619 Creating a vector-based gradient mask in Photoshop

- Hey gang, this is Dick McClellan, welcome to Dick's Techniques. Now, recently, we bought this thing right here. It's kind of a cross between a hoverboard and a unicycle and it's called a Segway, that's the company, right, and a Ninebot, that's the company that bought Segway, and then a One S1, in case you're wondering how this ridiculous product name shapes out. But it's a really great device, it's got a gyroscope, a couple of batteries, an engine in it, it goes up to 12 miles an hour, and it's all based on how you press on these pedals here, whether you move forward or backward, both are acceptable.

And so, I wanted to post a picture of my kids, Max and Sam, learning how to ride this thing, and I've got this gradient transition in between. So, very simple stuff, right? Just throw on a layer mask, add a gradient using the gradient tool, or not. The much better way to work, which is what I'm about to show you, is to employ an editable vector mask. I know, this doesn't look like a vector mask, but it is. Here, let me show you exactly how it works. Alright, here's that final version of the composition, just so you have a chance to see it onscreen.

We're going to start off in this file here, which contains the photograph of Max on one layer, and the photograph of Sam on another. Now, the standard way to do a gradient fade is to use the gradient tool. And so, I might just go ahead and select the Sam layer and drop down to the add layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel and click on it, and then, I'll go ahead and select the gradient tool, which you can also get by pressing the G key. Then you just want to make sure that you're seeing all your default settings up here in the options bar, and if you need to reset those settings, then just right-click on this gradient over here in the far left side of the options bar and choose reset tool.

And then you might also go ahead and tap the D key in order to ensure that your foreground and background colors are white and black, as by default. And now, you just want to draw a gradient. Now, I'm drawing a white to black gradient, so I need to start over here, someplace close to Sam's hand, and then drag to the left, like so. And if I don't end up liking that gradient, I can just draw it again. So, because the gradient is altogether opaque, every time you draw it, you'll replace the previous gradient.

The problem is, you might not do things exactly the way you want to, you could end up drawing the gradient too long, for example, like so, so that the jeep ends up overlapping into Max, which is, of course, not what I want. Or you might draw the gradient at the wrong angle, as I've done here, it's a little bit too horizontal. I wanted to go more or less from one kid's hand to the other one, like so, at which point, I end up revealing some transparency. Notice down here, at the bottom of the image, if I were to turn this layer off for a moment, we're seeing through to the transparency behind the Max layer.

And so, in other words, choosing the gradient tool is an ad hoc approach, it's not necessarily going to give you the most desirable results, which is why the more flexible way to approach things is using a vector-based mask. So, I'll go ahead and right-click on this layer mask thumbnail, here inside the layers panel, and choose delete layer mask to get rid of it. And then, I'll once again drop down to the add layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel, but this time, instead of clicking on it, I'll press the control key, or the command key on the Mac, and click.

And even though that layer mask thumbnail doesn't look any different, we now have a vector-based layer mask, as opposed to a pixel-based mask. Alright, now I'll go ahead and switch to my pen tool, and then I'll zoom out a little bit, just so I can take in the entire composition, and I'll draw a four-point path outline, like so. So, it doesn't have to be a great work of art, I'm just clicking four times in order to create four corner points. Now, obviously, we have a couple of problems. First of all, this bottom-left point here is too far to the right, and so, once again, we're revealing this wedge of checkerboard transparency.

To solve that problem, I'll just go ahead and click and hold in the black arrow tool and select the white arrow tool, which Photoshop calls the direct selection tool, instead, so that I can select and modify the individual anchor points, then I'll just go ahead and click on this point right here, to select it independently of the others, and I'll drag it a little bit inward. Now, the other problem is that this is a very hard-edged mask. We want a soft edge, in order to introduce a fade, and to make that happen, go up to the window menu and choose the properties command, in order to bring up the properties panel, and then you can modify the feather value, as you see me doing here, and that's going to introduce softness to that vector-based mask on the fly, meaning that you can change your mind any time you like.

Now, if I go too high, I'm going to run into problems. You can see that, once again, I'm revealing that checkerboard transparency, that's not what I want. But let's say that occurs to you later. You don't see it immediately, and so, for example, I might just go ahead and close the properties panel, work inside the image some more, so I can drag these anchor points with the white arrow tool if I like. And now, I notice that I've got a problem right here. You can bring back the properties panel by double-clicking on this vector mask thumbnail, here inside the layers panel. Problem is, notice what happens here.

In addition to bringing up the properties panel, I've de-activated the mask, which is why the feather value is dimmed. If that happens to you, then just go ahead and click on this top-right icon right here, inside the properties panel, in order to once again activate the vector-based mask, at which point, you will see your last feather value, so it's an entirely parametric effect, meaning that you can change your mind any time you like by adjusting this numerical parameter. And so, I'll just go ahead and take this value down until I'm not seeing the checkerboard transparency at all, and I ended up coming up with a feather value of 40 pixels, like so, after which point, press the enter key to accept that change, and then I'll hide the properties panel.

Alright, now let's say you decide you want to adjust the positioning of one or more of the layers. In my case, I'm thinking Sam is too far over to the right. In that case, I'll just go ahead and grab my move tool, up here at the top of the toolbox, and then, if you want to move both the layer and its mask at the same time, just go ahead and drag it around like so. In my case, I think I want to leave the mask where it is. In which case, just go ahead and turn off this link icon between the image thumbnail and the vector mask thumbnail.

So just go ahead and click to turn it off. And now, if I were to drag the image over a little bit, to, let's say, right about there. I think it's going to look good. But I could drag it father. Notice that, and you can see that the position of the vector mask is remaining unchanged. Alright, but I'll just go ahead and drag this guy until it snaps into alignment, at which point, everything looks pretty darn good. But once again, if you have any issues, you can modify either the anchor points associated with this very basic vector mask, or you can modify the feather value inside the properties panel.

And that, friends, is how you create a gradient mask the most flexible way possible, using a combination of a vector-based path outline along with a forever adjustable feather value, here inside Photoshop. Now, you might look at this photo and think, wow, this is pretty awkward, things are looking a little bit precarious, Max in particular here is struggling to stay aloft. Did these children ever become proficient with the One S1? In the case of Sam, he's more into skateboarding, but Max, the answer is an absolute definitive yes.

So, here we are at about 5500 feet above sea level. Up here in the mountains, that's about 5900 feet. So, 400-foot elevation gain and it's a mile away, and he has gone up there a few times, as well as many other locations. Now, as for myself, of course no. I have tried many times and I have failed many times as well, so I'll just keep you apprised on that one. If you're looking forward to next week, I'm going to show you how, using this same photograph, if I might, I'm going to show you how to create a multicolor vignette, so notice that it's red down here at the bottom and it transitions from green to blue alongthe top.

Dick's Techniques, each and every week! Keep watching.