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After the first exercise introducing at the same time layers and masks, my suggestion is to focus on how to create masks from the original image, without painting on the mask itself.
Let's suppose you want to enhance your picture by increasing the saturation mostly in the higlights. This means creating a mask where the shadows are dark and the highlights are light... That is exactly what a Black and white conversion would do.
You could create a layer by duplicating the layer (Ctrl J) and desaturating (Shift Ctrl U). Then selecting and copying this layer (Ctrl A, then Ctrl C). The last thing to do is to select the mask of the hue/saturation adjustment layer (Alt Click within the mask, which shows a blank screen and the marching ants on the border),
then pasting (Ctrl V). Now check if this mask is working by clicking now into the adjustment layer icon to vary the saturation: it does work! Another possibility, if you want to see what happens if you select your mask and invert it (Ctrl I): the highlights are masked and the shadows are given more saturation.
Now, it can be much simpler! You don't even need to copy your background and desaturate. You simply select your background and copy it (Ctrl A then Ctrl C) and copy it into the mask: same result, what you copy into the mask will be desaturated.
This is really quick and simple, and very useful if you want to protect either highlights or shadows from oversaturation and clipping.
Here you are creating a luminosity mask. No need for painting or sketching skills to create the mask, it is created from one simple property of the original image.
My challenge is now to find ways to use other properties of the original image to create other masks:
- midtones masks
- saturation (or vividness) masks
- hue or color masks
- edge masks to control sharpening or denoising
- channels masks
- probably other types I have not thought of...

There should be several ways to achieve this; I think this would be a good opportunity for experienced users to contribute to a collective and interactive tutorial.

Here are a few suggestions:
- for midtones, use either curves (smartcurves) or a gradient map adjustment layer.
- for saturation, use a difference layer on a very saturated copy
- hue or color: I find it more difficult. Use color fill layers and difference modes
- edge mask: start with a highpass layer or find edges filter plus a gradient map acting as a 'soft' threshold.

and in most cases you'll have to use levels or hue/saturation adjustments layers to desaturate, and threshold or better gradient map adjustment layers to increase the contrast of the masks.

Keep in mind that you can edit the mask after it is pasted: levels, contrast or lightness and even paint over it to mask further parts manually. But you have still more tools at your disposal before you paste it.

This exercise should help you master different techniques, but most of all it is an excellent training for analyzing pictures and spotting what kind of enhancement might work depending on each subject.
And even if the topic today is masks, the solutions call for many ways of using layers and blend modes!
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
cant wait to try the 2nd exercise. Look forward to it.
Great article, Michel. But I am being very dense this morning. What is the exercise you want us to do??
Suzi,
The first part, how to create a luminosity mask, is the starting exercise for beginners.
The second part is a challenge for experienced users to create other types of masks based on a property of the original image (color, tone, edges etc...) and explain their workflow to beginners.
I hope we'll get questions and answers.
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
Thanks Michel. For some reason, on this one I feel like a complete and utter beginner. Will play with what you are asking later this morning. This is something I really want to explore cuz right now I am lost. Think I need a few more cups of coffee clean my head. :spew: :spew:
Very interesting exercise, Michel,
thank you for again spurring thought. Like I suppose many others, I learned how to use the image itself as a mask some time ago, and then promptly forgot all about it :bigwink:

I didn't end up exactly where I thought I was going ... but produced an interesting sketch.

Layer-Mask-2.jpg
Layer-Mask-2.jpg (130.9 KiB) Viewed 2559 times


To create the mask I ran the High Pass filter - several times, playing with different slider positions until I had something that looked like it would "work". I then applied a Threshold adjustment to turn it into a pure black and white. That was then copied and pasted into a hijacked Hue/Sat adjustment layer. The mask and layer stack looked like this:

Layer-Mask-2how.jpg
Layer-Mask-2how.jpg (127.46 KiB) Viewed 2559 times


The final adjustment was a levels adjustment to darken the top image because the sketch looked too pale to me.

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
That is an interesting result, Rusty.
Generally, achieving a 'sketch' mask is used for edge masking. If you mask edges, you can de-noise without losing sharpness, and inverting the mask to show only edges enables you to sharpen edges without enhancing the noise elsewhere.
Imagine you want to sharpen selectively. You want to create a mask showing only edges. There are several ways, just the same as there are several ways to sketch. The high pass layer in overlay mode is a possibility. Another way is to use the filter: blur/smartblur and select edge only, which will show the outlines in white on a black background. Yet another one is to run the filter: stylize/find edges and invert (Ctrl I). It will be necessary to increase the contrast of the mask (levels, gradient map, threshold ...)
Now, imagine your setup with the normal image as the background, the sharpened one as the top layer, and the mask you have already created in your post.
You can increase the sharpness of the edges in the top layer without increasing the noise.

Explaining the highpass method for edge masking to beginners is not easy, the smart blur option is a single step and you can control radius and threshold (start with 10,20 for an 8 mpix picture).

I think beginners should start with a simple luminosity mask, that is pasting a copy of the original image into the mask.
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
This was totally cool, Michel. Thanks for this lesson. I had never done this before, and I think the results were dramatic. I set the layer with the mask on the Vivid Light blending mode.

Layer-Mask-Before.jpg
Before Mask
Layer-Mask-Before.jpg (187.28 KiB) Viewed 2488 times

Layer-Mask-After.jpg
After Mask
Layer-Mask-After.jpg (223.67 KiB) Viewed 2486 times
Clara
Photography is an adventure; the same as life itself.
I'm having real difficulty following this. I can get as far as the white screen with the marching ants. Then when I do control V it makes a whole new layer above the hue/saturation layer, named layer 1. After that I'm totally lost. To be fair I must say that I am a visual learner. Very much so, to the point that I often have trouble following written instructions. I've started over several times, and am just not understanding the steps.

How many layers am I supposed to have after I do the control V? What should the layers pallette look like at that point? Also, I don't understand exactly when/where the adjustment of saturation is made. Sorry to be so dense that I can't even finish the first part of the tutorial. Maybe I should sleep on it. It's midnight here.

alpha
Alpha,
You are right, it is much easier for anybody to learn visually.
Step by step:
1 - create any kind of adjustment layer without any adjustment
2 - activate the background (click on the eye on the left)
3 - select all (menu or shortcut Ctrl A) = marching ants
4 - copy (Ctrl C)
5 - Alt click into the mask of the adjustment layer (not on the icon), you have the blank screen with marching ants. You already got here.
6 - Copy into: Ctrl V, this should paste a greyscale copy of the background into the mask. If it does not work and creates another layer, I have no explanation, but then you should try Shift Ctrl V to force copying without creating a new layer. In this example, you should have only the background and the adjustment layer. Try it with a levels ajustment layer, and when the mask is ready, play with the levels: the effect will show on the highlights, the shadows are protected by the mask.

Now, if your purpose is to hijack the adjustment layer for a kind of adjustment not provided by the adjustment layer itself, say applying a water color filter, then duplicate your background, move it above the adjustment layer, and group it with the adjustment layer (Ctrl G, or group with previous). The upper layer is indented (moved to the right of the palette). Apply your filter. The effect will be visible in highlights. That is the 3 layers setup shown by Rusty.

Back to the simple two layers example: this is a screenshot of a two layers setup. The layers palettes is drawn out of the palette bin. The histogram in the palette bin represents the histogram of the whole image, the separate histogram is a screenshot of the histogram with the effect of the mask, shown when editing the levels adjustments.
http://www.prestophoto.com/photos/image/908960/21411
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
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