | 00:30 |
regular Lasso tool.
So I'll click and hold my mouse on the
| | 00:33 |
Lasso tool's button and then from the fly
out menu that appears I'll select Magnetic
| | 00:37 |
Lasso Tool.
The Magnetic Lasso tool is, in some ways,
| | 00:42 |
a Brush tool.
It has a brush size or a width setting
| | 00:45 |
that determines which area of the image is
being evaluated.
| | 00:50 |
Let's take a quick look at the basic
operation of the Magnetic Lasso tool.
| | 00:54 |
I'll simply move out over the image and
increase the brush size.
| | 00:57 |
And then I'm going to click on the edge of
the object that I want to select.
| | 01:02 |
So I'll just click here on the edge of
this portion of the building and then I
| | 01:06 |
move my mouse along that edge.
I don't need to hold the mouse button down.
| | 01:10 |
I just move my mouse along that edge.
And what's happening is that small anchor
| | 01:15 |
points are being added along that edge.
Those are defining the actual edge so each
| | 01:20 |
of those anchor points are being
connected.
| | 01:23 |
And as I move my mouse, Photoshop is
looking inside the circle to see where the
| | 01:27 |
highest point of contrast is.
Within that circle.
| | 01:32 |
So it's an Edge Detection tool, but one
that requires me to trace the edge of the
| | 01:36 |
object I want to select.
Let's take a look at the various settings
| | 01:40 |
that relate to the use of the Magnetic
Lasso tool.
| | 01:43 |
At this point I'll just press the Esc key
to cancel out of the selection, and we'll
| | 01:46 |
take a look at the Options bar.
We have first the option to create a new
| | 01:51 |
selection or to add to an existing
selection.
| | 01:54 |
To subtract from an existing selection or
to intersect with an existing selection.
| | 01:59 |
We can also feather our selection as we're
creating it, but I recommend leaving this
| | 02:02 |
at a value of 0 pixels, and instead, apply
the same effect as feathering later in
| | 02:05 |
your workflow when you put the selection
to use.
| | 02:10 |
I also recommend leaving the anti alias
check box turned on, so that jagged edges
| | 02:13 |
in the selection will be smoothed out a
little bit and then we turn to the key
| | 02:17 |
settings for the Magnetic Lasso tool.
The first is width and, as we've already
| | 02:22 |
seen that essentially is the size of the
brush that we're using.
| | 02:26 |
In order to trace the edge of the object
that we're trying to select.
| | 02:30 |
We can use the left and right square
bracket keys to adjust the size of that
| | 02:33 |
brush, so the right square bracket key
will increase the size, and the left
| | 02:36 |
square bracket key will reduce the size.
You could also enter a specific value for
| | 02:41 |
width, or you could take advantage of the
scrubby slider, simply clicking on the
| | 02:44 |
word Width and dragging to the right to
increase the value.
| | 02:49 |
Or to the left to decrease the value.
The approach I recommend in setting the
| | 02:53 |
width value is to consider the object
you're selecting, and to sort of
| | 02:56 |
compromise between how detailed you need
to be when you're tracing along that edge.
| | 03:02 |
You can get a more accurate selection by
using a very small width and tracing very
| | 03:05 |
carefully along the edge of the object
you're selecting.
| | 03:09 |
If you use a relatively large width, then
you're able to move quite quickly, because
| | 03:13 |
it's very easy then with such a large
circle to keep the edge inside of that circle.
| | 03:19 |
So the best approach is to compromise a
little bit, to find a setting that works
| | 03:22 |
reasonably well, where you can trace
carefully but quickly.
| | 03:27 |
If they're nearby high contrast edges, so
in other words if there have been another
| | 03:30 |
edge that had high contrast near the high
contrast edge I'm trying to select, then I
| | 03:34 |
would probably want to use a much smaller
width setting, so that I'm able to keep
| | 03:37 |
that high contrast edge taht I want select
inside the circle.
| | 03:43 |
Without any other competing high contrast
edges getting inside that circle.
| | 03:47 |
We can also adjust the contrast.
Under normal circumstances, when the
| | 03:52 |
magnetic Lasso tool is a good tool for a
particular selection, you can probably
| | 03:55 |
just leave the contrast at the default
value of 10%, or frankly have it set to
| | 03:58 |
just about any value, because it won't
make a huge difference.
| | 04:03 |
But you can also increase the value, which
essentially is increasing the amount of
| | 04:07 |
contrast that is required for an area to
be considered an edge.
| | 04:11 |
So for example, if I were using an
especially large brush for some reason,
| | 04:15 |
and that allowed another edge to get.
Inside the circle then it would be
| | 04:19 |
possible to use a high-contrast setting in
order to ensure that only the highest
| | 04:23 |
contrast edge were treated as the actual
edge being selected.
| | 04:28 |
In this case for example, I have a
reasonably good amount of contrast so,
| | 04:31 |
let's take a look at the difference we
might see with a low setting versus a high setting.
| | 04:36 |
I'll go ahead and take this value down to
1%, and then I'll just click.
| | 04:40 |
And drag along this edge, not being
careful at all.
| | 04:43 |
And you'll see that the selection is not
all that good, because it's finding a one
| | 04:47 |
percent contrast all over the place inside
of that circle as I move.
| | 04:52 |
And so it's very difficult for Photoshop
to identify which particular contrast edge
| | 04:55 |
I'm really looking for.
I'll press this Escape to cancel that
| | 04:59 |
selection and I'll take the contrast value
up relatively high.
| | 05:02 |
In this case around 85% or so, and then I
will do the exact same thing just moving
| | 05:06 |
not very carefully along that edge.
And you'll see I get a little bit better
| | 05:11 |
result, not perfect but improved over what
we saw just a moment ago.
| | 05:16 |
So again the contrast setting tends not to
be terribly critical, but it does have
| | 05:19 |
some effect on the behavior of the
magnetic Lasso tool, so in some cases it
| | 05:23 |
may be worth adjusting.
We can also set the frequency.
| | 05:27 |
We've already seen that the Magnetic Lasso
tool places anchor points in order to
| | 05:31 |
define the actual edge of the object we're
selecting.
| | 05:35 |
The frequency determines how frequently
those anchor points are being placed.
| | 05:39 |
I'll go ahead and press Escape to cancel
my selection and I'll take this frequency
| | 05:43 |
down to the minimum value of zero.
And then I'll click along one of the edges
| | 05:47 |
in the image.
And I'll move my mouse slowly along that edge.
| | 05:52 |
And you'll notice because the frequency is
set to zero, I'm not getting all that many
| | 05:56 |
anchor points.
Certainly anchor points are being added as
| | 05:59 |
needed in order to define that edge, but
they're not occurring very frequently.
| | 06:04 |
I'll press Escape to clear that selection
and then I'll increase the frequency to
| | 06:08 |
its maximum value of 100 and I'll repeat
that same process, clicking on that high
| | 06:12 |
contrast edge and then slowly moving along
the edge.
| | 06:16 |
And you can see very clearly that I'm
getting many more anchor points and the
| | 06:20 |
result is a little bit more accurate
selection.
| | 06:24 |
Because I'm getting a greater number of
those anchor points and therefore subtle
| | 06:27 |
changes in shape of the object I'm
selecting will be followed a little bit
| | 06:30 |
more accurately.
So, with my settings established, and I
| | 06:34 |
think at this point, I have pretty good
settings for this particular selection,
| | 06:37 |
I'll go ahead and press Escape so that I
can start over, and then I'll click along
| | 06:40 |
that high contrast edge.
And once again, I'm just clicking and releasing.
| | 06:45 |
I'm not clicking and holding the mouse
button and dragging.
| | 06:47 |
And then I can move the mouse along that
high contrast edge.
| | 06:51 |
And I can move at a reasonably fast pace.
I really just need to make sure that I'm
| | 06:56 |
keeping the contrast edge of the object I
want to select.
| | 06:59 |
Inside that circle at all times.
Because that's where photoshop is looking
| | 07:04 |
for the contrast.
If I move a little more slowly, then
| | 07:07 |
generally you'll see that I get a little
bit more accurate results in large part
| | 07:10 |
because the frequency is set to a high
value.
| | 07:14 |
And therefore those anchor points will be
placed more frequently.
| | 07:17 |
As long as I'm not moving the mouse too
quickly.
| | 07:20 |
Of course, for this particular object, it
extends outside of the frame.
| | 07:23 |
And that is actually one of the
shortcomings of the Magnetic Lasso tool.
| | 07:27 |
It essentially doesn't realize that the
object is extending out of the frame, and
| | 07:30 |
so when I get to the edge of the frame,
and move my mouse outside the image, and
| | 07:34 |
then follow all the way around to the
point where I originally started, you'll
| | 07:37 |
notice that while it followed the edge for
the most part, it also jumped in just a
| | 07:41 |
little bit in a couple of spots.
Nothing too terrible, but enough that the
| | 07:48 |
selection is less than perfect and we'll
need some clean up in those areas.
| | 07:52 |
But then I will re-enter the image at that
high contrast edge up toward the top of
| | 07:56 |
the photo.
And continue to my original starting point.
| | 08:00 |
Once my mouse is hovered over that point,
you'll see that my mouse pointer changes
| | 08:03 |
to an icon representing the Magnetic Lasso
tool.
| | 08:06 |
With a circle at the bottom right corner
indicating that if I click here it will
| | 08:10 |
close that selection, or complete the
process of creating a selection.
| | 08:14 |
So I'll go ahead and click, and you can
see that my selection is now created.
| | 08:19 |
It's probably abundantly clear that the
Magnetic Lasso tool tends not to create
| | 08:23 |
perfect selections in many cases.
But it does make it easy to create a
| | 08:27 |
selection where a high contrast edge
exists.
| | 08:30 |
It doesn't tend to be the first tool I
look to for creating a selection, but it
| | 08:33 |
can be helpful in a variety of situations.
There is one additional option available
| | 08:38 |
for the Magnetic Lasso tool that is
especially helpful if you inadvertently
| | 08:41 |
move your mouse away from that contrast
edge.
| | 08:44 |
I'll go ahead and press Control+D on
Windows or Command+D on Macintosh in order
| | 08:48 |
to deselect that selection.
And then I'll go ahead and start creating
| | 08:52 |
the selection again.
I'll click and then move my mouse.
| | 08:56 |
And if I follow that edge I should have no
trouble But if I move away from the edge
| | 09:00 |
and back in.
Of course, Photoshop is still going to
| | 09:04 |
create anchor points for the selection, so
now I've made a mistkae.
| | 09:08 |
Well, I could certainly continue on.
And then fix that mistake through other means.
| | 09:13 |
For example using one of the other
selection tools and subtracting from the selection.
| | 09:17 |
But I can also move back.
I can essentially back up along this path
| | 09:21 |
that I'm defining.
The first thing that I'll do is move my
| | 09:24 |
mouse back to the point where I last had a
good anchor point.
| | 09:29 |
Because that's the point where I'll want
to continue from.
| | 09:31 |
And then I can press the Delete key.
In order to delete the preceeding anchor
| | 09:36 |
point and I can keep pressing Delete until
I've deleted all of the problem anchor points.
| | 09:42 |
In other words until back to my current
position and then I could continue moving
| | 09:46 |
the mouse along that contrast edge and
anchor points will be placed for me.
| | 09:52 |
So as you can see, we have some options
for fine-tuning the behavior of the
| | 09:55 |
Magnetic Lasso tool, but by and large, it
is simply an Edge Detection tool.
| | 10:00 |
And it makes it relatively easy to make
selections when we have a high-contrast
| | 10:04 |
edge to work with.
| | 10:06 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The Quick Selection tool| 00:02 |
The Quick Selection tool is easily my
favorite Selection tool in Photoshop.
| | 00:06 |
In fact, I often refer to it not just as
the Quick Selection tool, but as the quick
| | 00:09 |
and easy selection tool.
And it really does make easy work of many selections.
| | 00:15 |
Let's take a look at how we can use the
Quick Selection tool.
| | 00:17 |
I'll get started by choosing the Quick
Selection tool from the Toolbox.
| | 00:21 |
And then, just so we can see exactly how
it works, I'll simply click and drag
| | 00:25 |
across an object that I want to select,
and as you can see, it's done a remarkable
| | 00:29 |
job of identifying the edges of that
object.
| | 00:33 |
It's not a perfect selection.
You can see, for example, there's a
| | 00:36 |
portion of this life ring that was not
selected, and the rope was not selected.
| | 00:40 |
That could be good or bad depending on
what I'm looking for here But the point is
| | 00:43 |
it did a remarkable job of creating that
initial selection.
| | 00:47 |
Let's take a look at the various options
that are available for the quick selection
| | 00:50 |
tool upon the options bar.
The first is a slight variation of what we
| | 00:54 |
normally see for the other selection tools
in Photoshop.
| | 00:59 |
Normally, we have a new selection option,
the add to selection option, the subtract
| | 01:02 |
from selection option.
Option and the intersect with selection option.
| | 01:07 |
In the case of the Quick Selection tool
things are slightly different.
| | 01:11 |
First off, there's no intersect option and
that's largely due to the nature of the
| | 01:14 |
Quick Selection tool in terms of how it
works.
| | 01:18 |
It just doesn't make much sense to
intersect when you don't really know what
| | 01:21 |
you're intersecting with, considering that
Photoshop is identifying the edges of the
| | 01:25 |
selection for For you.
The other interesting thing is that if we
| | 01:29 |
choose the New Selection option, that's
only effective once.
| | 01:33 |
As soon as I start to create a selection,
I'll go ahead and just start a random
| | 01:36 |
selection here, I am creating a new
selection that is replacing the existing selection.
| | 01:42 |
But, as soon as I release the mouse, the
tool automatically switches to the Add to
| | 01:45 |
Selection option.
And because the settings are sticky, if I
| | 01:49 |
switch to a different tool and then come
back to the quick selection tool, it will
| | 01:52 |
still be set to the Add Option.
And what that generally means is that in
| | 01:57 |
most cases I'm always working with the
options Set to Add.
| | 02:01 |
And that usually works perfectly fine
because typically you'll switch to the
| | 02:04 |
Quick Selection tool.
Because you don't yet have a selection created.
| | 02:09 |
And so you're going to start creating a
selection.
| | 02:11 |
And if you're starting with no selection,
adding still works just fine.
| | 02:14 |
It essentially works as though it were a
new selection.
| | 02:16 |
But it also means that you won't upset an
existing selection if you switch to the
| | 02:20 |
Quick Selection tool.
If you need to choose the subtract option,
| | 02:24 |
you can click on the subtract option.
But you can also simply hold the Alt key
| | 02:28 |
on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh,
in order to access that subtract from
| | 02:32 |
selection option.
Because the Quick Selection tool is
| | 02:36 |
essentially a brush tool, we're painting
over the object that we want to select,
| | 02:39 |
there's also a brush size.
We can establish the brush settings on the
| | 02:44 |
Options bar, but generally speaking I'll
just adjust the brush size on the fly
| | 02:47 |
using the Right Square bracket key to
increase the brush size, or the Left
| | 02:50 |
Square bracket key to decrease the brush
size.
| | 02:55 |
The Sample All Layers checkbox enables you
to essentially not worry about which layer
| | 02:59 |
is selected in most cases.
If for example I already had an adjustment
| | 03:04 |
layer active for this image, I don't need
to worry about selecting the background
| | 03:07 |
image layer in order to create a selection
sampling from that layer.
| | 03:12 |
I can simply work on whatever layer is
active.
| | 03:15 |
Just keep in mind that this literally
means to sample all layers that are
| | 03:17 |
actually visible at the moment, and so if
you're working on a composite image and
| | 03:21 |
you want to create a selection from a
specific layer, then you might want to
| | 03:23 |
turn this option off.
But in most cases I leave the Sample All
| | 03:28 |
Layers checkbox turned on.
I also leave the auto enhance check box
| | 03:32 |
turned on.
This tends to be a relatively subtle setting.
| | 03:36 |
With this check box turned on Photoshop
will perform some additional analysis of
| | 03:40 |
the selection edge that was initially
created and it will fine tune it.
| | 03:45 |
Usually, I find it with the Auto-Enhance
checkbox turned on, I get a higher quality
| | 03:48 |
selection that better follows the edge of
the subject.
| | 03:51 |
The only other indication that it's even
on is that you'll see a slight (no period)
| | 03:54 |
And jittering of that selection edge just
before it's finalized.
| | 03:58 |
So you'll paint along an object, and
you'll see the selection edge bounce
| | 04:01 |
around just a little bit before it's
finalized.
| | 04:05 |
So I typically use these settings always
for the Quick Selection tool.
| | 04:08 |
I'll go ahead and press control d on
Windows or command d on Macintosh to
| | 04:12 |
deselect, and you'll see I can simply
click and drag across the life ring here.
| | 04:17 |
To create that initial selection, and then
of course I can zoom in on the areas that
| | 04:20 |
were less than perfect and reduce the
brush size using the left square bracket key.
| | 04:26 |
And then I will click and drag near this
area that was problematic.
| | 04:31 |
You'll notice that initially that
selection edge doesn't look to be
| | 04:33 |
following along the edge very well.
But then I'll release the mouse, and
| | 04:37 |
you'll see it adjusts just a little bit
but I'm still having an issue over here.
| | 04:41 |
That's probably because this portion of
the light frame has a color and tonal
| | 04:45 |
value that very closely matches this area
out here.
| | 04:49 |
But I'll hold the Alt key on Windows or
the Option key on Macintosh and then paint
| | 04:53 |
over that area that I want to subtract.
And once again you'll see an initial
| | 04:57 |
selection shape.
But when I release the mouse, that
| | 05:00 |
selection will be cleaned up just a little
bit.
| | 05:02 |
So I can continue in this manner working
to fine tune the selection.
| | 05:07 |
I'll go ahead and reduce that brush size
for example.
| | 05:09 |
And then paint on that rope, you see that
I get part of the wall here included in
| | 05:12 |
the selection.
And so I'll hold the Alt key on Windows or
| | 05:16 |
Option key on Macintosh, and then just
click and paint just a small amount inside
| | 05:19 |
that area.
And then once again tidy up in a couple of
| | 05:23 |
other areas.
But as you can see, the Quick Selection
| | 05:26 |
tool is incredibly easy to work with, and
it makes quick work of many selections.
| | 05:30 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The Magic Wand tool| 00:02 |
In many ways I think of the quick
selection tool in Photoshop as being sort
| | 00:05 |
of the new version of the magic wand tool.
As a result I would tend to use the quick
| | 00:10 |
selection tool most of the time or at
least use the quick selection tool more
| | 00:14 |
often than not for my initial selection.
But there are still situations where the
| | 00:19 |
magic wand tool is simply a better choice
than the quick selection tool.
| | 00:23 |
And that has to do with creating
selections that consist of a variety of
| | 00:26 |
noncontiguous areas.
Let's take a look at how we can use the
| | 00:30 |
magic wand tool to create a noncontiguous
selection and in general, to get a better
| | 00:33 |
sense of how to utilize the magic wand
tool.
| | 00:37 |
I'll start by choosing the magic wand
tool, it's found under the quick selection tool.
| | 00:41 |
And so I'll click and hold my mouse on the
button for the quick selection tool on the
| | 00:45 |
toolbox and then from the file menu that
appears I'll choose the magic wand tool.
| | 00:50 |
The Magic Wand tool is a sampling tool
meaning I can sample a pixel in the image
| | 00:54 |
and Photoshop will evaluate the image and
determine which pixels should be included
| | 00:59 |
in the selection.
So for example if I click on the sky I'll
| | 01:04 |
get a selection of a portion of the sky
and the settings I use for the Magic Wand
| | 01:08 |
tool will determine which specific pixels
Actually get selected.
| | 01:14 |
Let's take a look at the various options
that are available for the Magic Wand tool.
| | 01:18 |
As with most of the other selection tools,
I have the option to create a new
| | 01:21 |
selection, to add to an existing
selection, to subtract from an existing
| | 01:24 |
selection, or to intersect with an
existing selection.
| | 01:29 |
I can also adjust the sample side So, once
again, the Magic Wand tool is sampling a
| | 01:33 |
pixel from within the image and then
determining which pixels should be
| | 01:36 |
included in the selection.
And the same size determines how exactly
| | 01:42 |
the pixel you click on is being sampled.
I'll illustrate exactly what I mean here.
| | 01:47 |
I'll set the Tolerance to a moderately low
setting.
| | 01:50 |
We'll talk more about tolerance in just a
moment.
| | 01:53 |
And then I'm going to identify an exact
pixel that I'm going to click on with
| | 01:56 |
different sample settings.
So we can see the difference very clearly.
| | 02:00 |
I'll press Ctrl + D on Windows or Cmd + D
on Macintosh, to deselect my selection.
| | 02:05 |
And then from the View Menu I'll choose
Rulers to enable the display of the rulers
| | 02:09 |
for the image.
And then I'll click on the Vertical ruler
| | 02:12 |
over on the left side and drag inward, and
I'm going to place a guide right there.
| | 02:17 |
And then I'll click on the horizontal
ruler up at the top, and drag downward.
| | 02:22 |
And I will place my other guide right
there.
| | 02:24 |
These guides are not necessary for using
the magic wand tool.
| | 02:28 |
I just want to illustrate the use of the
sample size option with some precision.
| | 02:33 |
I want to click on the exact same spot
with different sample size settings, so
| | 02:36 |
that you get a better sense of how it
effects the selection that you're creating.
| | 02:41 |
I'll go ahead and press Ctrl + R on
Windows or Cmd + R on Macintosh to hide
| | 02:44 |
the rulers.
And now with the sample size set to point
| | 02:48 |
sample, I'll go ahead and click Right on
that spot.
| | 02:52 |
So I'll align my cross hair with the
guides that I've added.
| | 02:56 |
I will click, and you'll see that I get a
selection that is, essentially I guess you
| | 03:00 |
might say, an elliptical shape just in
front of the horse.
| | 03:04 |
I'll then go ahead and change the sample
size.
| | 03:06 |
You can see that in addition to point
sample, we have a 3 by 3 average.
| | 03:11 |
A 5 by 5 average, an 11 by 11 average.
31 by 31, 51 by 51 and 101 by 101.
| | 03:18 |
And what these numbers mean is the number
of pixel or the size of the grid of pixels
| | 03:22 |
that are being evaluated.
Lets take a look at the 101 and 101 option.
| | 03:29 |
That means that I am sampling a grid of
101 pixels across by 101 pixels down.
| | 03:35 |
I'll go ahead and de-select my selection,
and then I'm going to click on the exact
| | 03:39 |
same spot, and we'll see how that
selection differs.
| | 03:43 |
So I'll press Ctrl + D on Windows or Cmd +
D on Macintosh.
| | 03:47 |
And then I will align my cross hair with
those guides that I added, and when I
| | 03:51 |
click, I get a very different selection.
And the reason for that is my sample.
| | 03:58 |
Because I sampled the exact same pixel
each time, the results were very different.
| | 04:03 |
And that's because initially I created a
selection where I only sampling a single pixel.
| | 04:09 |
But then I increased that sample size, so
now I'm evaluating a series of pixels in
| | 04:14 |
this area.
In averaging them all together and that
| | 04:18 |
means that the pixel I clicked on doesn't
actually become the color that is used to
| | 04:22 |
evaluate the rest of the image instead the
average of all these colors including
| | 04:26 |
those very dark pixels representing the
horse are taken together in average so
| | 04:30 |
would end up with a very very different
result.
| | 04:36 |
And you can see that is reflected in the
selection that I get.
| | 04:39 |
Instead of a small section infront of the
horse, I'm getting almost the entire
| | 04:43 |
horse, perhaps even all of it, plus a much
larger section of the sky and the water in
| | 04:46 |
the background.
So a very, very different result.
| | 04:50 |
So, then the question is, why would you
want to use a different sample size?
| | 04:54 |
And the answer is Texture.
If there's lots of texture you may need to
| | 04:58 |
increase that sample size to ensure that
you get the selection you're looking for
| | 05:01 |
so that the variations in that texture are
all being averaged together.
| | 05:07 |
I'll go ahead and choose View and then
Clear Guides in order to remove those
| | 05:10 |
guides that I had added.
And then I'll deselect by pressing Ctrl +
| | 05:13 |
D on Windows or Cmd + D on Macintosh.
And then we'll take a look at the
| | 05:18 |
tolerance setting.
I'll start off by changing my sample size
| | 05:21 |
back to point sample, and then I'll change
the tolerance down to it's minimum value
| | 05:25 |
of 0 and I'll just click in the sky and
you can see I have a very small selection
| | 05:28 |
and that's because my tolerance is very
low.
| | 05:34 |
Tolerance determines the degree to which
pixels must match the pixelized sample in
| | 05:38 |
order to be included in the selection.
So with a very low tolerance setting the
| | 05:42 |
pixels must be an almost identical match
to the pixel that I click on.
| | 05:47 |
In other words I'm not likely to have a
very large selection.
| | 05:51 |
If I increase the value for tolerance.
And then click in the sky again, you'll
| | 05:54 |
see that now the pixels do not need to
match as closely and so I get a much
| | 05:58 |
bigger selection.
And in fact if I take that tolerance up to
| | 06:03 |
its maximum value of 255 and then click
once again in the sky.
| | 06:08 |
You'll see that I get the entire image
selected.
| | 06:11 |
In other words I'm being so tolerant that
no matter how much variation and pixel
| | 06:14 |
value there is, the pixels are still
considered a close enough match to be
| | 06:18 |
included in that selection.
Generally speaking I use a moderately low
| | 06:23 |
setting for tolerance.
In fact in most cases I start off at
| | 06:26 |
around 16 for tolerance, but of course in
some cases you might want to use a higher value.
| | 06:32 |
I'll work with a value of 20 in this case,
and you can see that if I click in the
| | 06:35 |
sky, I end up with a selection that does
not include all of the sky.
| | 06:40 |
This might seem to you like a bad starting
point for my selection.
| | 06:44 |
And yet, very often, I will use a
relatively low setting for tolerance, even
| | 06:47 |
though it means I'm not going to create a
selection in one click.
| | 06:51 |
And that's because, in my mind It's more
important to make sure that I don't
| | 06:54 |
include pixels that I don't want in the
selection than that I would be able to
| | 06:58 |
create a selection in one click.
Remember, I can always add to the existing
| | 07:03 |
selection, so I typically use a relatively
low setting for tolerance, and then I'll
| | 07:06 |
hold the Shift key and click in additional
areas of the sky in order to sample
| | 07:10 |
additional portions of that sky, and
increase the size of the selection.
| | 07:16 |
That might mean that I need to Shift +
Click multiple times in order to finalize
| | 07:19 |
the selection.
But this tends to be a little bit safer approach.
| | 07:23 |
In this case, becasue there's so much
variation in the sky, I could certainly
| | 07:26 |
use a higher value for tolerance.
But the point is that I don't spend a lot
| | 07:30 |
of time trying to find the perfect value
for tolerance.
| | 07:32 |
But rather use a moderately low setting
And then simply add to my selection in
| | 07:36 |
order to create the final result.
The next setting on the Options bar is the
| | 07:40 |
Anti-Alias check box, and I recommend
always leaving that turned on so that the
| | 07:44 |
edge of the selection will be smoothed out
just a little bit.
| | 07:48 |
We also have a Contiguous option.
And with this check box turned on, you'll
| | 07:52 |
see that I can only create a selection of
contiguous areas.
| | 07:57 |
I'm going to increase my tolerance
setting.
| | 07:59 |
Just to make it more obvious the result
that we're getting here.
| | 08:01 |
And then I'll deselect and I'm going to
click in the sky.
| | 08:04 |
And you'll see that we get a selection
that covers most of the sky.
| | 08:08 |
But it doesn't touch disconfiguous areas.
So for example where the reigns of the
| | 08:13 |
horse are blocking off a portion of the
sky here.
| | 08:17 |
That area is not included in the
selection.
| | 08:20 |
If I turn off contiguous, and then click
somewhere else in the sky, you'll notice
| | 08:24 |
that I get those areas that were
discontiguous from the area that I clicked
| | 08:27 |
on included in the selection.
And this is one of the fundamental reasons
| | 08:32 |
that you might use the magic wand tool in
certain situations, rather than the quick
| | 08:36 |
selection tool.
I'll deselect, and you can see that I have
| | 08:41 |
a variety of areas that are discontiguous.
With the quick selection tool I could
| | 08:46 |
paint across the sky, but But then I would
also need to paint in each individual
| | 08:50 |
discontiguous area in order to create that
final selection.
| | 08:54 |
With the magic wand tool, I can turn off
the contiguous option, and then click in
| | 08:58 |
an area of the sky.
And Shift + Click in additional areas of
| | 09:01 |
the sky in order to build up that
selection.
| | 09:05 |
Finally, on the options bar we have the
sample all layers checkbox and in most
| | 09:08 |
cases I will turn that checkbox on so that
I don't need to worry about which
| | 09:11 |
particular layer is active on the layers
panel.
| | 09:15 |
For example, if I had already added a
couple of adjustment layers and I had one
| | 09:19 |
of those layers active I would need to
switch to my background image layer if I
| | 09:22 |
did not have the sample all layers
checkbox turned on.
| | 09:27 |
So in most cases I leave this turned on,
just bear in mind that if you're working
| | 09:30 |
with a composite image and you want to
select specific pixels from a specific
| | 09:33 |
layer you will want to turn this option
off.
| | 09:38 |
So once you understand the basic settings
that are available for the magic wand
| | 09:41 |
tool, you'll be able to fine tune the
behavior just a little bit so that you can
| | 09:44 |
very quickly create selections.
You'll notice of course that I don't have
| | 09:48 |
a perfect selection in this case.
In particular, that water line is creating
| | 09:52 |
a little bit of a challenge.
But also keep in mind that I can use other
| | 09:55 |
selection tools.
For example, I could use the Polygonal
| | 09:59 |
Lasso tool to subtract this area from the
selection.
| | 10:02 |
But, as you can see, I've gotten a very
good initial selection, with very little
| | 10:06 |
effort, utilyzing the Magic Wand tool.
| | 10:09 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Advanced Selection TechniquesSelecting the border of an existing selection| 00:02 |
One of the interesting options available
for modifying the shape of a selection is
| | 00:05 |
the border option.
Let's take a look at how you might utilize
| | 00:09 |
this option.
I'll get started by creating a selection,
| | 00:12 |
in this case, using the rectangular
marquee tool.
| | 00:14 |
And so, I'll choose the rectangular
marquee tool from the toolbox, and then
| | 00:18 |
I'll click and drag in order to define a
selection.
| | 00:22 |
In this case, just a selection near the
edge of the overall image.
| | 00:26 |
And so I have a selection of the central
portion of the image, and of course the
| | 00:30 |
area outside that selection is not
selected.
| | 00:33 |
And so if I were to apply an adjustment I
would only be effecting this specific
| | 00:37 |
area, the inner portion of the image.
But what if I wanted to have a band that
| | 00:42 |
goes around this area, in other words the
selection that borders either side of this
| | 00:46 |
existing selection, the edge of that
selection.
| | 00:50 |
Well that's where the border option for
modifying a selection comes in.
| | 00:55 |
I'll go to the Select menu and then choose
Modify followed by Border.
| | 00:59 |
That will bring up the Border Selection
dialogue where I can enter a width in pixels.
| | 01:05 |
I'll just type ten for example, so I can
have a ten pixel wide border.
| | 01:09 |
That is centered on my existing selection
edge.
| | 01:12 |
I'll go ahead and click the okay button
and now you can see that I have a border
| | 01:15 |
selection, a selection that encompasses
the area surrounding the edge of the
| | 01:19 |
selection I created initially.
And so if I were to apply an adjustment,
| | 01:24 |
for example it would affect only that
small area.
| | 01:28 |
I'll illustrate that by adding an
adjustment layer, in this case just the
| | 01:31 |
curve's adjustment layer and you can see
that I'm able to apply an adjustment to
| | 01:35 |
just that border area.
So, an interesting and sometimes a useful
| | 01:40 |
option for modifying an existing selection
creating a border selection along the edge
| | 01:44 |
of that initial selection.
| | 01:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The Color Range command| 00:02 |
When the area of an image that you want to
select can be clearly defined based on
| | 00:05 |
color values, the color range command can
be very helpful.
| | 00:09 |
For example, with this image, I can use
the color range command to create a
| | 00:12 |
selection of the blue of the sky or the
various yellows, oranges, and other tones
| | 00:15 |
that are found in the leaves.
To get started I'll make sure that my
| | 00:20 |
background layer is active.
In this case, that's the only layer that I
| | 00:24 |
have For this image and from the Select
menu I will choose Color Range.
| | 00:28 |
That will bring up the Color Range dialog.
By default the initial selection will be
| | 00:33 |
based on a foreground color so right now I
have a selection that is based on black,
| | 00:36 |
since black is my foreground color.
The selection preview is shown here in the
| | 00:42 |
color range dialog.
The white areas indicate areas that are selected.
| | 00:46 |
And the black areas indicate areas that
are not selected.
| | 00:50 |
Of course, this small thumbnail can be a
little bit difficult to evaluate.
| | 00:53 |
But in a moment we'll take a look at how
we can utilize the image itself to preview
| | 00:57 |
our results.
I'll move the dialog out of the way so
| | 00:59 |
that we can see that image a little bit
better.
| | 01:02 |
And our first step is to sample my initial
color.
| | 01:02 |
So I'll go ahead and click in the image to
define an area that has a color value I
| | 01:03 |
would like to include in my selection.
That means I'm using the eyedropper, since
| | 01:05 |
that tool is active by default in the
color range dialogue.
| | 01:06 |
And also, it's important to bear in mind
that I'm using my sample colors option
| | 01:08 |
because I want to choose specific colors
to include in my selection.
| | 01:09 |
With that initial color identified, now I
can switch to the plus eye dropper and
| | 01:19 |
then click in the image in order to
identify additional colors that should
| | 01:29 |
included in the selection.
In fact I can also click and drag in order
| | 01:40 |
to sample a variety of colors as I'm
essentially painting across the photo.
| | 01:46 |
At this point looking at the preview in
the color range dialogue, you can see that
| | 01:49 |
it looks like we're getting a pretty good
selection started here.
| | 01:53 |
But of course that's a small view of the
image.
| | 01:55 |
And so I need to check to make sure I'm
really getting a good result.
| | 01:59 |
For that I can use the selection preview
option.
| | 02:03 |
The default is none so that I just see the
normal image without any Indication of the selection.
| | 02:08 |
I also can choose a grey scale view, which
is essentially a larger version of the
| | 02:11 |
thumbnail we're seeing in the color range
dialog.
| | 02:14 |
I can choose black matte, and that will
cause the selected areas to appear normal,
| | 02:18 |
and the non-selected areas to appear
black.
| | 02:22 |
White matte is the exact opposite.
Once again the areas that are selected
| | 02:26 |
will appear normal.
And the non-selected areas will appear white.
| | 02:29 |
Or, I can utilize the Quick Mask option.
This makes use of the setting for quick
| | 02:34 |
mask mode.
The default is a red color that places an
| | 02:38 |
overlay on de-selected areas of the image.
So the areas of the image that are
| | 02:43 |
selected once again appear normal.
But areas that are not selected appear
| | 02:46 |
with this red overlay.
In this particular case, that won't work
| | 02:50 |
very well because that red interferes with
the colors in the fall colors, but I can
| | 02:53 |
also change my Quick Mask settings if
needed, in order to get a better look.
| | 02:59 |
But in most cases I'll actually just make
use of the Gray Scale option.
| | 03:03 |
That's a larger version of the preview
that I'm already seeing in color range,
| | 03:06 |
because I'm seeing that same preview for
the full image.
| | 03:10 |
And I can even zoom in, of course.
But right away we can see there are some
| | 03:13 |
grey areas that are not completely
selected.
| | 03:16 |
They are partially selected.
And I want them to be included in the selection.
| | 03:20 |
And so I will paint in some of those
areas.
| | 03:23 |
It can be helpful at times to switch back
and forth between the none option and then
| | 03:26 |
the greyscale option so that you can very
clearly see whether or not an area that is
| | 03:30 |
not currently selected should be included
in the final selection.
| | 03:36 |
In this case there isn't too much
ambiguity so, I'll just Paint along some
| | 03:39 |
of the areas that it looks like I need to
add to that selection.
| | 03:42 |
I also want to make sure to click on some
of the branch areas, so that those colors
| | 03:46 |
will be included.
And then I can switch back to the none
| | 03:49 |
option as I need to in order to see the
overall image and get a better sense of
| | 03:53 |
where things are.
I can also Also utilize that Gray scale
| | 03:56 |
option and again, once I get to this
point, that's when Quick Mask would tend
| | 03:59 |
to be a little bit more helpful.
I'll zoom in on a portion of the photo for
| | 04:04 |
example and you can see quite clearly
where that mask edge is.
| | 04:08 |
In other words where the red overlay is
being painted on top of the leaves for
| | 04:12 |
example Versus areas that are included in
the selection, so we can see for example,
| | 04:15 |
if there are any areas of leaves that
include the red overlay, and those I would
| | 04:19 |
want to add to the selection.
And because that red overlay is
| | 04:25 |
translucent I can get a pretty good sense
whether or not an area is just a hole in
| | 04:28 |
the reef, for example, or if it's actually
part of the leaf and therefore should be
| | 04:32 |
included in the selection.
So you can make use of these various
| | 04:38 |
selection preview options, but in most
cases I find that that greyscale option
| | 04:41 |
provides a pretty good sense of whether or
not I have a good selection created.
| | 04:47 |
We can then adjust for the fuzziness and
fuzziness is actually a really good name
| | 04:50 |
for this particular option.
It essentially combines a couple of
| | 04:54 |
different capabilities.
When I increase fuzziness, I am creating a
| | 04:58 |
more fuzzy selection.
In other words, a selection with some
| | 05:01 |
feathering applied to it.
But I'm also sampling additional areas of
| | 05:05 |
the image.
But that setting is specific to the colors
| | 05:08 |
that I've sampled.
Let me show you exactly what I mean.
| | 05:11 |
I'll go ahead and switch to the None
option for Preview, and then I'm going to
| | 05:15 |
subtract some color values from my
selection.
| | 05:19 |
And then I'll switch back to the gray
scale view.
| | 05:22 |
You'll see, of course, that I have a
selection that doesn't include all of the
| | 05:25 |
fall colors anymore.
But if I increase the fuzziness value,
| | 05:28 |
you'll see that I gradually increase the
range of colors that are being included in
| | 05:32 |
the selection.
But only similar colors to those that I've
| | 05:37 |
already sampled are being added to the
selection.
| | 05:40 |
So you'll notice that I'm significantly
altering the selection in the leaves but
| | 05:45 |
I'm not encroaching on the sky.
Because the colors I sampled are being
| | 05:50 |
taken into account.
So this can be very helpful in increasing
| | 05:53 |
the quality of the selection, because I
don't have to worry too much about
| | 05:56 |
expanding that selection into areas that I
don't want selected.
| | 06:01 |
Of course in most cases, it's best to use
a relatively low setting for fuzziness,
| | 06:05 |
and to sample additional colors as needed,
in order to produce a great selection.
| | 06:10 |
So, I don't I don't want to just increase
fuzziness after selecting a couple of colors.
| | 06:15 |
Rather, I want to use a relatively low
setting for fuzziness and then sample
| | 06:18 |
additional colors in order to expand that
selection.
| | 06:21 |
And in fact, I might even reduce fuzziness
while I'm working so that I can make sure
| | 06:25 |
that I'm sampling a good range of color
values within the image.
| | 06:29 |
But in situations where I have adjoining
colors that are similar to each other And
| | 06:33 |
I want to have a little bit of a
transition for the effect I'm going to add
| | 06:35 |
later, then I might increase that
fuzziness at least a little.
| | 06:40 |
It will help to soften up the overall
transitions for the selection in the image.
| | 06:46 |
So often times, a little bit of fuzziness
can be a good thing.
| | 06:49 |
It just depends on your particular needs
for the selection and what you're going to
| | 06:52 |
use that selection for For.
At this point though it looks like I have
| | 06:56 |
a pretty good result for my selection.
Notice that I can also invert my selection
| | 07:00 |
on the fly, so I can switch to a selection
of the sky versus the tree.
| | 07:04 |
But in this case I want that tree to be
selected so I'll go ahead and click OK.
| | 07:08 |
And now I have a good selection of that
tree and it was relatively easy to make
| | 07:12 |
based on the color values within the tree.
| | 07:16 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Focusing a Color Range selection| 00:02 |
The color range command is great when you
want to create a selection based on
| | 00:05 |
specific color values within the image.
But what about a situation where you only
| | 00:09 |
want to select a portion of those color
values?
| | 00:13 |
For example, with this image.
Let's assume that I want to create a
| | 00:16 |
selection of this blue sticker.
That means I could create a selection
| | 00:20 |
based on the blue color.
But if I only want this sticker included
| | 00:23 |
in the selection, not the other blue
stickers, is color range still a good solution?
| | 00:29 |
Well the answer is yes, it actually is a
great solution.
| | 00:31 |
Thanks to an option that allows us to
focus that color range in a specific area.
| | 00:36 |
Let's take a look.
I'll make sure that the background layer
| | 00:39 |
is active.
In this case, it's the only layer, so I
| | 00:41 |
don't need to worry about that, and then
I'll choose from the Select menu > Color Range.
| | 00:46 |
That will bring up the Color Range dialog.
The default selection is based on the
| | 00:49 |
foreground color.
So at the moment I have a selection of the
| | 00:52 |
dark areas of the image essentially.
I'll reduce the fuzziness setting to a
| | 00:57 |
more moderate value.
And then I can simply click inside the
| | 01:00 |
blue sticker that I want to select.
And for this technique it's very important
| | 01:06 |
that I only sample within the actual area
that I want to select.
| | 01:10 |
In other words I'm going to click inside
this blue sticker.
| | 01:13 |
Not any of the other blue stickers.
I have my preview options set to gray
| | 01:17 |
scale so that I can see the actual effect.
The white areas are selected and the black
| | 01:23 |
areas are not selected.
And so I obviously need to sample some
| | 01:26 |
additional blue colors.
I'll switch to the plus eyedropper.
| | 01:30 |
And then click and drag within this blue
sticker.
| | 01:34 |
In order to create a selection based on
the range of blue colors that are found
| | 01:37 |
within that sticker.
Of course you'll notice that I'm also
| | 01:41 |
getting a selection of other portions of
the image.
| | 01:45 |
Specifically the other blue stickers that
are found throughout the image.
| | 01:49 |
So how am I going to remove those areas
from the selection?
| | 01:52 |
Well, with the color range command it's
actually quite easy.
| | 01:55 |
I've only been sampling inside the blue
sticker that I want to select.
| | 01:59 |
And so now I can turn on the localized
color clusters option in order to focus my
| | 02:04 |
selection on only the area that I've
sampled.
| | 02:08 |
That will activate the range option and I
can reduce that range to focus a
| | 02:12 |
spotlight, as it were, on just the
particular areas that I was sampling.
| | 02:18 |
And that will cause the selection to focus
in only on that one sticker in this case.
| | 02:24 |
So by making sure that I'm only sampling
in the specific area of the image that I
| | 02:28 |
actually want to create a selection for, I
can utilize that localized color clusters
| | 02:32 |
check box, and the range slider, in order
to focus that selection into not just a
| | 02:35 |
specific color range, but a specific color
range in a particular area of the photo.
| | 02:43 |
And as you can see, it works quite nicely.
I'll go ahead and click the OK button, and
| | 02:47 |
now I have a selection of just the blue
areas of that one sticker.
| | 02:52 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting faces with Color Range| 00:02 |
The color range command can be used to
create a selection based on specific
| | 00:05 |
colors within the image.
And of course skin tones tend to fall
| | 00:08 |
within a certain range of colors and so we
can use the color range command to select
| | 00:12 |
skin tones in a photo.
And there's actually a somewhat automated
| | 00:16 |
way of approaching that selection process.
So, let's take a look at the color range
| | 00:21 |
command for selecting skin tones.
I'll make sure that the image layer that I
| | 00:25 |
want to select from is active.
In this case I only have the one layer.
| | 00:28 |
And then I'll choose Select > Color Range
from the menu.
| | 00:32 |
By default, we're working with sampled
colors, meaning I need to click within the
| | 00:36 |
image to define which colors I want to
include in my selection.
| | 00:41 |
But I can also choose skin tones.
And that means that only skin tones will
| | 00:46 |
be included in the selection.
And in fact those skin tones are a preset
| | 00:50 |
range of color values, I can't modify the
range using the eye dropper tools, for example.
| | 00:55 |
But I can still adjust the fuzziness
setting in order to increase or decrease
| | 01:00 |
that range of colors to affect similar
colors.
| | 01:04 |
I can also turn on the detect faces option
and this will cause the color range
| | 01:08 |
command to analyze the image and try to
identify exactly where those skin tones are.
| | 01:14 |
In some cases, that will improve your
result.
| | 01:16 |
In some cases, not so much.
So, it's good to turn it on and and then
| | 01:20 |
turn it off and see whether the result is
better or worse.
| | 01:23 |
In this case, I like the result with the
detect faces option turned off so I'll
| | 01:26 |
leave that checked box off.
And I can fine tune the fuzziness.
| | 01:30 |
Bare in mind if I go a little too far with
fuzziness I might start to see some other
| | 01:33 |
areas of the image getting included in the
selection.
| | 01:37 |
So there is a little bit of a balancing
act required here.
| | 01:39 |
Now, one of the key things to keep in mind
is that I don't necessarily need to create
| | 01:43 |
a perfect selection.
I can really focus most of my attention on
| | 01:47 |
the edges of those skin tones because this
interior section I could very easily clean
| | 01:51 |
up by, for example, adding to selection
and using the lasso tool to draw a loop
| | 01:55 |
around that area.
But I do still try to make sure I'm
| | 02:00 |
getting the best selection possible right
from the start.
| | 02:04 |
In some cases I might not even mind if
that selection extends into other areas to
| | 02:07 |
some degree.
Because the adjustment I'm going to apply
| | 02:10 |
maybe a relatively modest adjustment and
it maybe okay that it affects some
| | 02:13 |
additional areas of the image as well.
But once I have those settings established
| | 02:18 |
where I'm happy with my basic selection, I
can click OK in order to finalize that
| | 02:21 |
selection and then of course, continue
cleaning up that selection as needed for
| | 02:25 |
my final result.
| | 02:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The Pen tool| 00:02 |
The Pen tool might not come to mind when
you think about creating selections in
| | 00:05 |
Photoshop, but it actually can be used to
create selections, albeit, slightly indirectly.
| | 00:10 |
Let's take a look at just what we can do
with the Pen tool.
| | 00:14 |
I'll go ahead and choose the Pen tool from
the Toolbox, and if you were to just click
| | 00:18 |
in various points within the image, then
you might assume that the Pen tool is very
| | 00:22 |
similar to the Polygonal Lasso tool.
What you can use to create selections of
| | 00:27 |
polygonal shapes, in other words,
comprised primarily of straight lines.
| | 00:31 |
And that's certainly with the Pen tool,
but there's a much greater capability as
| | 00:36 |
well and that is the ability to create
Bezier curve.
| | 00:41 |
If instead of clicking, you were to click
and drag, you'll be able to take advantage
| | 00:45 |
of that feature.
I'll go ahead and press Ctrl+Alt+Z on
| | 00:49 |
Windows or Cmd+Option+Z on Macintosh a few
times in order to back up and undo those steps.
| | 00:56 |
And then I'll click and hold, and then
drag my mouse just a little bit.
| | 01:01 |
And now, instead of just adding an anchor
point, I'm adding an anchor point with a
| | 01:05 |
pair of handles.
Now, if I go and click somewhere else in
| | 01:08 |
the image, instead of connecting those two
anchor points with a straight line, I'm
| | 01:12 |
getting a curved line.
So once again, I'll click and drag.
| | 01:16 |
And you can see that I'm able to adjust
the shape of that curve.
| | 01:20 |
Specifically I can adjust the direction
that that line follows as it begins its
| | 01:24 |
curve and I can also determine the
distance away from the anchor point that
| | 01:27 |
the focal point of the curve will be.
I can do that initially by just clicking
| | 01:32 |
and dragging.
But of course, in most cases, you'll want
| | 01:35 |
to exercise a bit more control.
And that's where you can hold the alt key
| | 01:39 |
on windows or the option key on macintosh,
and adjust each handle individually.
| | 01:44 |
So for example, I can adjust the shape of
this curve by adjusting each of the
| | 01:48 |
handles independent of each other and that
gives me quite a bit of control over the
| | 01:52 |
overall shape.
So I'll back up here once again in order
| | 01:57 |
to remove that path that I am creating
with the Pen tool.
| | 02:01 |
And, that path will be the basis of my
selection shortly.
| | 02:04 |
With the Pen tool active, all I really
need to do is make sure that the option is
| | 02:08 |
set to create a path, and then I'm ready
to start creating the shape that will be
| | 02:11 |
the basis of my selection.
In theory, I could probably create a path
| | 02:16 |
to define this raindrop shape in just two
segments.
| | 02:21 |
One that goes from the top of the
raindrop, around to the right, and down to
| | 02:24 |
the bottom, and then from the bottom back
up the left side.
| | 02:27 |
But usually, I find that it takes so much
effort to try to get such a curve perfect,
| | 02:31 |
that it's easier to divide things up into
smaller segments.
| | 02:35 |
And so I'll go ahead and click at the apex
up at the top here.
| | 02:39 |
And then drag outward just a little bit in
order to get those handles.
| | 02:42 |
And then I'll choose a simple segment
here.
| | 02:45 |
And then click and drag once again.
Now, initially I just want to have those
| | 02:50 |
handles available so that I can define the
overall shape of my Bezier curve here.
| | 02:55 |
And then I'll simply hold the Alt key on
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh in
| | 02:58 |
order to fine-tune each of the handles.
In this case, I just need to essentially
| | 03:03 |
tone down that curve a little bit.
And so, I'll bring those handles inward,
| | 03:07 |
essentially pointing down the line that I
want to define as my curve.
| | 03:12 |
This one needs to come out just a little
bit, and maybe push it a little further up.
| | 03:17 |
Somewhere along those lines, that gives
you pretty good sense of how I can fine
| | 03:21 |
tune that shape.
I'll then come down to the bottom, and I
| | 03:24 |
will click and drag once again to get my
handles for that anchor point.
| | 03:29 |
And then holding the Alt key on Windows or
Option key on Macintosh, I'll once again
| | 03:33 |
adjust those individual handles as needed
in order to define the shape of that curve
| | 03:38 |
and right about there looks to be pretty
good.
| | 03:42 |
I can pull this one in just a little bit,
right about there I think, and then I can
| | 03:46 |
continue in this fashion.
So I'll go ahead and click to add one more
| | 03:50 |
anchor point over here and then adjust the
handles as needed.
| | 03:55 |
So the left handle here will be going
upward, and the right handle will be going downward.
| | 03:59 |
And then I'll adjust the overall position
for both of the handles here in this case,
| | 04:03 |
in order to follow that shape of the
raindrop.
| | 04:07 |
It can take a little bit of back and
forth, moving each of those handles.
| | 04:10 |
And then go into the other handle and
moving it and switching back and forth
| | 04:13 |
between each, until you get things lined
up nicely.
| | 04:17 |
I think right about there is working
pretty well, just need to adjust this one
| | 04:21 |
just a little bit.
And right about there I think will do it.
| | 04:25 |
And then with one last click on the anchor
point that I initially created, I will
| | 04:28 |
close that path, but of course, I still
need to modify this final segment that I created.
| | 04:34 |
And so I'll hold the Ctrl key on Windows
or the Cmd key on Macintosh, and click on
| | 04:38 |
that path in order to activate it so I can
get to those handles.
| | 04:42 |
I'll then hold the Alt key on Windows or
the Options key on Macintosh one more time
| | 04:47 |
while I click and drag on each of those
handles in order to adjust them so that
| | 04:51 |
that path follows along on that shape.
Once I'm happy with the overall shape of
| | 04:57 |
my path, I can turn it into a selection
simply by clicking the Selection button up
| | 05:00 |
on the Options bar.
I'll go ahead and click that button and
| | 05:04 |
you'll see that I have a make selection
dialog.
| | 05:07 |
I generally prefer not to Feather
selections initially so I'll leave that
| | 05:10 |
value set to 0.
I do want to have the Anti-alias option
| | 05:13 |
turned on so that the jagged edges of my
selection will be smoothed out, and in
| | 05:16 |
this case, I'm creating a new selection.
So I'll go ahead and click the OK button,
| | 05:22 |
and now, I have a selection based on that
path.
| | 05:25 |
So for situations where you need to create
a selection based on straight lines or
| | 05:29 |
Bezier curves and the other selection
tools aren't quite giving you what you
| | 05:32 |
need, you might take a look at the Path
tool for creating selections.
| | 05:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting by luminosity| 00:02 |
In some cases you may realize that the
area you want to select can be defined
| | 00:05 |
based on brightness values.
For example, with this photo I have
| | 00:10 |
relatively extreme example, of course.
But I might want to select the sky, the
| | 00:14 |
brightest areas, in order to apply an
adjustment there.
| | 00:17 |
Or I might want to select the dark areas,
the foreground, in order to apply an
| | 00:21 |
adjustment that affects only the dark
areas.
| | 00:23 |
This can be useful, for example, to open
up shadow detail, or perhaps to create a
| | 00:27 |
silhouette effect of the darker areas of a
photo.
| | 00:31 |
Let's take a look at a technique we can
use to create a selection based on
| | 00:34 |
luminosity values or brightness values.
I'll start off by creating a copy of my
| | 00:38 |
background image layer, because I'm going
to apply a very destructive adjustment.
| | 00:42 |
And I certainly don't want to harm my
original pixels, so I'll drag the
| | 00:45 |
thumbnail from my background image layer
down to the Create New Layer button.
| | 00:49 |
The blank sheet of paper icon at the
bottom of the Layers panel.
| | 00:52 |
That will create my background copy, and
in order to make it easy to see the effect
| | 00:56 |
of what I'm doing here, I'm going to
change the opacity for this Background
| | 01:00 |
Copy layer down to about 50%.
The reason for this will become evident in
| | 01:05 |
just a moment.
Next, I'm going to adjust this image based
| | 01:09 |
on luminance values, so I'll go to the
Image menu.
| | 01:12 |
And then choose Adjustments, followed by
Threshold.
| | 01:16 |
And the Threshold adjustment is an
interesting one.
| | 01:18 |
It will convert my image to black and
white.
| | 01:21 |
And I don't mean black and white like a
typical black and white photograph.
| | 01:24 |
I mean literally only black and white.
Only those two tonal values.
| | 01:29 |
But the key here is that I can determine
where that shift between black and white occurs.
| | 01:34 |
So I'll choose that Threshold command and
then move the dialog out of the way so I
| | 01:37 |
can see the image.
And now I can drag upward to increase the
| | 01:41 |
threshold value, so that only the very
brightest areas of the image are white and
| | 01:45 |
the rest are black.
Or I can reduce the value so that only the
| | 01:50 |
very darkest areas of the image are black
and the rest of the image is white.
| | 01:55 |
And because I reduced the Opacity for my
background copy layer to 50%, I'm able to
| | 01:59 |
see the underlying image peeking through
and I can use that to determine when I've
| | 02:03 |
established a good value for Threshold.
In this case, of course, because I'm using
| | 02:09 |
an image with some exaggerated tonal
issues, it's relatively easy to see when
| | 02:13 |
I've established a good value.
I want it to be a high enough value that
| | 02:17 |
all of the building becomes dark, but not
so high that parts of the sky become dark.
| | 02:23 |
And in this case, the range right in
between will work well.
| | 02:26 |
Once I've established that value for
Threshold, I can click OK in order to
| | 02:30 |
finalize the effect.
And then I'll bring the Opacity back up to
| | 02:34 |
100%, so that I can see that black and
white image.
| | 02:38 |
That literally black or white image.
And this, essentially, is my selection.
| | 02:44 |
I haven't made a selection just yet, but I
can do so with just one click on the
| | 02:47 |
Channels panel.
I'll switch to the Channels panel and then
| | 02:51 |
down at the bottom I will click on the
first button.
| | 02:54 |
The Load Selection from Channel button,
and I don't even have to choose a
| | 02:57 |
particular channel because all three
channels are exactly the same.
| | 03:01 |
White in the sky, black in the building.
And so when I click, I get a selection of
| | 03:05 |
the white areas, in this case the sky.
Of course if I actually wanted the
| | 03:10 |
opposite, for the buildings to be
selected, I can choose Select and then
| | 03:14 |
Inverse from the menu.
Once I have that selection I can go back
| | 03:18 |
to the Layers panel and turn off the
Visibility of my background copy layer or
| | 03:21 |
even throw it away altogether just by
dragging it down to the Trashcan button at
| | 03:25 |
the bottom of the Layers panel.
But, as you can see with that simple
| | 03:30 |
technique, I've been able to create a
selection based on specific brightness
| | 03:34 |
values within my photo.
| | 03:36 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting from a channel| 00:02 |
You're probably already aware that the
color information in our photos comes from
| | 00:05 |
individual channels.
A typical image has a red, green, and blue
| | 00:09 |
channel, each of which indicate the
intensity of red, green, or blue light
| | 00:13 |
that is reflected in each pixel.
In other words, those channels define the
| | 00:19 |
actual color for each pixel in our images.
But we can also use that information to
| | 00:24 |
create a selection.
Let me show you how.
| | 00:26 |
We'll start off by going to the channels
panel, if your Channels panel is
| | 00:29 |
invisible, you can choose it from the
Window menu.
| | 00:33 |
And then we're gong to click on each of
the individual channels for this image.
| | 00:38 |
First, I'll click on the thumbnail for the
red channel, so that I can take a look at
| | 00:41 |
that channel, and see if it might be a
good candidate as a starting point for my selection.
| | 00:46 |
In this case, that's certainly not the
case.
| | 00:48 |
I want to create a selection of this poppy
including the stem.
| | 00:52 |
And you can see that on the red channel,
parts of the poppy are very bright
| | 00:54 |
relative to the background and parts of
the poppy, especially the stem, are very
| | 00:58 |
dark relative to the background.
And that means we're not going to be
| | 01:02 |
easily isolate the poppy from the
background using the red channel.
| | 01:06 |
Next we'll take a look at the green
channel, so I'll click on that thumbnail.
| | 01:10 |
And you can see that we have a better
looking image.
| | 01:12 |
We have night contrast overall, but still
not good contrast to separate the poppy
| | 01:16 |
from the background.
When we take a look at the blue channel,
| | 01:20 |
however, we see a very good starting
point.
| | 01:23 |
The poppy overall is very dark, and the
background is very light.
| | 01:26 |
And that makes sense, of course, because
the blue channel reflects the amount of
| | 01:30 |
blue light.
The sky contains lots of blue, the poppy
| | 01:33 |
contains no blue or very little blue.
And in fact, it contains the opposite of
| | 01:37 |
blue, lots of yellow.
So the blue channel, in this case, is the
| | 01:41 |
best starting point.
And actually you'll find that in many
| | 01:44 |
cases the blue channel is the best
starting point for this technique,
| | 01:47 |
especially when a sky is involved.
But for portraits, the red channel might
| | 01:51 |
work out better, and in some cases the
green channel will work best.
| | 01:55 |
You'll want to take a look at all three
channels though to decide which one will
| | 01:57 |
give you the best starting point.
Of course, the blue channel provides a
| | 02:01 |
great starting point, but not a final
result.
| | 02:04 |
So, we're going to need to apply some
adjustments here in order to enhance the
| | 02:08 |
contrast that already exists.
Of course, I don't want to modify my blue
| | 02:12 |
channel directly, because that would
affect the color in my image.
| | 02:16 |
And so instead, I'm going to drag the
thumbnail For that blue channel, down to
| | 02:19 |
the blank sheet of paper icon, that create
new channel button, at the bottom of the
| | 02:22 |
channels panel.
And that will produce a blue copy layer.
| | 02:27 |
Now, I can apply changes directly to this
blue copy because it is an alpha channel.
| | 02:33 |
It's an extra channel you might say.
Not one of the red, green, or blue
| | 02:36 |
channels that define the color in my
image.
| | 02:39 |
Image.
So to adjust that channel, I'll go to the
| | 02:41 |
Image menu and choose Adjustments followed
by Levels, and then I'll drag the black
| | 02:45 |
point inward to darken the poppy, and the
white point inward in order to brighten
| | 02:49 |
the sky, and ultimately I want to try and
bring them all the way right next to each
| | 02:53 |
other, so that I end up with a really good
selection here.
| | 02:59 |
Well it's not a selection yet but it will
be shortly but I want to have that
| | 03:02 |
silhouette effect.
I want the poppy to be entirely completely
| | 03:06 |
black and the sky to be entirely
completely white.
| | 03:10 |
And with this level's adjustment that
appears to be the case so I will go ahead
| | 03:13 |
and click okay.
In order to apply that change, but now I
| | 03:16 |
notice there's a little bit of a problem.
Up toward the top right, you'll see that
| | 03:21 |
the entire sky did not go white, and I
have some black areas up there.
| | 03:26 |
Now, you might assume that I would want to
modify that levels adjustment in order to
| | 03:29 |
get those areas white, but in this case,
that simply wasn't going to work.
| | 03:34 |
If I applied a different adjustment, sure,
I might get those areas to be white, but I
| | 03:37 |
would also cause some problems for the
poppy.
| | 03:41 |
The form, here, would no longer match the
exact edges of the poppy.
| | 03:44 |
So instead, I'll use a slight variation,
here.
| | 03:47 |
I'll just choose the Brush tool from the
toolbox.
| | 03:50 |
And then I'll press the letter D on the
keyboard to make sure my colors are set to
| | 03:53 |
the default values.
Which, in the case of a channel is white
| | 03:57 |
for the foreground and black for the
background.
| | 04:00 |
I can then move my mouse out over the
image and adjust the brush size as needed,
| | 04:03 |
using the Left Square Bracket key to
reduce the brush size.
| | 04:07 |
And the right square bracket key to
increase the brush size.
| | 04:10 |
I'll also make sure that the blend mode on
the options bar is set to normal and that
| | 04:13 |
I'm working at a 100.
Percent opacity for my Brush tool.
| | 04:17 |
And then, with white as my foreground
color, I can press X as needed to switch
| | 04:20 |
foreground and background colors.
I'll simply click and paint over those
| | 04:25 |
areas in order to effectively erase those
black spots in the sky, replacing them
| | 04:29 |
with white.
(SOUND) And of course I could also paint
| | 04:33 |
with black in the poppy if I needed to
tune any areas, but at this point I think
| | 04:37 |
I'm in good shape.
I have a black poppy set against a white
| | 04:41 |
sky and that is a great basis for
selection.
| | 04:45 |
So at the bottom of the channels panel,
all I need to do is click on the load
| | 04:49 |
channel as selection button.
That dash circle icon.
| | 04:53 |
And that will create a selection where all
white areas of this alpha channel are
| | 04:56 |
selected, and all black areas are
deselected.
| | 05:00 |
And any shades of gray would be partially
selected.
| | 05:02 |
So at this point I have my selection
created.
| | 05:05 |
I can click on my color tile, the RGB
tile, to get back to my full image.
| | 05:09 |
And as needed, I could also invert the
selection.
| | 05:13 |
In this case, I do want the opposite
selection because I actually wanted the
| | 05:16 |
poppy to be selected.
So I'll go to the Select menu and choose
| | 05:20 |
Inverse, and now I have the opposite
selection, although I'm also noticing that
| | 05:23 |
there are still a couple of problems up at
the top left.
| | 05:28 |
So I missed a couple of those specks on
that blue copy channel, but that's okay.
| | 05:33 |
I can still modify the result.
Even though I didn't use a selection tool
| | 05:37 |
to create my selection.
I can use additional selection tools to
| | 05:40 |
modify that selection.
So, for example, in this case, I can
| | 05:43 |
choose the Lasso tool from the toolbox,
and then hold the Alt key on Windows or
| | 05:47 |
the Option on Macintosh in order to access
the Subtract From Selection option.
| | 05:52 |
And then I can just draw a lazy loop
around that area where I have a couple of
| | 05:55 |
pixels that were still selected.
And that will remove those pixels from the selection.
| | 06:01 |
So I can utilize one of the channels as
the basis of a great selection but then
| | 06:04 |
fine tune my results as needed in order to
get the best selection possible.
| | 06:10 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Transforming a selection| 00:02 |
Sometimes, at first glance, you might
think a selection is going to be very easy
| | 00:05 |
to create.
And then you run into a little bit of difficulty.
| | 00:08 |
And I think this image represents a pretty
good example.
| | 00:10 |
When I initially saw this image and
decided I might like to extract the logo
| | 00:14 |
in the center here, I thought, oh, well
I'll just use the eliptical marquee tool
| | 00:17 |
since the shape Is an ellipse and that
didn't work out so well.
| | 00:23 |
But, let's take a look at how we can fine
tune a selection when we run into this
| | 00:26 |
type of situation.
I'll start off by choosing, in this case,
| | 00:29 |
the elliptical marquee tool and then I'll
simply click and drag image in order to
| | 00:32 |
define that selection.
And while I'm working, in other words,
| | 00:36 |
while I'm still holding down that mouse
button and dragging the selection around.
| | 00:40 |
I can press and hold the spacebar in order
to move the selection, and then release
| | 00:44 |
the spacebar in order to adjust the
overall size and shape of the selection.
| | 00:49 |
But, of course, you can see that the
ellipse is not going to match this logo.
| | 00:56 |
The image was captured from a bit above
and so the overall shape of that logo is
| | 00:59 |
distorted slightly.
And so I'm not able to get the ellipse to match.
| | 01:05 |
In theory, I could just adjust the overall
dimensions of the bounding box that
| | 01:09 |
essentially defines the selection.
In other words the rectangle that would
| | 01:13 |
fit around the ellipse.
But in this case I'm going to need a
| | 01:16 |
little bit more than that.
But let's get started by modifying the
| | 01:20 |
selection by transforming it.
I'll choose Select > Transform Selection,
| | 01:25 |
from the menu.
And now you'll see that I have a bounding
| | 01:28 |
box visible.
In fact I can drag the edges of that
| | 01:31 |
bounding box in order to change the
overall size and shape of my selection.
| | 01:37 |
In some cases this might be all you need
in order to get the selection to perfectly
| | 01:40 |
match the area you're trying to select.
But here you'll notice that that's still
| | 01:44 |
not providing me with everything I need.
Instead, I need to warp this selection.
| | 01:49 |
And warping is an option available for the
transformation on the Options bar.
| | 01:54 |
I can simply click the Warp button in
order to switch into Warp mode for my transformation.
| | 02:00 |
And now I have an additional set of
controls, I have additional anchor points
| | 02:04 |
that I can click and drag around in order
to change the shape of the selection with
| | 02:07 |
a bit more flexibility.
But I usually ignore all of those
| | 02:12 |
additional controls and instead focus
directly on the selection, because frankly
| | 02:16 |
I just find that to be much easier
approach.
| | 02:19 |
So, I'll point my mouse at the selection
itself and then click and hold and then
| | 02:23 |
drag the selection as needed.
Now, the only problem here is that only
| | 02:27 |
the bounding box moves, the selection
itself is not moving.
| | 02:31 |
So it can be a little bit difficult to
figure out exactly where you need to drag
| | 02:35 |
to, except I know exactly where I want
that selection edge to be.
| | 02:39 |
So since I clicked directly on the
selection edge, all I need to do is
| | 02:42 |
position my mouse pointer so that it is
right on the edge that I actually want to
| | 02:46 |
select, and in this way I can continue to
transform the selection.
| | 02:51 |
Warping it so that it matches the area
that I actually intended to select.
| | 02:56 |
So, I'll continue all the way around this
logo just clicking and dragging as needed
| | 03:00 |
on the selection itself in order to
re-position that selection and in the
| | 03:04 |
process it will be warped to match the
overall shape.
| | 03:09 |
So, with a little bit of effort here,
finding just the right points to click on
| | 03:13 |
and dragging the selection inward or
outward as needed, I'll be able to get
| | 03:16 |
that selection to match up with the edge
of the logo.
| | 03:21 |
It can take a little bit of work, and you
may need to zoom in and check your work
| | 03:24 |
carefully before you finalize the effect.
But once you have that selection
| | 03:29 |
transformed and warped so that it
perfectly matches the area that you
| | 03:33 |
actually want to select, then you can
commit the changes.
| | 03:37 |
For that transformation.
So I'll fine tune this last edge just a
| | 03:41 |
little bit.
And I think right about there gives me a
| | 03:44 |
good selection.
I've warped so that the selection matches
| | 03:47 |
the edge of the logo.
So now I'll click the check mark button on
| | 03:51 |
the options bar in order to commit that
change.
| | 03:53 |
And you can see I've warped that selection
so that it matches that warped shape of
| | 03:57 |
what I thought was a very simple
elliptical logo.
| | 04:01 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Quick Mask mode| 00:02 |
In many cases, when you're modifying a
selection, you might trace along the edge
| | 00:05 |
of the area that you want to select, but
you can also use a special mode called
| | 00:09 |
Quick Mask mode that enables you to paint
along that edge instead.
| | 00:14 |
Quite frankly, the approach is really not
that much different.
| | 00:17 |
You're either tracing along an edge or
painting along an edge.
| | 00:20 |
They're virtually the same thing.
But you may find that you prefer working
| | 00:23 |
in Quick Mask mode so let's take a look at
how it works.
| | 00:26 |
I'll start off by loading a selection that
I've already saved for this image.
| | 00:30 |
I'll go to the Select menu and then choose
Load Selection and in this case I want the
| | 00:34 |
sky selection so I'll go ahead and just
click OK in order to load that selection.
| | 00:39 |
You can see I have a selection of the sky
or at least it appears to a selection of
| | 00:43 |
the sky.
But zooming in, you'll see that we also
| | 00:46 |
have part of the barn selected.
And I'd like to clean that up.
| | 00:50 |
I could use the Lasso tool, or actually in
this case, probably the Polygonal Lasso
| | 00:54 |
tool in order to modify the selection.
Subtracting the barn area from the
| | 00:58 |
selection, but I could also utilize Quick
Mask mode.
| | 01:01 |
We can access Quick Mask mode just by
pressing the letter Q on the keyboard for
| | 01:05 |
Quick Mask mode and that is a toggle, so I
can turn it on or off, as needed.
| | 01:11 |
I can also click the button down below the
color picker on the toolbox in order to
| | 01:15 |
switch into Quick Mask mode or switch back
into normal selection mode.
| | 01:20 |
And when I'm in Quick Mask mode I can see
of course that's there's a red overlay on
| | 01:24 |
top of my image.
The areas that are selected appear normal
| | 01:27 |
and the areas that are not selected appear
with the red overlay and so of course you
| | 01:31 |
can see that the barn is covered with red
but a portion of roof line is not so that
| | 01:34 |
area is selected.
Whereas the rest of the barn is not selected.
| | 01:40 |
If the color that's being used isn't quite
working, for example, if the color matches
| | 01:44 |
an area of the photo, you can change the
color for Quick Mask.
| | 01:49 |
To do so simply double-click on the Quick
Mask Mode button.
| | 01:52 |
That will bring up the Quick Mask options
dialog, and there you can click on the
| | 01:55 |
color swatch in order to bring up the
color picker.
| | 01:59 |
And you can choose a different color that
you'd like to use for that Quick Mask.
| | 02:03 |
I'll go ahead for example and switch this
to a magenta color and then click OK and OK.
| | 02:09 |
And we're back to the image.
Of course in the process of bringing up
| | 02:12 |
that dialogue I also turned off Quick Mask
mode.
| | 02:15 |
So I'll just press Q again in order to
bring Quick Mask mode up.
| | 02:19 |
Obviously, we can evaluate our selection
in Quick Mask mode, but we can also modify
| | 02:23 |
our selection and not with the normal
selection tools, but rather with the Brush tool.
| | 02:28 |
So, I'll chose the Brush tool from the
toolbox.
| | 02:31 |
I'll go ahead and change the brush
hardness up to a 100% value.
| | 02:35 |
Since I have not feathered this selection,
I want the edge that I'm painting to match
| | 02:39 |
the existing edge.
I can also adjust the brush size, in this
| | 02:42 |
case, reducing the brush size, but the
left square bracket key will reduce the
| | 02:45 |
brush size, and the right square bracket
key will increase the brush size.
| | 02:49 |
And now, I'm simply going to paint into
the image with either black or white.
| | 02:55 |
Black will remove areas from the
selection, and white will add areas to the selection.
| | 03:00 |
So you might think of it as white being an
eraser for this mask, and black being a
| | 03:05 |
painter for the mask.
So for example, my foreground color is
| | 03:09 |
currently set to black.
I can press the letter D on the keyboard
| | 03:12 |
to make sure I have the default colors of
black and white.
| | 03:15 |
And then I can click and paint and instead
of black appearing I'll see the color of
| | 03:19 |
my mask, in this case magenta.
And so I can paint along that edge in
| | 03:24 |
order to identify that area as a portion
of the image that should not be included
| | 03:28 |
in the selection.
If I go outside the lines, just a little
| | 03:33 |
bit, you can see I did a little here, then
I can switch my colors to white as my
| | 03:36 |
foreground color, just by pressing the
letter X on the keyboard, and now I'm
| | 03:40 |
effectively erasing that mask.
So I can go back, and clean up the edge of
| | 03:46 |
that mask as needed.
In other words, I'm working directly on
| | 03:50 |
that selection in a little bit of a
different presentation mode.
| | 03:53 |
So painting with white will add areas to
the selection and painting with black will
| | 03:57 |
remove areas from the selection.
What I'm essentially doing is painting in
| | 04:02 |
this case with magenta or erasing that
magenta but the effect is to modify the selection.
| | 04:07 |
So I'll go ahead and press the Q button
once again to switch out of Quick Mask
| | 04:09 |
mode into the normal selection mode.
And you can see that I've cleaned up most
| | 04:13 |
of the problems with the selection there.
I still have a little bit of work to do.
| | 04:17 |
But as you can see that Quick Mask mode
can be very helpful for evaluating and
| | 04:20 |
modifying your selections to make sure
they're as accurate as possible.
| | 04:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Creating Composite ImagesCombining layers into a single document| 00:02 |
A composite image, by it's very nature,
consists of multiple images.
| | 00:05 |
And so the first step in creating a
composite is to bring multiple images
| | 00:09 |
together into a single document.
One of the easiest ways to accomplish
| | 00:13 |
that, in terms of Photoshop, is to utilize
Adobe camera raw.
| | 00:17 |
Let's take a look at the process of
assembling that basic composite.
| | 00:21 |
I'll start off by switching to Bridge.
I can do that by choosing File, Browse,
| | 00:24 |
and Bridge, for example.
And then I can select the images that I
| | 00:28 |
want to combine.
In this case I want to take this cathedral
| | 00:31 |
and replace the sky with this red sky
image.
| | 00:34 |
Just to have a little bit of fun.
And so I need to first select those two images.
| | 00:38 |
So I'll click on one of the images and
then hold the control key on Windows or
| | 00:42 |
the command key on Macintosh.
And click on the other image.
| | 00:46 |
And in a similar way, of course, I could
click on additional images.
| | 00:50 |
Using the control key on Windows or the
command key on Macintosh.
| | 00:53 |
In order to toggle the selection of those
additional images.
| | 00:57 |
But in this case, I only need two images
for my composite.
| | 01:00 |
And I now have them selected.
So, all I need to do at this point is go
| | 01:04 |
to the Tools menu, and then choose
Photoshop, followed by Load Files into
| | 01:07 |
Photoshop Layers.
When I choose this option, Bridge will
| | 01:12 |
send both of these images, both of the
selected images, over to Photoshop.
| | 01:17 |
And they will be combined into a single,
new document.
| | 01:20 |
So you can see I only have one document
open, and it contains two layers, the
| | 01:24 |
cathedral layer, as well as the sky layer.
And you'll also notice that the layer name
| | 01:29 |
coincides with the original file name, so
it will be very easy if I need to go back
| | 01:33 |
and find that particular image again, for
example.
| | 01:37 |
But at this point, I've created the
starting point for my composite image.
| | 01:40 |
And as you can see, the process is
incredibly simple thanks to the
| | 01:45 |
combination of Bridge and Photoshop.
| | 01:49 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Layering images manually| 00:02 |
Creating a composite image involves taking
two or more images and combining them in
| | 00:05 |
some way.
And that means, of course, that the first
| | 00:08 |
step in the process needs to be bringing
the images together.
| | 00:11 |
Specifically to create multiple layers
from the individual images that you'll
| | 00:15 |
blend in some way.
In this case, I've opened up two images already.
| | 00:20 |
I have a lakefront scene.
And I have a similar scene, but with a
| | 00:24 |
lamp in it.
And I'd like to take this lamp and move it
| | 00:27 |
into the other image.
And that means I need to combine these two
| | 00:30 |
images into a single document, and since
I've already opened them, I can do that
| | 00:34 |
right here within Photoshop.
I'll start off by arranging the images so
| | 00:38 |
that I can see both of them.
So, from the Window menu, I'll choose
| | 00:42 |
Arrange, and then I'll simply tile all
images vertically in this case.
| | 00:47 |
Now you can see that I have the two images
side by side.
| | 00:50 |
So I'll choose the Move tool from the
toolbox, and then I'm going to click first
| | 00:53 |
on the lamp image because I want that
image to be on top.
| | 00:58 |
So I'll move that image over into the lake
front And then I'll click and drag in
| | 01:02 |
order to drag that image over into the
other image.
| | 01:06 |
And what I'll be doing in the process is
copying this image, essentially creating a
| | 01:10 |
new layer that is an exact copy of the
image itself.
| | 01:13 |
But before I release the mouse button, I'm
going to hold the Shift key, because that
| | 01:17 |
will cause this image that I'm dragging
and dropping to be centered in the
| | 01:21 |
destination document.
And that will give me a good starting
| | 01:25 |
point for my overall alignment.
I can always move the image layer later.
| | 01:29 |
But initially I'll want it centered.
So holding that Shift key I'll go ahead
| | 01:32 |
and release the mouse button.
And at this point, I now have two layers.
| | 01:37 |
You can see that there's the layer with
the lamp, and then the layer without the lamp.
| | 01:41 |
Both in the same documents so that I can
create my composite.
| | 01:44 |
So at this point I can close my original
lamp image and now work with this
| | 01:48 |
multilayer document to create my
composite.
| | 01:52 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Assembling a panorama automatically| 00:02 |
One of the most common types of composite
images that I tend to create is the
| | 00:05 |
composite panorama.
With the composite panorama, you can
| | 00:08 |
capture multiple images in a sequence
panning across the horizon for example.
| | 00:13 |
And then assemble those images into a
single image with a panoramic aspect ratio.
| | 00:19 |
Here, for example, I have some images of
clouds.
| | 00:21 |
I started with this capture and then
panned to the right as I captured
| | 00:24 |
additional images, and now I'm ready to
assemble all of these photos.
| | 00:29 |
So, a total of 6, in this case into a
single composite panorama.
| | 00:33 |
So, I need to first select the images here
in bridge.
| | 00:36 |
I'll click on the first image and then
hold the shift key and click on the last
| | 00:39 |
image in order to select all of those
images.
| | 00:42 |
And then from the tools menu I can choose
Photoshop followed by photomerge.
| | 00:48 |
That will send all of the images over to
Photoshop, but because I'm using the
| | 00:52 |
photomerge command, I will first see the
photomerge dialogue.
| | 00:57 |
You'll see that the files that I selected
in Bridge are automatically selected as
| | 01:01 |
those to be blended together.
So now I can just configure the settings
| | 01:05 |
for the Photomerge.
I'll leave the layout option set to automatic.
| | 01:09 |
In most cases, a panorama will utilize the
perspective layout.
| | 01:13 |
In some cases though, you might use
cylindrical or even spherical but
| | 01:16 |
Photoshop is able to determine
automatically, based on the images, which
| | 01:19 |
layout option should be utilized.
And so in most cases, the auto option
| | 01:24 |
works perfectly well.
Then, down at the bottom of the dialog,
| | 01:28 |
you'll want to make sure that the blend
images together check box is turned on,
| | 01:31 |
and this is perhaps the most important
item here because it is what causes the
| | 01:34 |
images to actually be blended together
into a seamless panorama.
| | 01:40 |
If you 're concerned about vignetting, for
example if you're using a wide angle lens,
| | 01:43 |
then you can also turn on the vignette
removal check box.
| | 01:47 |
In this case though, that is not an issue.
You can also utilize geometric distortion
| | 01:51 |
correction if you'd like.
I tend not to use this option simply
| | 01:54 |
because it then requires me to crop the
image rather significantly.
| | 01:59 |
So, I leave the geometric distortion
correction check box turned off in most
| | 02:02 |
cases, and then I'll apply any
transformations that I want to later as
| | 02:05 |
part of my overall work flow.
So, with those options established, I'll
| | 02:10 |
go ahead And click the Okay button, and
Photoshop will process all of those images.
| | 02:15 |
First, it will take each of the individual
images and blend them together into a
| | 02:19 |
single document, with each of the original
photos represented by an individual layer
| | 02:23 |
in that document.
And then, it will align all of the images
| | 02:27 |
and blend them together through the use of
a layer mask.
| | 02:31 |
So you can see here, I have the finished
result.
| | 02:33 |
All I need to do, is apply a crop, so I'll
go ahead and choose the crop tool, and
| | 02:36 |
then define the crop that I'd like to use
for the image.
| | 02:40 |
I think right about there will work pretty
well, and then I'll crop the image.
| | 02:44 |
So now I have a finished panorama with
very little effort.
| | 02:48 |
I simply select the images, send those
images over to the Photo Merge command in Photoshop.
| | 02:54 |
Adjust the settings for that photo merge
and Photoshop takes care of all the rest.
| | 02:58 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Advanced blending| 00:02 |
Whenever I want to create a composite
image, the first thing I tend to think
| | 00:04 |
about is a layer mask.
Because a layer mask is what's used
| | 00:08 |
typically to blend the two images
together.
| | 00:10 |
But sometimes you don't even need a layer
mask in order to combine two images.
| | 00:15 |
Here I have a Clock Tower with a very drab
sky, and I also have another image layer
| | 00:19 |
that has some nice clouds.
I'll turn off the visibility for the Clock
| | 00:23 |
Tower layer so that we can see the Clouds
layer.
| | 00:26 |
I want to combine these two images so that
I effectively just replace the sky.
| | 00:30 |
And because the sky is the brightest
portion of the image, I can use a clever
| | 00:34 |
technique in order to hide that sky, and
therefore reveal the clouds below.
| | 00:39 |
And that involves advanced blending
options for my layers.
| | 00:43 |
I'll start off by double clicking on the
thumbnail for my Clock Tower layer in
| | 00:46 |
order to bring up the layer style
dialogue.
| | 00:50 |
And I'm going to focus on the advanced
blending options, and specifically the
| | 00:53 |
options down at the bottom, those two
gradients.
| | 00:57 |
I'll move the dialog over so that we can
see the entire image and I'm going to
| | 01:00 |
start off with the this Layer slider.
In other words, I'm going to blend layers
| | 01:05 |
based on tonal values in the current
layer.
| | 01:08 |
The layer that I double-clicked on.
Specifically, I want to hide the brightest
| | 01:12 |
pixels from this layer.
And to do that I'll simply drag the slider
| | 01:16 |
from the white end of the gradient.
And when I drag that inward, eventually
| | 01:21 |
we'll start to see pixels disappearing.
The brightest pixels will be blended away,
| | 01:26 |
they'll be hidden.
And if I take that slider in far enough
| | 01:30 |
I'll get all of the sky to completely
disappear, so that I can now see only the
| | 01:33 |
cloudy sky down below.
Of course, the transition is a bit harsh,
| | 01:38 |
you can even see some evidence of that up
at the top of the spire here.
| | 01:41 |
And so, I'd like to smooth out the
transition to accomplish that, I'll hold
| | 01:45 |
the Alt key on Windows or the Option key
on Macintosh, and then click on half of
| | 01:49 |
that handle.
And when I do so, because I was holding
| | 01:54 |
the Alt or Option key that handle will be
split into two individual sliders.
| | 01:59 |
I'll go ahead and drag the left half
inward a bit so that we start hiding a
| | 02:02 |
part of the building here, the Clock
Tower, and then I'll drag the other handle
| | 02:05 |
over to the right.
And you'll start to see that as I move the
| | 02:09 |
handles back and forth, I've created some
significant transition between those areas.
| | 02:15 |
I don't need very much transition, so I'll
bring those sliders a little bit closer together.
| | 02:19 |
I just want to have a little bit of a
transition between the areas that are
| | 02:23 |
being hidden and the areas that are still
here.
| | 02:27 |
That looks to be a pretty good result.
I can also take things a step further though.
| | 02:30 |
What if I'd like to bring in some of those
clouds?
| | 02:33 |
Bring them in front of that Clock Tower so
that the Clock Tower appears to be
| | 02:36 |
essentially going up through the clouds.
That can be kind of cool or at least a
| | 02:41 |
little bit fun.
And for that, we're going to use the
| | 02:44 |
Underlying Layer option.
And when it comes to the Underlying Layer,
| | 02:47 |
I'm not hiding pixels but rather revealing
or bringing them to the forefront.
| | 02:51 |
And in this situation I want to bring
forward the brightest pixels and so I'll
| | 02:55 |
once again work with the white slider.
This time for the underlying layer and as
| | 03:00 |
I drag that slider inward, you'll start to
see that the brightest portions of the
| | 03:04 |
clouds are coming forward.
They're coming in front of my upper layer,
| | 03:09 |
the current layer.
Of course in this case I really need to
| | 03:12 |
make sure that I have some transition, so
once again I'll hold the Alt key on
| | 03:15 |
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh and
then click on half of that slider and drag
| | 03:18 |
it away.
And in this case, I might have those
| | 03:23 |
sliders relatively far apart so that I get
a really smooth transition.
| | 03:28 |
Between the areas that I am revealing or
bringing to the forefront ,and those that
| | 03:31 |
I am not, giving it a sort of misty, hazy
appearance.
| | 03:35 |
So I think that's working pretty well,
it's kind of cool in this case.
| | 03:38 |
And all of this is made possible by those
blending options, so I can hide or reveal
| | 03:41 |
pixels based on their luminance values for
the current layer.
| | 03:46 |
And I can also bring to the forefront,
pixels based on their tonal values from
| | 03:49 |
the underlying area.
Once I'm happy with the result, I can
| | 03:53 |
simply click the OK button in order to
finalize the effect.
| | 03:57 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Painting to hide and reveal| 00:02 |
One of the key concepts to understand when
it comes to layer masking, is that black
| | 00:05 |
will block while white will reveal.
And when you're creating a composite image
| | 00:10 |
that means you're blocking or revealing
certain pixels within the image, so that
| | 00:14 |
you're revealing other pixels.
So for example, I might block certain
| | 00:19 |
pixels from this egret image in order to
reveal the cloudy background below.
| | 00:24 |
And of course, since we're using black and
white to determine which pixels are
| | 00:27 |
visible, it only stands to reason that we
can use the Brush tool to put those black
| | 00:31 |
and white pixels in place.
Of course, first I need a layer mask, so
| | 00:35 |
I'll click on the thumbnail for the layer
that I want to mask.
| | 00:40 |
In this case, the Egret layer or the upper
layer in the stack.
| | 00:43 |
And then I'll click on the Add Layer Mask
button, the circle inside of a square icon
| | 00:46 |
at the bottom of the Layers panel.
And that will add a white mask, meaning
| | 00:50 |
that all of the pixels in this layer are
currently being revealed.
| | 00:55 |
But we can change that very easily by
painting on that mask.
| | 00:58 |
I'll make sure that the mask itself is
active, so that I'm painting on the mask,
| | 01:02 |
not on the image.
You can see that the mask is active,
| | 01:05 |
because there are prop corners around the
edges, but I can also simply click on that
| | 01:09 |
thumbnail just to make sure that it really
is the active item here, so that I'm
| | 01:12 |
painting on that layer mask.
Then I'll choose the Brush tool from the
| | 01:18 |
Toolbox, and I'll press the letter D on
the keyboard to get the default values of
| | 01:21 |
black and white.
And since I'm working on a layer mask,
| | 01:24 |
that will be white for my foreground color
and black for my background color.
| | 01:29 |
I can then adjust my Brush settings, so
I'll adjust the Hardness of the brush for
| | 01:33 |
example, perhaps taking this down to
around about 50% value.
| | 01:37 |
The optimal value will depend in large
part on the size of the brush that I'm
| | 01:40 |
going to use, but we'll be able to adjust
the setting here in a moment.
| | 01:45 |
I'll also make sure that the mode is set
to Normal and that the Opacity is set to
| | 01:48 |
100%, and then, I can move my mouse over
the image and adjust the Brush Size as needed.
| | 01:54 |
The left square bracket key will reduce
the brush size and the right square
| | 01:57 |
bracket key will increase the brush size.
And then I'll press X on the keyboard to
| | 02:01 |
set the foreground color to black so that
I can block some pixels.
| | 02:06 |
And at that point, I can simply paint
within the image.
| | 02:10 |
Once again, I am painting on the layer
mask not on the image itself, and so, the
| | 02:14 |
black that I'm adding to that layer mask
is causing pixels on this layer to be blocked.
| | 02:20 |
They're no longer visible and so we can
effectively see through this layer down to
| | 02:23 |
the layer below, which happens to be my
cloudy sky.
| | 02:27 |
And so, I can continue painting as needed
in order to block portions of the image.
| | 02:32 |
In this case, that would involve painting
throughout the sky so that I block the sky
| | 02:36 |
from my Egret photo, revealing the cloudy
sky down below.
| | 02:40 |
If I were to make a mistake, of course
it's relatively easy to fix.
| | 02:44 |
For example, let's say that I was painting
and I cut off part of the beak here.
| | 02:49 |
I can simply press the letter X to switch
my foreground and background colors so
| | 02:52 |
that white is now my foreground color, and
then I can paint over that beak area to
| | 02:56 |
reveal the beak once again.
And then press X to switch the foreground
| | 03:02 |
color to black, and go back and correct my
painting or clean up that result.
| | 03:07 |
Now, obviously, I have a bit more work to
do here to get a perfect result, but you
| | 03:10 |
can see that the process is relatively
straightforward.
| | 03:14 |
I can paint with black to block pixels
from the current layer or with white to
| | 03:17 |
reveal pixels until I have a perfect
composite.
| | 03:21 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a selection-based composite| 00:02 |
Producing a composite image involves
creating a Layer Mask for one or more of
| | 00:05 |
your Image Layers, where white on that
Layer Mask causes portions of the image to
| | 00:09 |
be revealed.
And black on the Layer Mask causes potions
| | 00:14 |
of the image to be blocked.
For example, with this image I could block
| | 00:18 |
the pixels in the sky in order to reveal
the pixels in the sky below, in this case
| | 00:21 |
a cloudy sky.
And since we're using black and white to
| | 00:25 |
determine which areas of this image are
visible versus which areas of the clouds
| | 00:29 |
below will show through, you might assume
that you'll only be able to use a tool
| | 00:32 |
like the Brush tool to paint with black or
white on the Layer Mask.
| | 00:38 |
But you can actually use a selection as
the basis of a Layer Mask as well.
| | 00:42 |
Let me show you how it works.
I'm going to start off by creating a
| | 00:45 |
selection of the building here.
But actually it's going to be much easier
| | 00:49 |
to create a selection of the sky.
So I'll start there and then invert my selection.
| | 00:54 |
I'll choose the Quick Selection tool from
the toolbox.
| | 00:57 |
And then click and drag throughout the sky
in order to sample portions of the sky and
| | 01:01 |
create a selection.
I have a small portion of the building
| | 01:05 |
that's also selected so I'll hold the Alt
key on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh.
| | 01:10 |
And then paint over the areas of the
building that are included in the
| | 01:13 |
selection, but should not be.
That looks to be pretty good.
| | 01:17 |
Obviously, if I were really trying to
produce a perfect composite, I would Zoom
| | 01:20 |
in and check very carefully.
Although I can also clean up the layer
| | 01:24 |
mask later if needed.
But again, I wanted to select the
| | 01:27 |
building, not the sky, so I'll go ahead
and invert that selection.
| | 01:32 |
I'll do that by choosing Select Inverse
from the menu and now I have the building selected.
| | 01:38 |
So all I need to do in order to mask out
the sky, so that the only building is
| | 01:42 |
visible on this layer.
And therefore the cloudy sky of the image
| | 01:46 |
layer below will show through.
I just need to add a layer mask.
| | 01:51 |
Because I have an active selection in my
image, when I add a Layer Mask for my
| | 01:54 |
Building Layer, that Layer Mask will
automatically reflect the shape of the selection.
| | 02:01 |
So now that I have that selection active
for my building, and my Building Layer is
| | 02:04 |
active on the Layers panel, I'll go down
to the bottom of the Layers panel and
| | 02:08 |
click on the Add Layer Mask button.
The circle inside of a square icon.
| | 02:13 |
And when I do so, I have my composite.
So the selected area is now white on my
| | 02:18 |
Layer Mask, and the deselected area is
black on my Layer Mask.
| | 02:23 |
So the sky in my Building Layer has been
blocked, allowing the underlying sky to
| | 02:27 |
show through, whereas the building is
revealed.
| | 02:31 |
So I can see the building, but nothing
else, for this particular layer, and that
| | 02:35 |
allows whatever else is underneath, in
this case a cloudy sky, to show through.
| | 02:40 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Select, then paint| 00:02 |
When you need to create a layer mask to
produce a composite image, you have two
| | 00:05 |
basic options for getting started.
You can create a black mask as if it were,
| | 00:09 |
a layer mask filled with white and then
paint with black to block certain areas of
| | 00:13 |
the image, or you can utilize a selection
as the basis of that layer mask.
| | 00:18 |
But actually you can mix and match.
You can use both of those techniques
| | 00:22 |
combined in order to get the best layer
mask.
| | 00:25 |
I'll start off in this case by creating a
selection of my tulip.
| | 00:29 |
So, I'll chose my quick selection tool and
then I'm going to create a selection of
| | 00:33 |
just this foreground tulip.
You'll notice that the selection is not
| | 00:38 |
exactly perfect.
It's pretty good, but not perfect, but I'm
| | 00:41 |
just going to leave it as it is for the
moment to demonstrate.
| | 00:44 |
Great how we can mix and match these
techniques.
| | 00:46 |
So with my selection active, I'm going to
add a layer mask.
| | 00:50 |
That layer mask will block portions of my
tulips layer so that the sky down below
| | 00:54 |
shows through.
So with the tulips layer active on the
| | 00:57 |
Layers panel, I'll go down to the bottom
of the Layers panel, and click on the Add
| | 01:01 |
Layer Mask button, the circle inside of a
square icon.
| | 01:05 |
That will add a layer mask based on the
selection.
| | 01:08 |
But I don't have to finish here.
I can continue to fine-tune this layer
| | 01:12 |
mask using a variety of techniques, such
as painting directly on the mask.
| | 01:16 |
So I'll click on the thumbnail for that
layer mask to make sure it's active, and
| | 01:19 |
then I'll chose the Brush tool.
And I can press the letter D on the
| | 01:23 |
keyboard to make sure the colors are set
to their default values of white for my
| | 01:26 |
foreground color and black for my
background color.
| | 01:30 |
And then I'll make sure that the brush is
configured properly.
| | 01:33 |
Specifically I'll want to use the normal
blend mode, and a 100% opacity.
| | 01:37 |
I can also adjust the brush hardness if
I'd like.
| | 01:40 |
In this case it's set to 50%, and I think
that'll work pretty well.
| | 01:44 |
So I'll move my mouse out over the image,
and adjust the brush size using the left
| | 01:47 |
square bracket key to reduce the brush
size.
| | 01:50 |
Or the right square bracket key to
increase the brush size.
| | 01:53 |
And at this point I want to reveal pixels,
so I want to paint with white.
| | 01:56 |
The problem is I don't know exactly where,
for example the edge of the stem for the
| | 02:00 |
tulip actually is.
So I'm sort of painting blind here.
| | 02:04 |
Well, the solution is to simply click and
paint and reveal more than I need to reveal.
| | 02:11 |
So you'll see that now I have the stem and
also some of the background.
| | 02:14 |
I'll go ahead and zoom in so that we can
get a closer look.
| | 02:17 |
And now that I've revealed that area.
I'll go ahead and block what I don't want.
| | 02:22 |
So I'll press the letter x on the keyboard
to switch my foreground and background colors.
| | 02:26 |
I'll adjust the brush size as needed.
And now I can paint with black right along
| | 02:31 |
the edge of the stem of the tulip, so that
I am blocking the pixels.
| | 02:36 |
Outside of that stem.
I'll then of course clean up the rest of
| | 02:40 |
this area here.
And up there's a little bit of area that
| | 02:43 |
needs to be touched up.
And I can continue in this way, cleaning
| | 02:46 |
up that edge.
So first, I will start off by revealing
| | 02:50 |
more than I actually need.
And then I'll go back and clean things up
| | 02:55 |
as needed.
So once again I can start with the
| | 02:57 |
selection in order to create my basic
layer mask, and then use the brush tool as
| | 03:01 |
needed to paint with black to block
certain areas, or white to reveal certain
| | 03:05 |
areas in order to fine tune that layer
mask.
| | 03:10 |
So here, for example, the selection gave
me a really good starting point, but
| | 03:13 |
there's some additional work needed to
clean up that selection.
| | 03:17 |
And so I'll work directly on the layer
mask in order to clean up all of those
| | 03:21 |
areas where the selection wasn't quite
perfect.
| | 03:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Advanced mask cleanup| 00:02 |
When creating composite images, from time
to time you're bound to run into a
| | 00:05 |
situation where creating that composite
proves challenging.
| | 00:09 |
And this image certainly provides a good
example of that.
| | 00:11 |
It is a fuzzy subject.
This macaque, of course, is furry, and
| | 00:15 |
that fur is Fuzzy and that's going to
create a challenge in terms of creating a
| | 00:19 |
good layer mask.
But we can use some little tricks to help
| | 00:23 |
improve our results.
Lets take a look at a process we might use
| | 00:26 |
with this image for example.
What I'll do is create a layer mask where
| | 00:30 |
we can only see the macaque and not the
background.
| | 00:34 |
And that way we'll be able to place that
macaque on a different background.
| | 00:37 |
So, let's get started by creating a
selection.
| | 00:40 |
In this case I think I can create a
selection pretty well.
| | 00:43 |
Based on one of the channels.
It looks like the blue channel has pretty
| | 00:46 |
good contrast for the macaque so I'll use
that as the basis of my selection.
| | 00:50 |
I'll create a copy of that blue channel by
dragging its thumbnail down to the Create
| | 00:54 |
New Channel button, the blank sheet of
paper icon at the bottom of the channels panel.
| | 00:59 |
I'll then enhance contrast by choosing
Image > Adjustments and then Levels.
| | 01:03 |
And I'll maximize contrast to the extent
possible.
| | 01:07 |
I want to try and darken the background
and lighten the macaque so that I have
| | 01:10 |
good contrast.
I don't want too much contrast because
| | 01:14 |
then I'll lose some of that fur detail.
So I want just enough.
| | 01:18 |
Perhaps, right around there might do the
trick.
| | 01:21 |
In addition to adjusting the black and
white point, I can also adjust that
| | 01:24 |
midtone value.
And I'm really going to focus mostly on
| | 01:27 |
the fur details.
So in fact, I'll zoom in a little bit so
| | 01:30 |
that we can see that, that fur is still
comprised not only of black and white
| | 01:33 |
pixels but.
But also some shades of gray, and that's
| | 01:37 |
going to be the key to having a nice
smooth transition for that fur.
| | 01:40 |
So that looks to be a pretty good
adjustment, I'll good ahead and click Okay.
| | 01:44 |
But of course this is not a perfect
adjustment.
| | 01:47 |
I want to adjust that background so that
it's completely black and adjust the
| | 01:51 |
foreground so it's compeltely white.
And that would be a little bit of a
| | 01:54 |
challenge with A normal brush tool for
example.
| | 01:56 |
But I'm going to use the brush tool in
conjunction with a blend mode in order to
| | 01:59 |
improve my results.
I'll select the brush tool from the tool
| | 02:03 |
box and then press the letter D to make
sure my colors are set to the default
| | 02:06 |
values of white and black.
I can then press X as needed to switch the
| | 02:10 |
foreground and background colors.
I'm then going to change the blend mode
| | 02:14 |
for my brush tool.
To overlay.
| | 02:16 |
That's a contrast blend mode, and it will
allow me to lighten or darken areas of the
| | 02:21 |
image as needed.
I'll then adjust the size of my brush
| | 02:25 |
using the left and right square bracket
keys as needed to reduce or enlarge the
| | 02:28 |
brush respectively.
And because I'm working with that overlay
| | 02:32 |
blend mode, I'm not simply painting with
black, I'm actually, essentially, dodging
| | 02:35 |
and burning, lightening or darkening areas
of the image.
| | 02:39 |
So, I can paint over these black areas,
and if I come out over the fur, you'll
| | 02:43 |
notice that I don't completely destroy the
fur.
| | 02:46 |
I'll certainly tone it down a little bit.
But I'm not going to completely destroy it.
| | 02:50 |
And so that allows me to clean up those
areas around the (UNKNOWN) without causing
| | 02:54 |
any real harm to the fur.
Similarly, I can paint with white in the
| | 02:59 |
interior, so I'll press the X key on the
keyboard to switch the foreground and
| | 03:02 |
background colors.
And then I'll paint just inside of the
| | 03:06 |
edge of that fur detail, in order to
essentially create a path around which
| | 03:10 |
I'll be able to produce a selection.
And so I'll just go around the full edge
| | 03:16 |
here, just of the Macack and paint to
clean things up.
| | 03:20 |
I'll go ahead and zoom out just a little
bit here and use a little bit larger brush
| | 03:24 |
and not worry too much about getting this
absolutely perfect.
| | 03:28 |
I'll just illustrate the basic concepts
here.
| | 03:31 |
And giving myself a little bit of an area
to work with.
| | 03:34 |
I think right about there.
That should pretty well take care of it.
| | 03:38 |
I'll just check the top area up here.
Maybe clean up some of that here.
| | 03:42 |
And for the moment I'm not going to worry
about the stump here down below.
| | 03:45 |
I'll clean that up separately.
But at this point I have a pretty good
| | 03:49 |
definition of at least the edge.
So now I'll go ahead and fill the
| | 03:52 |
background with black and the foreground
with white.
| | 03:55 |
The way I'll do that is to create a
selection.
| | 03:57 |
So I'll create a selection of the
background.
| | 04:00 |
Basically moving my mouse around the
outside of the macaque.
| | 04:04 |
With the lasso tool.
And then I'll trace around the rest of the
| | 04:07 |
image and create that selection of all
areas that need to be filled with black.
| | 04:12 |
Then I can go to the Edit menu and choose
Fill, and then make sure that black is set
| | 04:16 |
as the option under the Use pop-up.
And then I'll click OK in order to fill
| | 04:21 |
that area with black.
I'll then press Ctrl + D on Windows or Cmd
| | 04:26 |
+ D on Macintosh to deselect.
And then I'll trace inside the macaque.
| | 04:30 |
Just inside the fur line, once again using
the Lasso tool.
| | 04:34 |
And following along that path that I
cleared out for myself using that dodge
| | 04:38 |
and burn technique with the Brush tool.
Once again I won't worry about the stump
| | 04:43 |
down at the bottom.
I'll treat that separately.
| | 04:45 |
And so I"ll just trace all around the
interior of the macaque all the way back
| | 04:49 |
to my original starting point and now,
this area, I'll fill with white.
| | 04:54 |
So I'll go to the Edit menu and choose
Fill and then I'll choose White from the
| | 04:58 |
Use popup and then click OK.
Just to get a better initial result of
| | 05:02 |
course I could also select this stump down
here.
| | 05:05 |
I won't worry about being precise.
I'll just create a basic selection so that
| | 05:09 |
my initial composite will look a little
bit better and then from the edit menu
| | 05:12 |
I'll choose fill one more time and fill
with white.
| | 05:16 |
I can then deselect by pressing Ctrl + V
on Windows or Cmd + D on MacIntosh and now
| | 05:20 |
I have an alpha channel that reflects
(INAUDIBLE) a good selection for my
| | 05:23 |
macaque including that fur detail.
So I'll go ahead and click the Load
| | 05:28 |
Channel as Selection button.
The dash circle icon at the bottom of the
| | 05:32 |
channels panel.
That will load a selection where white is
| | 05:35 |
selected and black is deselected.
And if I click on the RGB thumbnail I'll
| | 05:39 |
get back to my color image and you can see
that we have what seems to be a decent.
| | 05:43 |
Then selection at least for starting with
.I'll go back to my Layers panel and now
| | 05:46 |
with my Macaque layer active, and with the
selection in the image, I'll go ahead and
| | 05:49 |
click on the Add Layer Mask Button.
The circle inside of a square icon at the
| | 05:54 |
bottom of the layers panel.
And you can see that we have a very good
| | 05:58 |
starting point.
A very good basic layer mask for this
| | 06:02 |
particular subject.
So by using that dodging and burning
| | 06:05 |
technique on an alpha channel or on a
layer mask itself, for that matter, we're
| | 06:09 |
able to greatly improve the result that we
were able to achieve with a very tricky subject.
| | 06:15 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating an edge-fade effect| 00:02 |
A photograph of course has a clearly
defined boundary.
| | 00:05 |
The edge of the image itself, but
sometimes I like to have that boundary
| | 00:08 |
fade off a little bit by adding a fade
effect to my image.
| | 00:13 |
And actually what that means is not that
I'm fading the image per say.
| | 00:17 |
But that I'm adding a border, generally, a
white border that sort of fades from the
| | 00:21 |
edge inward.
Let's take a look at a technique for
| | 00:24 |
producing that type of effect.
I'll start off by creating a selection
| | 00:28 |
that defines the area that I want that
faded edge to appear.
| | 00:31 |
I'll select the rectangular Marquee tool
from the toolbox in this case, and then
| | 00:35 |
I'll just create a selection of the center
of the image.
| | 00:39 |
Going near the edge of the photo.
And then once I've created that selection
| | 00:43 |
I'll invert it by choosing Select >
Inverse from the menu.
| | 00:46 |
So now I have a selection of that outer
area, essentially a border around the photo.
| | 00:52 |
I'll then add a new empty image layer by
clicking the Create New Layer button, the
| | 00:56 |
blank sheet of paper icon at the bottom of
the Layers panel.
| | 01:00 |
And then I'll add a Layer mask based on
the current selection, to this layer.
| | 01:04 |
I can do that just by clicking the Add
Layer Mask button, the circle inside of a
| | 01:07 |
square icon at the bottom of the Layers
panel.
| | 01:10 |
And so now, I have a Layer mask, which
ensures that this layer is only visible
| | 01:13 |
around that outer edge.
Of course, that's revealing nothing,
| | 01:17 |
because there's nothing on this layer yet,
but I can fix that by filling this layer
| | 01:21 |
with white.
So I'll click on the thumbnail for this
| | 01:25 |
layer, and then choose Edit > Fill from
the menu.
| | 01:29 |
Set my Use pop-up up to white, and then
click OK, and now I have that white border.
| | 01:35 |
Well this is part of the effect that I'm
looking for but I also want to have that
| | 01:38 |
white border fade in, so that the effect
is that the photo just fades out toward
| | 01:41 |
the edges.
So I'll click on the layer mask in order
| | 01:46 |
to activate it, so that I'm modifying the
layer mask, not the pixel layer.
| | 01:51 |
And that will reveal the Masks options on
the Properties panel and you'll see we
| | 01:55 |
have a Feather option.
I'll go ahead and drag that feather slider
| | 01:58 |
over toward the right and you'll notice
that I'm now feathering or blurring the
| | 02:02 |
Layer mask.
So that I get that faded edge effect for
| | 02:06 |
my image, so I can adjust to taste, I
think right about there looks to be pretty good.
| | 02:11 |
And there you have it.
I've simply added a white layer but then
| | 02:14 |
utilized a Layer mask with a bit of
feathering to produce a faded edge affect
| | 02:18 |
for the photo.
| | 02:20 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using a filter to add an artistic edge| 00:02 |
At times I like to add an artistic edge to
my images, and I like them to be a little
| | 00:06 |
bit random.
Just some sort of texture that's interesting.
| | 00:10 |
And, to do that, I can utilize a filter in
conjunction with a layer mask.
| | 00:15 |
Let's take a look at the basic technique.
I'll start by utilizing the Rectangular
| | 00:19 |
Mark key tool, in order to create a
selection of most of the image, just
| | 00:22 |
inside from that outer edge.
I'll then add a new image layer by
| | 00:27 |
clicking on the Create New Layer button at
the bottom of the Layers panel, and I'll
| | 00:30 |
add a layer mask to this layer based on
the selection, by clicking on the Add
| | 00:33 |
Layer Mask button.
Next, I'll click on the thumbnail for the
| | 00:38 |
image layer itself, and I'm going to fill
this layer with white so that that will
| | 00:42 |
become the border for my image.
So I'll go to the Edit menu and choose Fill.
| | 00:47 |
I'll make sure the Use popup is set to
white and I'll click OK.
| | 00:51 |
And now, of course, I have white, but it's
covering up the image.
| | 00:55 |
Because my selection was of the interior
of the image, not of the border around the
| | 00:59 |
edge of the photo and so I needed the
opposite selection.
| | 01:03 |
Essentially, I should have inverted my
selection.
| | 01:06 |
But that's okay, because I can actually
just invert my layer mask.
| | 01:10 |
I'll go ahead and click on the thumbnail
for the layer mask so that I can modify
| | 01:13 |
the layer mask itself.
And then, on the properties panel, I'll
| | 01:17 |
scroll down so that I can see the invert
button, and I'll simply click invert.
| | 01:21 |
And as you can see, I've inverted my layer
mask, reversing it essentially, so that I
| | 01:25 |
get the same result as though I had
inverted my selection in the first place.
| | 01:30 |
So now I have a border, but it's not
exactly an artistic border, it's just a
| | 01:33 |
white border.
It's essentially as though I had cropped
| | 01:36 |
the image.
But that's because I just used a simple selection.
| | 01:39 |
But now I can modify this layer mask
utilizing the filter.
| | 01:43 |
So I'll go to the Filter menu, and choose
Filter Gallery.
| | 01:47 |
That will bring up the Filter Gallery.
I can add additional Filter layers if I'd like.
| | 01:52 |
In this case I have a pretty good starting
point.
| | 01:54 |
I have the Ocean Ripple filter, as well as
the Underpainting filter.
| | 01:58 |
I can turn off the visibility for any of
those Filter effects.
| | 02:02 |
I can click on the trash can icon if I
want to delete the selected layer.
| | 02:05 |
I can also add a new Filter Effect layer.
Initially the new layer will be a
| | 02:09 |
duplicate of the currently active layer.
But then, I can apply changes just
| | 02:14 |
clicking on a thumbnail representing one
of the filters if I'd like and then
| | 02:17 |
modifying the overall settings for that
Filter effect.
| | 02:22 |
And I can even change the order of the
Filters.
| | 02:24 |
I'll go ahead and drag the Underpainting
filter up to the top of the stack, for example.
| | 02:29 |
But as you can see, I'm able to fine-tune
the shape of that Edge effect, just by
| | 02:33 |
applying as many filters as I'd like, and
adjusting the overall settings for those filters.
| | 02:39 |
Once I'm happy with the edge effect, I'll
go ahead and click the OK button, and you
| | 02:43 |
can see that that edge effect, now impacts
my image.
| | 02:48 |
Because what I've really done is applied a
filter directly to my layer mask.
| | 02:52 |
So, now the layer mask that is determining
which portions of my white layer are
| | 02:56 |
blocked versus revealed has been changed
in shape to create a rather interesting
| | 03:00 |
effect for the photo.
| | 03:03 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using a brush effect to add an artistic edge| 00:02 |
I love finding ways to mix and match
various tools and techniques in Photoshop
| | 00:05 |
to create an interesting result.
And one situation where I'll use that type
| | 00:10 |
of approach is when I want to add an
artistic edge to an image.
| | 00:14 |
In this case I'm going to use the Brush
tool with some special properties.
| | 00:18 |
In order to create an interesting edge
effect for my image.
| | 00:21 |
I'll start off by creating a new image
layer.
| | 00:24 |
So I'll click on the Create New Layer
button at the bottom of the layers panel.
| | 00:28 |
And I'm going to fill this layer with
white.
| | 00:29 |
And that's because I essentially want to
have a white border around the image.
| | 00:33 |
It's just going to be a border with an
interesting textured shape to it.
| | 00:36 |
So I'll go to the Edit > Fill.
And then choose White from the use pop up,
| | 00:41 |
and click OK in order to fill this layer
with white.
| | 00:45 |
Of course, all those white pixels are now
covering up my image.
| | 00:49 |
So I want to block all of these pixels
from view.
| | 00:51 |
And then I'll use an interesting technique
to reveal some of those pixels.
| | 00:55 |
To block all those pixels I'm going to use
a layer mask and in this case what I
| | 00:58 |
really want is just a layer mask filed
with black.
| | 01:02 |
By default, a layer mask is filled with
white so that all of the pixels on the
| | 01:05 |
layer that we've added that mask to are
revealed, but But we can also add a black
| | 01:09 |
layer mask.
I don't even have to add a white layer
| | 01:13 |
mask and fill it with black.
I can simply hold the Alt key on Windows
| | 01:16 |
or the Option key on Macintosh, while
clicking on the Add Layer Mask button at
| | 01:20 |
the bottom of the Layers panel, and that
will add an inverted mask.
| | 01:25 |
So now I have a layer mask filled with
black.
| | 01:28 |
So now I have a white layer covering up my
image but that white layer has been
| | 01:31 |
completely hidden from view.
But now I'm going to reveal portions of it.
| | 01:36 |
To do that I'll choose the Brush tool and
then I'm going to click on the Brush Panel
| | 01:40 |
button on the options bar in order to
bring up the Brush panel.
| | 01:44 |
And I'm going to change some of the
attributes for the Brush in order to
| | 01:47 |
create a very random and interesting
textured shape.
| | 01:50 |
I'll start off by going down the list of
brushes here.
| | 01:53 |
And finding one that has an interesting
shape to it, perhaps this one here might
| | 01:57 |
work nicely.
And then I'll go to Shape Dynamics, and
| | 02:01 |
here we can adjust the jitter controls.
In other words, some variation for the brush.
| | 02:08 |
So I can have the brush size jitter.
In other words, to vary between large and small.
| | 02:13 |
You'll notice in the preview stroke down
below that we get a bit of a random shape,
| | 02:17 |
here, because of that.
I can also adjust the angle jitter so that
| | 02:21 |
the brush essentially rotates on the fly
as I'm painting with it.
| | 02:26 |
Next, I can adjust the roundness jitter.
And I sort of think of this as a three
| | 02:30 |
dimensional type of effect for the brush.
We're randomly turning the brush on edge
| | 02:35 |
to some extent.
I can also adjust the controls for
| | 02:38 |
scattering so that I can scatter those
brush strokes around a little bit.
| | 02:42 |
Usually a fairly small value works out
pretty well, and I can adjust the number
| | 02:46 |
of brush strokes, effectively.
Essentially this is the same as painting
| | 02:51 |
over the same area multiple times, and
then I can jitter that effect.
| | 02:56 |
But at this point, I think I have a pretty
good result.
| | 02:58 |
I can go back and fine-tune, as I'd like,
the various settings.
| | 03:02 |
Notice, also, by the way, that we have
minimum values for some of these controls,
| | 03:05 |
so I can have a minimum roundness setting
or a minimum diameter, so the size can't
| | 03:09 |
get too small for some of the brush
strokes.
| | 03:13 |
But I think this randomness is looking
pretty cool.
| | 03:15 |
I'll go ahead and close my brush panel and
then we can take a look at the results.
| | 03:20 |
I'll adjust the brush size here...
And I'm going to use a large brush size
| | 03:24 |
just so that we can see the effect a
little bit better.
| | 03:27 |
More often than not, I would use a
relatively small setting here.
| | 03:30 |
And in fact, I'm going to also change one
other setting for the brush.
| | 03:33 |
I want to reduce the opacity for the brush
down to 50%, so I'll simply press five on
| | 03:38 |
the keyboard to set the opacity on the
Options bar to 50%.
| | 03:44 |
I'll also make sure that my blend mode for
that brush is set to Normal.
| | 03:47 |
And then I'll press the letter D on the
keyboard to make sure that my colors are
| | 03:50 |
set to their default values with white as
my foreground color and black as the
| | 03:53 |
background color.
I can press X as needed to switch the
| | 03:57 |
foreground and background color.
And I'll also click on the layer mask
| | 04:00 |
thumbnail on the layers panel just to make
sure that's active so that I'm painting on
| | 04:04 |
my mask, not on my pixel layer.
And then at a 50% opacity I'm just going
| | 04:09 |
to paint across the image and you'll see
that I get this sort of random texture,
| | 04:13 |
this random shape because the brush is
jittering all over the place.
| | 04:19 |
I can paint back and forth a couple times
if I'd like to and naturally if I was
| | 04:23 |
creating a border effect I would paint all
the way around the outside of the photo
| | 04:26 |
blocking the underlying image as it were
by revealing portions of my white frame.
| | 04:34 |
At this point, I'll go ahead and reduce
the size of the brush and then press the 0
| | 04:38 |
key on the keyboard to set my opacity for
the brush to 100% and now I'll go around 1
| | 04:42 |
more time with the second pass, this time
actually revealing that white border.
| | 04:50 |
So I have this sort of tiered effect.
I've got part of the image being blocked
| | 04:54 |
just a little but by that white layer.
And then I'm coming back around with a
| | 04:58 |
smaller portion adding a full effect, so
painting it 100 percent opacity so that
| | 05:02 |
I'm completely revealing that white
border.
| | 05:06 |
And so, I can continue working around the
image in order to clean up the edge, so
| | 05:09 |
that I have a nice white border but a
white boarder with a very interesting
| | 05:13 |
shape to it.
So again, in this case, I'd use the much
| | 05:18 |
larger brush than I normally would, but
you can see the effect can be a lot of fun
| | 05:21 |
to apply, adding an interesting and random
border around an image.
| | 05:26 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Transforming a masked object| 00:02 |
Creating composite images, of course, can
be a lot of fun.
| | 00:05 |
I've certainly been having some fun adding
this huge sparrow to the beach scene here,
| | 00:08 |
but I think the sparrow might be just a
little bit too big, so I'd like to size it
| | 00:12 |
down just a little bit.
And for that, I'll want to transform my image.
| | 00:18 |
And I can actually transform an individual
layer.
| | 00:20 |
In other words I can re-size an individual
layer, and I can even re-size an image
| | 00:25 |
layer with the mask intact.
Here you can see I have a layer with a
| | 00:29 |
bird on it, and of course a layer mask
that is allowing only the bird itself to
| | 00:32 |
be revealed.
And the two are linked together.
| | 00:36 |
You can see there's even a chain icon
indicating that these two objects, the
| | 00:39 |
layer itself and the layer mask, are bound
together.
| | 00:43 |
That means that I can move this layer
around but also transform it.
| | 00:49 |
To transform this layer I'll go to the
Edit menu and then choose Free Transform.
| | 00:54 |
Now you can see I have a bounding box
around the image.
| | 00:56 |
I'll go ahead and hold the Shift key so
that I constrain the aspect ratio, and
| | 01:00 |
then I'll drag any of the corners to
resize the image.
| | 01:04 |
So, just resizing that one image layer.
That looks to be a pretty good size.
| | 01:10 |
I can then also move the layer around so
I'll just click on that layer and drag it
| | 01:13 |
around in the image, and right about there
looks pretty good.
| | 01:18 |
So I'll go ahead and commit that change by
clicking the Checkmark button on the
| | 01:21 |
Options bar.
I could also double-click inside the
| | 01:24 |
bounding box or press Enter or Return on
the keyboard to apply that change.
| | 01:29 |
But there you have it.
By utilizing that free transform, or for
| | 01:32 |
that matter any of the transform commands,
I can adjust a masked layer so that both
| | 01:36 |
the layer mask and the image layer are
being changed in exactly the same way, so
| | 01:40 |
that the masked object remains masked even
as I'm resizing and moving it around.
| | 01:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Unlinking image and mask| 00:02 |
When you create a composite image, you're
essentially combining an image layer with
| | 00:05 |
a layer mask so that that image is only
visible in certain areas.
| | 00:09 |
In this case, for example, I have a photo
of a side of a building and I've added a
| | 00:13 |
photo of clouds, but that cloud layer is
only visible through the window, in the
| | 00:17 |
upper window in this case, because I've
created a layer mask that reflects the
| | 00:20 |
shape of that window.
By default, a layer mask is linked with
| | 00:26 |
the layer that it's attached to.
So, for example, the cloud layer and its
| | 00:31 |
layer mask are linked together.
So that if, for example, I were to re-size
| | 00:35 |
one, the other would be re-sized as well.
Or if I move one, the other moves with it.
| | 00:41 |
And so, for example, if I were to move my
cloud layer, I would be moving the layer
| | 00:44 |
mask with it so that I end up with a
mismatch in this case, with clouds that
| | 00:48 |
are visible but not in the right spot.
The whole point was to have them showing
| | 00:53 |
through the window.
I'll go ahead and press Ctrl+Z on Windows
| | 00:56 |
or Cmd+Z on Macintosh to undo that step so
that the clouds are appearing right
| | 01:00 |
through the window.
But what if I want to reveal a different
| | 01:04 |
portion of this cloud layer?
You can see from the thumbnail that I have
| | 01:08 |
a relatively large image, but I'm only
seeing a small portion of it.
| | 01:11 |
What if I want to see a different portion
of it?
| | 01:15 |
Well, if I want to move that layer around
or even resize it, I need to do so
| | 01:18 |
independent of the layer mask.
I need to leave the layer mask alone and
| | 01:22 |
modify only the image.
To accomplish that I'll unlink the layer
| | 01:26 |
and the mask.
So I'll simply click on the chain icon in
| | 01:29 |
between the two.
And now, with that image layer active,
| | 01:32 |
I'll click on the thumbnail just to make
sure, I can for example use the Move tool
| | 01:36 |
to simply drag that layer around.
So I can move this layer, I'll just use
| | 01:41 |
the arrow keys on the keyboard in order to
move the layer up, down, left, and right.
| | 01:46 |
I need to make sure that I don't move that
layer so much that I reveal the edge or
| | 01:50 |
completely take it out of the window frame
in this case.
| | 01:53 |
And let's assume right about there seems
to be pretty good.
| | 01:56 |
I can also though, resize this image
layer.
| | 01:59 |
I'll go to the Edit menu and choose Free
Transform, for example.
| | 02:03 |
I'll zoom out a little bit so I can see
more of that bounding box, and then I'll
| | 02:06 |
hold the Shift key to constrain the aspect
ratio to the original ratio.
| | 02:10 |
And I can resize that image layer and move
it around a little bit more and just find
| | 02:14 |
the portion of this image that I think is
the most interesting.
| | 02:18 |
I'll continue resizing a little bit.
Maybe reducing the size of this image a
| | 02:22 |
little bit more.
Since I have enough room to work with there.
| | 02:26 |
And that looks to be pretty good, maybe
move it over to the right a little bit more.
| | 02:30 |
Right around there.
So now I can commit this transformation by
| | 02:33 |
pressing Enter or Return on the keyboard.
Double-clicking inside the bounding box or
| | 02:37 |
clicking the commit button, that check
mark icon on the options bar.
| | 02:42 |
And now I've moved and resized the image
layer, independent of the layer mask,
| | 02:46 |
simply by unlinking the layer mask from
the image layer.
| | 02:50 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Matching composite images| 00:02 |
Creating composite images obviously
involves taking a little bit of artistic license.
| | 00:06 |
Creating a scene that didn't really
necessarily exist, and that might even be
| | 00:10 |
impossible to happen in reality.
But that doesn't mean that we don't want
| | 00:14 |
the two elements to blend together
smoothly.
| | 00:17 |
Part of that involves creating a high
quality mask that perfectly defines the subject.
| | 00:22 |
But part of it also means making sure that
the subject looks like it fits in its environment.
| | 00:27 |
In this case, for example, I have lots of
very warm colors and yet the turn appears
| | 00:31 |
to be slightly coolish.
It's color doesn't seem to match the
| | 00:35 |
environment and, so, I'd like to change
the appearance of the turn.
| | 00:39 |
I'll go ahead and add a photo filter
adjustment, for example, to warm things up.
| | 00:43 |
So, down at the bottom of the layer's
panel I'll click on the add adjustment
| | 00:46 |
layer button.
And from the pop up that appears I'll
| | 00:49 |
choose Photo Filter in order to add a
photo filter adjustment layer.
| | 00:53 |
You'll see that I can add a warming filter
for example, or a cooling filter.
| | 00:57 |
But as I apply these changes, you can see
that I'm affecting the entire image.
| | 01:02 |
I'm affecting both the bird.
And the background.
| | 01:06 |
I only want this adjustment to affect the
bird.
| | 01:09 |
The whole point here is to change the bird
so that it better matches its
| | 01:12 |
surroundings, not to change the overall
image.
| | 01:15 |
In this case, I think I want a warming
filter, so I'll go ahead, and choose, for
| | 01:18 |
example, the 81 warming filter.
I can then adjust the intensity of that
| | 01:23 |
effect, but still you'll notice that I'm
effecting the entire image.
| | 01:27 |
Instead I want to put this adjustment
layer, my photo filter adjustment layer
| | 01:30 |
into a clipping group with the turn layer.
So with that photo filter adjustment
| | 01:35 |
layered directly above the turn layer On
the properties panel I can simply click
| | 01:39 |
the first button at the bottom of the
panel, in order to add that photo filter
| | 01:42 |
adjustment layer into a clipping group
with the turn layer.
| | 01:47 |
You'll see that I have an icon indicating
that this layer is in a clipping group
| | 01:50 |
with the layer below.
And now as I adjust the intensity of the
| | 01:54 |
effect, you'll notice that only the turn
is being affected by this adjustment.
| | 01:59 |
The background is not.
So I'll dial in a little bit of a stronger
| | 02:03 |
adjustment here.
So that we get a bit of an orange glow on
| | 02:06 |
that turn.
And now while it might be a completely
| | 02:09 |
fake scene created from two different
images, at least the overall color is
| | 02:12 |
matching up.
| | 02:14 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding layer effects with masks| 00:02 |
You might be familiar with Layer Effects
in Photoshop, the ability to add, for
| | 00:05 |
example, a drop shadow to an image.
These effects are very often used with
| | 00:10 |
text, for example.
But we can also utilize those Layer
| | 00:13 |
effects in the context of a composite
image.
| | 00:16 |
In other words, in conjunction with a
Layer mask.
| | 00:19 |
Here, for example, I had a sign of a side
of a building with an entrance sign.
| | 00:23 |
And I've isolated just the sign in order
to put it onto a white background, but I'd
| | 00:27 |
like to add a little bit of depth by
adding a Layer mask.
| | 00:30 |
To do that, I'll go ahead and click on the
thumbnail for my sign layer to make sure
| | 00:34 |
it's active.
And then at the bottom of the Layers
| | 00:37 |
panel, I'll click on the FX button which
will bring up a list of layer effects that
| | 00:40 |
I'm able to apply.
I'll go ahead and choose Drop Shadow from
| | 00:44 |
that popup menu.
And now the Layer Style dialogue appears
| | 00:47 |
and you can see that the Drop Shadow
option has been turned on.
| | 00:51 |
And selected so I can see the drop shadow
controls.
| | 00:54 |
I'll go ahead and adjust the settings here
for example.
| | 00:57 |
I'll increase the distance so I get a drop
shadow that's moved a little further away
| | 01:01 |
from the object there.
I can also adjust the size in order to
| | 01:05 |
essentially blur that drop shadow.
And then I'll reduce the opacity a bit so
| | 01:10 |
that it's a little bit more subtle.
And I can continue fine tuning, adjusting
| | 01:14 |
the Angle for example I'll set this to 135
degrees perhaps.
| | 01:19 |
I'll move the Layer Style dialogue out of
the way a little bit, so we can see the
| | 01:22 |
full image.
And you'll notice that that Drop Shadow is
| | 01:26 |
appearing based on the Layer mask.
In other words I'm only seeing this image
| | 01:30 |
where the sign exist.
And therefore, that drop shadow is
| | 01:34 |
effectively a drop shadow of the sign, the
drop shadow only appears along the shape
| | 01:38 |
defined by that Layer mask.
And so in this way, I can apply a variety
| | 01:43 |
of different Layer effects, and they will
respect that Layer mask.
| | 01:48 |
So for example, if I add a Bevel and
Emboss effect I'll go ahead and just
| | 01:51 |
increase the size here so we can see it
very obviously.
| | 01:55 |
That Bevel and Emboss effect also happens
only along the edge of that sign.
| | 01:59 |
Because all of these effects, all of these
layer styles are respecting the layer mask.
| | 02:05 |
So, I can continue fine tuning the
settings as needed and adding any layer
| | 02:08 |
effects I like.
And when I'm finished I'll click okay, but
| | 02:12 |
as you can see I'm able to add effects
based on the masked version of the
| | 02:15 |
particular image layer.
| | 02:18 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Reviewing layer masks| 00:01 | Whenever you create a layer mask,
it's important that that mask be as
| | 00:05 | accurate as possible.
| | 00:06 | In the context of a composite image
for example, that means making sure that
| | 00:11 | you're blocking or revealing just
the right pixels to create the intended
| | 00:15 | effect, and that means that you want to
set some time reviewing that layer mask
| | 00:19 | to make sure that everything
is as accurate as possible.
| | 00:22 | Let's take a look a couple techniques
we can use for evaluating a layer mask.
| | 00:26 | The first thing we can do is to hide
or reveal the entire layer that is being
| | 00:31 | affected by the mask.
| | 00:33 | In this case for example, my clouds
layer has been masked so that is only
| | 00:36 | visible in the area of the sky
for my background image layer.
| | 00:40 | And so if I turn off the visibility for
that layer I'll see the original image.
| | 00:45 | By toggling back and forth--in other
word clicking on the eye icon to hide this
| | 00:49 | layer and then clicking on the empty
box to reveal it again, you can probably
| | 00:53 | get a pretty good sense of where
things didn't go quite as planned.
| | 00:57 | For example, you'll notice that as I
toggle back and forth, portions of the
| | 01:02 | branches in the tree are
being cut off by the new layer.
| | 01:06 | And also, we can see pretty clearly that
the blue sky through the tree is not changing.
| | 01:11 | In other words the layer mask doesn't
probably reflect that portion of the image.
| | 01:15 | I also noticed that the top of the
barn here is being cut off, and so that's
| | 01:20 | another area that I'll need to clean up.
| | 01:22 | So just by toggling layer off and then
on again and reviewing various areas of
| | 01:26 | the photo I'm able to get a pretty
good sense of where my problem areas are.
| | 01:31 | I can perform a similar task by
disabling the layer mask temporarily.
| | 01:35 | I'll hold the Shift key and then click
on the thumbnail for the layer mask, and
| | 01:39 | now the layer mask is no longer
having an effect on the image so I see the
| | 01:43 | clouds they are just
covering up a portion of my photo.
| | 01:47 | So holding the Shift key, I can click
and click on and off to disable and then
| | 01:53 | reenable the layer mask.
| | 01:55 | And in the process, once again, you'll
get a sense of some of the changes within
| | 01:59 | the image, and it can be
helpful in terms of spotting mistakes.
| | 02:03 | Finally, you can take a
look at the actual layer mask.
| | 02:06 | Of course we can see the layer mask
right here on the Layers panel except it's a
| | 02:11 | very small thumbnail.
| | 02:12 | If I'd like to see the entire layer mask,
I can hold the Alt key on Windows or
| | 02:16 | the Option key on Macintosh while
clicking on the thumbnail for that layer mask
| | 02:20 | and that will reveal the actual layer mask.
| | 02:23 | So for example, here I can see that
things are a little bit crisp in that tree.
| | 02:28 | There's some areas that are sort of a
fuzzy gray down here, but for the most
| | 02:32 | part things are just a little bit
too abrupt I thin,k and we can see very
| | 02:36 | clearly that there are no gaps in the
tree, even though we were able to see
| | 02:40 | sky behind the tree.
| | 02:41 | I can also see some clutter here and there.
| | 02:43 | I can evaluate the
overall hardness of that edge.
| | 02:47 | You'll notice here for example I have
some fuzziness, and that actually just
| | 02:50 | needs to be replaced so that I
can see the top of that barn.
| | 02:53 | You also can see some white areas in the
barn itself, and an area where we don't
| | 02:58 | quite have a good corner.
| | 03:00 | By looking at the actual mask, we're
able to find some errors here and there and
| | 03:05 | we can actually work to clean
those up directly here within the mask.
| | 03:08 | For example I could grab the Brush
tool and then paint with black in these
| | 03:11 | areas in order to fill them with black and
therefore block those portions in the layer mask.
| | 03:17 | When I want to see the full image again,
I can hold the Alt key on Windows or
| | 03:20 | the Option key on Macintosh once again
and click on the thumbnail for that layer
| | 03:24 | mask to get back to the full image.
| | 03:27 | So with these various techniques, we
were able to evaluate our results and more
| | 03:31 | importantly, find our mistakes
so that we can clean those up.
| | 03:34 | And so, by utilizing these various
techniques, we can evaluate that mask and
| | 03:38 | find areas where it's less than ideal
so we can improve upon it in order to
| | 03:42 | create a great composite.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Applying Targeted AdjustmentsPainting in an adjustment| 00:02 |
One of the primary uses of the Layer Mask
is to apply a targeted adjustment.
| | 00:06 |
In other words, an adjustment that only
effects a specific area of a photo.
| | 00:11 |
And one of the easiest ways to define
which area of an image should be adjusted.
| | 00:14 |
And which area should not, is to paint to
define those areas.
| | 00:18 |
In the context of a layer mask, black
blocks and white reveals.
| | 00:23 |
And when we're talking about an
adjustment, what we really mean is that
| | 00:26 |
black blocks the effect of that
adjustment, and white reveals the effect
| | 00:29 |
of that adjustment.
So, let's take a look at how we can apply
| | 00:33 |
a targeted adjustment by effectively
painting areas of the image that define
| | 00:37 |
where we want to see the adjustment.
I'll start off by adding an Adjustment
| | 00:42 |
Layers, so I'll go to the bottom of the
Layers panel, and I'll click on the
| | 00:44 |
half-black, half-white circle icon.
The Add Adjustment Layer button.
| | 00:49 |
And from the popup that appears, in this
case I'll choose Levels because I want to
| | 00:52 |
darken the left portion of the image
without darkening the right portion or the image.
| | 00:57 |
Once I choose Levels, you'll see that a
Levels Adjustment Layer has been added to
| | 01:02 |
the Layers panel and that layer has a
layer mask attached to it.
| | 01:06 |
The layer mask is filled with white by
default, which means that the adjustment
| | 01:10 |
will effect the entire image.
So if I go down to the Properties panel
| | 01:14 |
and adjust the Levels Adjustment Layers,
you'll see that I'm darkening or
| | 01:17 |
lightening the image.
But I'm affecting the entire image, and
| | 01:21 |
that of course, is because the layer mask
is filled with white and so the adjustment
| | 01:25 |
is revealed everywhere.
But we can paint black into some of the
| | 01:30 |
areas of that layer mask in order to block
the adjustment.
| | 01:33 |
Or I could even fill that layer mask with
black and then paint white where I want to
| | 01:37 |
see the adjustment.
I actually prefer this approach because it
| | 01:41 |
means I'm then painting the adjustment
into the image rather than painting it out
| | 01:44 |
of it, and that just makes more sense in
my mind but either approach is perfectly fine.
| | 01:49 |
I'll go ahead and fill this layer mask
with black, so I'll choose Edit > Fill
| | 01:53 |
from the menu, and then choose Black from
the Use popup and click OK.
| | 01:59 |
Of course, I could have also just inverted
that layer mask to switch it from white to black.
| | 02:03 |
But now, because my layer mask is filled
with black, the effect of this Adjustment
| | 02:07 |
Layer is blocked for the entire image.
So I cannot see the effect of that levels adjustment.
| | 02:14 |
I do want the adjustment to affect part of
the image.
| | 02:16 |
And so I'll choose the Brush tool from the
Toolbox and then press the letter D on the
| | 02:19 |
keyboard to set the colors to their
default values of black and white, and
| | 02:23 |
then I can adjust my Brush settings.
I'll go ahead, for example, and choose
| | 02:28 |
just a regular soft-edged Round brush.
And make sure that the Blend Mode on the
| | 02:33 |
Options Bar is set to Normal and the
Opacity is at 100%.
| | 02:37 |
And now, I can paint with white In the
image in order to reveal my adjustment.
| | 02:41 |
I'll increase the Brush Size just a little
bit.
| | 02:44 |
You can use the left square bracket key to
reduce the brush size or the right square
| | 02:47 |
bracket key to increase the brush size.
And then you can simply paint in order to,
| | 02:52 |
in this case, reveal that Levels
Adjustment or the darkening effect in a
| | 02:56 |
portion of the image.
So, I've used the Brush tool to paint the
| | 03:01 |
effect into the image, essentially, just
painting with black in areas that I want
| | 03:05 |
to block the adjustment or white in areas
that I want to reveal the adjustment.
| | 03:11 |
It's a simple way to modify a layer mask
determining which portions of the image
| | 03:14 |
will be affected by an Adjustment Layer.
| | 03:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shades of gray| 00:02 |
When you're working with a layer mask one
of the key things to keep in mind is that
| | 00:05 |
black blocks and white reveals.
And when we're working with a targeted
| | 00:09 |
adjustment in other words, a layer mask
working with an adjustment layer, black is
| | 00:13 |
blocking the effect of that adjustment and
white is revealing the effect.
| | 00:18 |
But we also, of course, have lots of
shades of gray in between black and white.
| | 00:23 |
And we can use those shades of gray in
conjuction with a layer mask as well.
| | 00:26 |
Let's take a look at a basic example here.
I'll go ahead and add a new adjustment layer.
| | 00:32 |
I'll click on the Add Adjustment Layer
button at the bottom of the Layers panel.
| | 00:35 |
And I'll just add a levels adjustment in
this case.
| | 00:38 |
And then I'll adjust the midtone slider
over toward the right in order to apply a
| | 00:42 |
darkening effect.
And I'm going to apply an exaggerated
| | 00:45 |
darkening effect just so that we can have
a better sense of exactly what's going on
| | 00:49 |
when we utilize shades of gray.
So with my adjustment layer created I'm
| | 00:54 |
actually going to invert my layer mask so
that it is black instead of white.
| | 00:59 |
And so the adjustment is not visible
anywhere in the image.
| | 01:02 |
I'll just choose the Masks tab on the
Properties panel.
| | 01:05 |
And then I'll scroll down so I can see the
Invert button and I will click that button
| | 01:09 |
so that I've inverted my layer mask from
white to black.
| | 01:14 |
Now I'll choose the Brush tool and I'll
press the letter D on the keyboard to make
| | 01:17 |
sure the colors are set to their default
values of black and white.
| | 01:22 |
And now I can paint into the image in
order to reveal the adjustment.
| | 01:26 |
I'll adjust my brush size as needed with
left and right square bracket keys and
| | 01:29 |
then if I paint with white I'm revealing
that darkening adjustment and you can see
| | 01:32 |
I have a rather strong darkening in the
image.
| | 01:37 |
So, black is blocking the adjustment for
most of the image and white is revealing
| | 01:41 |
the adjustment for this stripe.
But I can also utilize shades of gray in
| | 01:46 |
order to have a partial effect.
To change the color I'll go ahead and
| | 01:50 |
click on the foreground color swatch on
the toolbox.
| | 01:53 |
That will bring up the color picker.
And here I can choose the specific shade
| | 01:57 |
of gray I want.
But how am I suppose to choose a
| | 02:00 |
particular shade.
Well black blocks an adjustment and white
| | 02:03 |
reveals an adjustment.
Black has a zero brightness and white has
| | 02:08 |
a 100% brightness.
Which means by adjusting the brightness I
| | 02:12 |
can effectively determine.
What percentage of that adjustment I want
| | 02:16 |
to have affective.
So I'll change my brightness value the B
| | 02:20 |
value for HSB to a different value.
Instead of 100 for a complete effect, I'll
| | 02:25 |
go ahead and type 75 and then click okay
and now I'm painting with a shade of grey
| | 02:29 |
that is 75% white.
And, so, if I paint it again, I'll have a
| | 02:34 |
little bit less of an effect.
I'll go ahead and click on that color
| | 02:39 |
swatch again and change the brightness
value to a 50% and then I'll paint once
| | 02:43 |
again and you can see.
Even less of an effect.
| | 02:47 |
So, by adjusting the brightness, the
specific shade of gray that I'm painting
| | 02:51 |
with I can determine to what extent an
adjustment is going to effect the image.
| | 02:56 |
So here, for example, you can see a 100%
effect, a 75% effect and a 50% effect, but
| | 03:01 |
the key is that by using shades of gray
rather than just black and white, I'm able
| | 03:05 |
to vary the effect of an adjustment In an
image.
| | 03:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Gradient tool| 00:02 |
At times, when applying a targeted
adjustment, you may find that you want to
| | 00:05 |
have that adjustment transition through
the image.
| | 00:08 |
Here, for example, I'd like to add a
darkening effect to this image, but I'd
| | 00:11 |
like that effect to be stronger at the
bottom of the image than at the top, so
| | 00:14 |
that it sort of leads you into the photo.
For that I'll use a gradient in
| | 00:21 |
conjunction with a layer mask for my
adjustment.
| | 00:24 |
I'll start off by adding the adjustment,
so at the bottom of the layers panel I'll
| | 00:27 |
click on the Add Adjustment Layer button
and in this case I'll just use a levels
| | 00:30 |
adjustments in order to apply that
darkening effect.
| | 00:34 |
So, I'll choose Levels from the pop up and
then on the Properties panel, I'll shift
| | 00:38 |
the slider for the mid-tone value over
toward the right.
| | 00:42 |
I'll make the effect exaggerated just so
we can get a better sense of exactly
| | 00:45 |
what's going on when I apply the final
effect.
| | 00:48 |
Now that I have that adjustment applied,
I'm ready to add the gradient layer mask.
| | 00:52 |
Of course, I already have a layer mask,
it's filled with white and so the entire
| | 00:55 |
adjustment is being revealed.
In other words I can see the adjustment
| | 00:59 |
throughout every pixel in this image.
So I'll go ahead and choose my Gradient
| | 01:04 |
tool from the tool box.
And then up on the Options bar, I'll click
| | 01:08 |
the popup for the gradient presets.
And I'm going to choose the first gradient.
| | 01:12 |
It looks like a white to black gradient.
It's actually the foreground color to
| | 01:16 |
background color gradient.
It's just that my foreground color It
| | 01:19 |
happens to be set to white, at the moment,
and my background color is set to black.
| | 01:23 |
I'll go ahead, and choose that preset, and
then close the pop-up, and next I'll make
| | 01:27 |
sure that my style for the gradient is set
to linear, that's the first of the five options.
| | 01:32 |
I just want a normal gradient to
transition from one side of the image to
| | 01:35 |
the other.
I'll also make sure the blend mode is set
| | 01:38 |
to normal and that the opacity is set to
100%.
| | 01:42 |
Now I'm ready to create the gradient and
of course I want that gradient to appear
| | 01:45 |
on my layer mask.
So I'll click on the thumbnail for that
| | 01:49 |
layer mask just to make sure that the
layer mask itself is active so that I'm
| | 01:52 |
adding the gradient onto the layer mask,
not for example onto my background image layer.
| | 01:58 |
And now I'm ready to draw the gradient in
the image and to do that, all I need to do
| | 02:01 |
is click and drag.
My colors are set to white and black so
| | 02:06 |
I'll be painting a white to black
gradient.
| | 02:09 |
You could press the letter D on the
keyboard to make sure those colors are set
| | 02:12 |
to their default values and you can also
switch the foreground and background
| | 02:15 |
colors by pressing the letter X.
So I want the adjustment to affect the
| | 02:19 |
bottom of the image and then taper off.
And that means I want the bottom of the
| | 02:23 |
layer mask to be white and the top of the
layer mask to be black and I want a nice
| | 02:26 |
smooth transition in between.
So I'll start at the bottom of the image
| | 02:31 |
and click and then drag upward.
The point where I initially click is the
| | 02:36 |
point where the transition will start.
In other words, from the bottom of the
| | 02:40 |
image up to the point where I initially
clicked will be filled with white on the
| | 02:43 |
layer mask so the adjustment will be
completely effective in that area.
| | 02:47 |
The point where I release the mouse is the
end of the transition.
| | 02:51 |
So everything above that point will be
black, and in between we'll have a smooth
| | 02:55 |
transition from white to black.
You can see on the layers panel that my
| | 03:00 |
gradient, sure enough, goes from white at
the bottom to black at the top with a
| | 03:03 |
transition in between.
The direction I drag determines the
| | 03:08 |
direction of that transition.
And the distance that I drag determines
| | 03:12 |
the distance of the transition.
So I can have a very smooth transition, or
| | 03:17 |
a very tight transition, a very short
transition.
| | 03:20 |
In this case, I want a relatively smooth
transition and I want it to go from bottom
| | 03:24 |
to top, although not all the way at the
bottom and top of the image, just the
| | 03:27 |
portion in the middle.
So I think something like that works
| | 03:31 |
pretty nicely.
And of course now that I've gotten that
| | 03:34 |
gradient in place, I can go back to my
adjustment, and then fine tune the effect.
| | 03:39 |
I had darkened the image more than I
really wanted to.
| | 03:42 |
I just wanted a little bit of a subtle
darkening of that foreground, so that it
| | 03:45 |
leads you in a little bit to the photo.
So, by utilizing a gradient in conjunction
| | 03:50 |
with the layer mask for my adjustment
layer I'm able to create an adjustment
| | 03:53 |
that transitions from one portion of the
image into the other, fading off very
| | 03:57 |
smoothly in between.
| | 04:01 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting a selected area| 00:02 |
When I want to apply an adjustment that
affects only a specific area of a photo,
| | 00:05 |
one of the first things I contemplate is
whether or not I can use a selection as
| | 00:08 |
the basis of that targeted adjustment.
If that's an option, it's usually the
| | 00:14 |
quickest and easiest way to apply a
targeted adjustment.
| | 00:17 |
For example, in this case, I'd like to
darken this back area of the image, so
| | 00:20 |
that it fits in a little bit better in
terms of overall tonality, and I think
| | 00:24 |
that I can create a selection for that
area.
| | 00:28 |
So, I'll start off by creating a
selection.
| | 00:30 |
I'll chose the quick selection tool in
this case.
| | 00:32 |
And then just click and drag to paint
inside of that central area.
| | 00:36 |
And it looks like I have a good selection.
So with that selection active, I'm now
| | 00:40 |
going to create an adjustment layer, so
that I can apply a targeted adjustment.
| | 00:45 |
I'll go to the bottom of the Layers panel
and click on the Add Adjustment Layer button.
| | 00:49 |
And from the popup menu that appears, I'll
choose the specific adjustment that I'd
| | 00:52 |
like to apply.
In this case, I think just a simple levels
| | 00:56 |
adjustment in order to darken that area up
a little bit.
| | 00:59 |
And because I had a selection active when
I created this adjustment layer, the layer
| | 01:02 |
mask that comes with that adjustment layer
automatically reflects the shape of the selection.
| | 01:08 |
In other words the area that selected is
white on the layer mask and the area that
| | 01:12 |
was not selected is black on the layer
mask.
| | 01:15 |
As a result, this adjustment layer will
now only affect the area that had been selected.
| | 01:21 |
So I'll go ahead and make an adjustment
here, and you can see that I am only
| | 01:24 |
affecting that selected area of the image,
the area that I had selected before I
| | 01:28 |
created my adjustment layer.
So by simply creating a selection and then
| | 01:33 |
adding an adjustment layer, you have a
targeted adjustment based on that selection.
| | 01:39 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a vignette effect with masking| 00:02 |
There are a variety of ways that you can
add a vignette effect to an image, but one
| | 00:05 |
of those is through a layer mask in
conjunction with an adjustment layer.
| | 00:10 |
And you can even use a selection as the
basis of that layer mask.
| | 00:15 |
Let's take a look at how we can darken the
edges of this photo utilizing a layer mask
| | 00:18 |
with an adjustment layer.
I'll start off by essentially selecting
| | 00:22 |
the edges.
I'm going to use the rectangular marquis
| | 00:24 |
tool in this case, rather than the
elliptical marquis tool, because I want
| | 00:27 |
more of a darkening of all the edges, not
an emphasis on the corners.
| | 00:31 |
So then I'll create a selection that is
just inside from the outer perimeter of
| | 00:35 |
the image.
Something like that will work well.
| | 00:38 |
And then I can invert that selection by
choosing Select > Inverse from the menu,
| | 00:42 |
so now I have this outer area of the image
selected.
| | 00:46 |
Next, I'll add an adjustment layer, and
because I have a selection active, while
| | 00:50 |
I'm adding that adjustment layer, the
adjustment layer's mask will automatically
| | 00:53 |
reflect this selection.
In other words, the adjustment will only
| | 00:58 |
affect this selected area.
So I'll click on the Add Adjustment Layer
| | 01:01 |
button at the bottom of the Layers panel,
and then I'll choose Curves from the
| | 01:05 |
pop-up menu that appears, and I'll click
and drag downward on that curve in order
| | 01:08 |
to apply a darkening effect.
I'll keep it a little bit exaggerated initially.
| | 01:14 |
And then I'm going to switch to the Masks
section of the Properties panel.
| | 01:19 |
So I'll click the Masks button, and then
I'll simply apply a little bit of
| | 01:22 |
feathering to that mask.
In other words, I'm blurring that mask so
| | 01:27 |
that I get a smooth transition between the
areas that were black and white.
| | 01:32 |
And that means I get a nice, smooth
transition for that vignette effect.
| | 01:37 |
Once I think I've got a good degree of
feathering applied, I can go back to the
| | 01:40 |
adjustment controls and fine tune the
final effect.
| | 01:44 |
So you can see that as I lighten or darken
I have a smooth transition between the
| | 01:47 |
area that's being affected and the area
that's not.
| | 01:51 |
In this case, I think I'll apply just a
very subtle darkening effect around the
| | 01:54 |
edges of the image.
I'll toggle the visibility of that
| | 01:57 |
adjustment layer off and on so that you
can get a better sense of the effect.
| | 02:02 |
But by using a selection as the basis of
my layer mask for a targeted adjustment,
| | 02:06 |
I'm able to very easily darken just the
edges of my photo.
| | 02:10 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using a layer group| 00:02 |
More often than not, if I want to apply a
targeted adjustment to an image, I'm
| | 00:05 |
actually going to apply multiple targeted
adjustments to that same area.
| | 00:11 |
For example, if I wanted to adjust the
pebbles in the foreground of this image, I
| | 00:14 |
might want to increase contrast, increase
saturation, and also shift the color balance.
| | 00:19 |
In other words, I want three adjustments
for one specific area.
| | 00:23 |
You can certainly create multiple
adjustment layers, each with their own
| | 00:26 |
layer mask, that focuses the adjustment on
those pebbles.
| | 00:30 |
But it's much more efficient if we create
a selection once, and utilize one layer
| | 00:35 |
mask for all of those adjustments.
Let me show you what I mean.
| | 00:40 |
I'm going to start off by loading the
selection that I've already saved with
| | 00:43 |
this image.
So I'll go to the Select menu and choose
| | 00:46 |
Load selection.
The pebbles selection is the one I want,
| | 00:49 |
and so I'll choose that from the channel
popup, and then click OK in order to load
| | 00:52 |
that selection.
Now, because I only want a single layer
| | 00:58 |
mask controlling the behavior of multiple
adjustments, I'm not going to start off by
| | 01:02 |
adding my adjustments.
But instead I'm going to add a layer group.
| | 01:08 |
That's essentially a folder that can
contain multiple adjustment layers.
| | 01:11 |
So, at the bottom of the layers panel I'll
click on the Folder icon to add a layer group.
| | 01:17 |
And you can see that, that adds a group,
or a folder to my layers stack.
| | 01:21 |
I'll double click on the name for that
group, and I'm going to call this Pebbles
| | 01:25 |
Adjustment, so I'll type that in, and then
press Enter or Return on the keyboard to
| | 01:29 |
apply that name change.
And now I'm going to add a layer mask to
| | 01:34 |
this layer group.
Yes, I can add a layer mask to a layer
| | 01:37 |
group, and then everything inside that
layer group will be constrained based on
| | 01:41 |
that layer mask.
So, with my selection active, and my
| | 01:45 |
Pebbles Adjustment layer group active on
the layers panel, I can simply click the
| | 01:49 |
Add Layer Mask button in order to add a
layer mask to my layer group, based on the
| | 01:53 |
active selection.
Of course, this layer group and this layer
| | 01:58 |
mask are accomplishing nothing just yet,
but that's about to change.
| | 02:03 |
I'm going to add an adjustment.
And because my layer group is currently
| | 02:07 |
active, the adjustment layer that I add
will go inside that layer group.
| | 02:12 |
I'll go ahead and add a curves adjustment,
for example.
| | 02:15 |
And then on the properties panel, I'll
apply an adjustment with that curves
| | 02:18 |
adjustment, and you can see that I'm only
affecting the pebbles.
| | 02:23 |
I'll go ahead and apply another change.
So for example, I'll add a color balance
| | 02:27 |
adjustment and then I'll shift the color
balance for that area of the image, and
| | 02:31 |
you can see that once again, only the
pebbles are being affected by that change.
| | 02:37 |
Perhaps I'll adjust the saturation as
well, so I'll add a vibrance adjustment,
| | 02:41 |
and I can increase or decrease the
saturation of that area as I see fit.
| | 02:47 |
So now I have a single layer mask that is
constraining the behavior of at the moment
| | 02:51 |
three adjustment layers.
And that's because the layer mask is
| | 02:56 |
attached to the layer group.
And I have multiple adjustment layers
| | 03:00 |
inside that layer group.
The beauty of this is that if I decide
| | 03:04 |
that there's a problem with my layer mask,
I only have to fix it in one place.
| | 03:09 |
I can go directly to the layer mask for my
layer group and fine tune this layer mask
| | 03:13 |
to clean up any problems and all 3 of my
adjustments will therefore be affected as well.
| | 03:20 |
So utilizing a layer mask with a layer
group in order to constrain adjustments is
| | 03:24 |
a very efficient way of working, when you
want to apply to multiple adjustments to
| | 03:28 |
the same area of a photo.
| | 03:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with multiple masks| 00:02 |
Every now and then I have a situation
where I essentially need multiple masks.
| | 00:07 |
For example with this image, I might want
to apply some adjustments that only affect
| | 00:10 |
the sky.
But I might also want those adjustments to
| | 00:14 |
affect the sky in a gradient fashion.
So I essentially need a layer mask that
| | 00:18 |
defines the sky and I also need a layer
mask that defines a gradient.
| | 00:23 |
And then I want to use both of those layer
masks in order to constrain the effect of
| | 00:26 |
some adjustments.
Let's take a look at how it can be done.
| | 00:30 |
I'll start by creating the selection of
the sky.
| | 00:32 |
So, I'll chose the Quick Selection tool,
for example and then I can simply paint
| | 00:36 |
within the sky in order to define that
selection.
| | 00:40 |
In this case, I need to clean things up a
little bit, so I'll hold the Alt key on
| | 00:43 |
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh.
In order to access the Subtract from
| | 00:48 |
Selection option.
And then I'll paint along the area of the
| | 00:51 |
herron here that should not have been
selected and remove it from that selection.
| | 00:57 |
We'll assume that this is a perfect
selection at the moment and then we'll go
| | 01:00 |
about creating an environment where we can
apply these focused adjustments.
| | 01:04 |
And I'm going to use a Layer group for
that.
| | 01:07 |
In fact, I'll use a couple of Layer
groups.
| | 01:09 |
But one of which will be specific to the
sky.
| | 01:12 |
I'll click on the Add Layer Group button,
the folder icon at the bottom of the
| | 01:15 |
Layers panel.
And then I'm going to add a layer mask
| | 01:18 |
based on this selection to that layer
group.
| | 01:21 |
So I'll click on the Add Layer Mask
button, and that will add a layer mask
| | 01:25 |
based on the selection to this layer
group.
| | 01:29 |
I'll go ahead and rename this layer group
by double clicking on the name and typing
| | 01:32 |
a new name.
I'll just call it Sky and then press Enter
| | 01:35 |
or Return on the keyboard.
So now, if I add an adjustment to this
| | 01:39 |
layer group, that adjustment will only
affect the sky.
| | 01:43 |
I'll go ahead and click on the Add
Adjustment Layer button, for example.
| | 01:47 |
And I'll apply a Curves adjustment, and
you can see that Curves adjustment is only
| | 01:50 |
effecting the sky.
Of course, I specified right up front that
| | 01:54 |
I want my adjustments to only effect the
sky in a gradient fashion.
| | 01:59 |
And so I need a gradient.
But I don't want to add that gradient to
| | 02:03 |
the layer mask for my adjustment layer
because I think I'm going to add
| | 02:06 |
additional adjustments as well.
Instead, I want to utilize a layer group.
| | 02:11 |
So I'll click on the Sky Layer group, so
that's the active layer and then I'll add
| | 02:14 |
an additional layer group that will appear
above the sky layer.
| | 02:19 |
I'll go ahead and rename this layer group
to Gradient and then I'm going to add a
| | 02:24 |
layer mask to that layer group.
I'll then chose a Gradient tool and I'm
| | 02:28 |
going to draw a Linear Gradient that goes
from the foreground color to the
| | 02:31 |
background color.
In this case, I want the gradient to cause
| | 02:35 |
the adjustment to affect the top of the
image, but not the bottom of the image,
| | 02:38 |
with a smooth transition in between.
So I'll draw a linear gradient going from
| | 02:43 |
near the top of the image to near the
bottom of the image, something along these
| | 02:46 |
lines will work nicely I think.
So you can see I've added a Gradient to
| | 02:52 |
the layer mask for my gradient layer
group.
| | 02:55 |
But it's not having any effect whatsoever.
And that's because there's nothing inside
| | 03:00 |
my Gradient layer group.
I could add an adjustment layer inside
| | 03:03 |
this layer group.
But then that adjustment would only affect
| | 03:06 |
the image based on the gradient.
Instead I want to combine this Sky layer
| | 03:10 |
mask with the Gradient layer mask.
So that both of them weill constrain the
| | 03:14 |
behavior of my adjustments.
To do that, I'll simply drag my Sky layer
| | 03:19 |
and drop it onto my Gradient layer so that
now that sky layer group is inside my
| | 03:23 |
gradient layer group.
So now, my curves adjustment is only
| | 03:29 |
affecting the sky.
Because it is inside the sky layer group,
| | 03:33 |
with Which has a layer mask defining the
sky.
| | 03:36 |
But that curve's adjustment is also
affecting that sky in a gradient fashion,
| | 03:40 |
because my sky layer group is inside my
gradient group.
| | 03:45 |
So, I can go back to my adjustment and
you'll see that I'm now only affecting the sky.
| | 03:50 |
And effecting the sky in a gradient
fashion.
| | 03:52 |
So I'm able to combine multiple layer
groups, each with their own layer mask, to
| | 03:56 |
constrain the behavior of adjustments in
some very sophisticated ways.
| | 04:02 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Refining an adjustment mask| 00:02 |
When working with layer masks it's
critically important that the mask
| | 00:05 |
properly reflect the area of the image
that you want to reveal or apply an
| | 00:08 |
adjustment to.
But that can be very tricky when it comes
| | 00:12 |
to subjects that are fuzzy.
For example, here I have an image of a
| | 00:15 |
Lilac Breasted Roller And we've got some
feather detail that can be a little bit
| | 00:19 |
challenging in terms of applying targeted
adjustments.
| | 00:23 |
But let's take a look at how we can work
with that.
| | 00:26 |
I'm going to start off by creating a
selection for the sky.
| | 00:29 |
I'll utilize the Magic Wand tool in this
case and I'll reduce my tolerance setting
| | 00:33 |
here, and then click into the sky.
And it actually looks like that's worked
| | 00:38 |
pretty well.
I think I have a very good selection for
| | 00:41 |
my sky.
So now I can apply a targeted adjustment.
| | 00:45 |
I'll go ahead and add an adjustment layer.
I'll just add a curves layer in this case.
| | 00:49 |
And I'm going to apply an exaggerated
adjustment so that we can get a better
| | 00:52 |
sense of what's going on.
At first glance, it seems like
| | 00:55 |
everything's just fine.
And that's because I haven't zoomed in
| | 00:58 |
very closely to get a better look at
what's happening with this image.
| | 01:01 |
When I do zoom, in you'll notice right
from the start that I have a little bit of
| | 01:04 |
a harsh transition between the area that's
being adjusted and the area that's not
| | 01:08 |
being adjusted.
But perhaps more problematic are these
| | 01:13 |
feathers underneath the beak.
We have a very harsh transition and thus
| | 01:17 |
is a tricky area.
So let's take a look at how we can clean
| | 01:20 |
this up.
The best approach is the Refine Mask command.
| | 01:25 |
Now, we actually have a Refine Edge option
that is available when we're working with selections.
| | 01:31 |
But we have the exact same capabilities
available for a mask.
| | 01:35 |
And that's great because I'd prefer not to
refine the selection Because I'd rather
| | 01:39 |
wait until I can see the actual effect in
the image.
| | 01:43 |
So I'll zoom out just a little bit so we
can see more areas of the bird here.
| | 01:47 |
And get a better sense of the problems we
have with this mask.
| | 01:50 |
And then I'll switch to the masks section
of the properties panel.
| | 01:53 |
And we'll take a look at the various
options that we have for refining this mask.
| | 01:58 |
We can adjust the density, but that
essentially just means that instead of
| | 02:01 |
having areas that are black, we'll have
areas that are grey.
| | 02:05 |
Because we're reducing the overall density
of that mask, it's not very often that you
| | 02:09 |
want to do that.
We theoretically want the feather to
| | 02:13 |
smooth the transition along that edge, but
I'm going to skip that for just a moment.
| | 02:19 |
We also have the ability to refine this
mask based on the color range command.
| | 02:24 |
In other words using the same color inch
command that we can use to create a
| | 02:27 |
selection in order to modify the layer
mask.
| | 02:30 |
And of course we can invert that mask as
well, switching it so that in this case
| | 02:33 |
for example, the adjustment would be
affecting the bird and the branch rather
| | 02:37 |
than the sky.
But the most powerful tool of all here is
| | 02:42 |
Mask Edge.
I'll go ahead and click the Mask Edge
| | 02:45 |
button and that will bring up the Refine
Mask dialogue.
| | 02:49 |
You can see that I have initially a white
mask option for my preview, so I'm
| | 02:53 |
going to change that view pop up to On
Layers so that I can see the actual effect
| | 02:57 |
within the image...
Then we can take a look at the various options.
| | 03:03 |
And I'm going to start off with the Adjust
Edge section.
| | 03:07 |
We can smooth the edge, and that will
straighten out some of the jagged edges.
| | 03:12 |
The problem is that then our layer mask
won't necessarily reflect the shape of the
| | 03:16 |
object that we're trying to adjust.
So, I usually use a minimum value for
| | 03:21 |
smooth if I'm going to use it at all than
often I won't use it.
| | 03:25 |
The feather option can be very helpful.
This is obviously the same setting that we
| | 03:29 |
have available directly on the masks panel
and all it does is essentially blur the
| | 03:33 |
edge of that mask.
That provides us with some transition.
| | 03:38 |
In this case between the areas we're
adjusting, and the areas we're not adjusting.
| | 03:41 |
I can also adjust contrast, but I can only
increase contrast.
| | 03:45 |
And what that effectively does is reverse
the effect of feathering.
| | 03:49 |
So if I had a layer mask that was a little
bit too fuzzy, I can tighten it up a
| | 03:52 |
little bit, or make it less fuzzy, by
increasing contrast.
| | 03:57 |
In other words, in most cases, you're not
going to need contrast.
| | 03:59 |
Because the only reason the layer mask
would be fuzzy is because you added some feathering.
| | 04:04 |
So, instead of increasing contrast, you
could reduce feathering.
| | 04:08 |
In most cases, though, you'll need at
least a little bit of feathering.
| | 04:11 |
But when you do feather, you may notice an
effect sort like what we're seeing here.
| | 04:15 |
Specifically a bit of haloing, and that's
because we're having a transition between
| | 04:20 |
the area being adjusted and the area that
is not being adjusted by the specific adjustment.
| | 04:26 |
It's not that I don't want transition, And
it's not that I need less of a transition,
| | 04:30 |
it's that that transition is now in the
wrong place.
| | 04:34 |
And that's where the Shift Edge slider
comes into play.
| | 04:37 |
I can drag the Shift Edge slider to move
that adjustment outward or inward as needed.
| | 04:43 |
In other words, the edge of that mask can
be shifted inward or outward.
| | 04:48 |
So I'll try to find the perfect value for
that Shift Edge, so that I can create a
| | 04:52 |
better result.
And overall that has greatly improved my
| | 04:56 |
results especially considering the
adjustment is very exaggerated at the moment.
| | 05:01 |
Once I tone down that adjustment the
results will look even better.
| | 05:04 |
But I still have a bit of an issue here
with those chin feathers.
| | 05:07 |
In theory, I could turn on the Smart
Radius option so that the radius for edge
| | 05:11 |
detection will vary around various
portions of the image, and I can also
| | 05:15 |
increase the size of that radius, and that
will often help.
| | 05:21 |
I'll go ahead and turn on the Show Radius
check box, so that you can see which area
| | 05:24 |
of the image is being evaluated.
And in those areas, Photoshop is
| | 05:28 |
attempting to find the edge so that it can
automatically compensate with that layer
| | 05:32 |
mask, but that's still not quite providing
the best results for the feathers
| | 05:36 |
underneath the beak there But fortunately
I can paint in additional areas that I
| | 05:40 |
want PhotoShop to evaluate.
So I'll click and hold my mouse on the
| | 05:46 |
Refine Radius Tool.
You'll see that we can add areas that need
| | 05:49 |
to be evaluated or we can erase those
areas.
| | 05:53 |
I'll go ahead and use the Refine Radius
Tool.
| | 05:56 |
And I'll paint over the area that is
problematic.
| | 05:59 |
In this case the feathers below the beak,
and perhaps some other areas of the image
| | 06:03 |
as well.
And when I do that, Photoshop will
| | 06:06 |
reevaluate that portion of the image.
And as you can see, it is blended in very,
| | 06:11 |
very nicely.
So that looks to be a very good effect.
| | 06:15 |
I obviously would want to evaluate other
portions of the image as well to make sure
| | 06:18 |
that my layer mask is perfect all the way
around my subject.
| | 06:22 |
But I think we're off to a great start
here.
| | 06:24 |
I'll go ahead and click OK in order to
apply those changes and I'll zoom out.
| | 06:28 |
And then I'll go back to my adjustment.
And now as I fine tune this adjustment
| | 06:33 |
you'll see that I have a very good
transition around that bird and the branch
| | 06:36 |
because I was able to refine that mask to
produce a much better result.
| | 06:42 |
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