Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible- P16

Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible- P16:If you are reading this foreword, it probably means that you’ve purchased a copyof Adobe Photoshop 6.0, and for that I and the rest of the Photoshop team atAdobe thank you.If you own a previous edition of the Photoshop Bible, you probably know what toexpect. If not, then get ready for an interesting trip.
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Photoshop 6 for Windows Bible- P16 Chapter 9 ✦ Masks and Extractions 419Tip When the mask is active, you can likewise toggle the display of the image by press- ing the tilde (~) key. Few folks know about this shortcut, but it’s a good one to assign to memory. It works whether the Channels palette is open or not, and it per- mits you to focus on the mask without moving your mouse all over the screen. Using a mask channel is different from using the quick mask mode in that you can edit either the image or the mask channel when viewing the two together. You can even edit two or more masks at once. To specify which channel you want to edit, click the channel name in the palette. To edit two channels at once, click one and Shift-click another. All active channel names appear highlighted. You can change the color and opacity of each mask independently of other mask channels and the quick mask mode. Double-click the mask channel name or choose the Channel Options command from the Channels palette menu. (This command is dimmed when editing a standard color channel, such as Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, or Black.) A dialog box similar to the one shown back in Figure 9-11 appears, but this one contains a Name option box so you can change the name of the mask channel. You can then edit the color overlay as described in the “Changing the red coating” section earlier in this chapter.Tip If you ever need to edit a selection outline inside the mask channel using paint and edit tools, click the quick mask mode icon in the toolbox. It may sound a little like a play within a play, but you can access the quick mask mode even when working within a mask channel. Make sure the mask channel color is different from the quick mask color so you can tell what’s happening. Building a Mask from an Image So far, everything I’ve discussed in this chapter has been pretty straightforward. Now it’s time to see how the professionals do things. This final section in this chap- ter explains every step required to create a mask for a complex image. Here’s how to select the image you never thought you could select, complete with wispy little details such as hair. Take a gander at Figure 9-28 and see what I mean. I chose this subject not for her good looks or her generous supply of freckles, but for that hair. I mean, look at all that hair. Have you ever seen such a frightening image-editing subject in your life? Not only is this particular girl blessed with roughly 15 googol strands of hair, but every one of them is leaping out of her head in a different direction and at a differ- ent level of focus. Can you imagine selecting any one of them with the magnetic lasso or magic wand? No way. As demonstrated by the second example of Figure 9-28, these tools lack sufficient accuracy to do any good. Furthermore, you’d be fit for an asylum by the time you finished selecting the hairs with the pen tools, and the edges aren’t definite enough for Select ➪ Color Range to latch onto.420 Part III ✦ Selections, Masks, and Filters Figure 9-28: Have you ever wanted to select wispy details, such as the hair shown on left? You certainly aren’t going to make it with the magnetic lasso (right) or other selection tools. But with masks, it’s a piece of cake. So, what’s the solution? Manual masking. Although masking styles vary as widely as artistic style, a few tried-and-true formulas work for everyone. First, you peruse the channels in an image to find the channel that lends itself best to a mask. You’re looking for high degrees of contrast, especially around the edges. Next, you copy the channel and boost the level of contrast using Image ➪ Adjust ➪ Levels. (Some folks prefer Image ➪ Adjust ➪ Curves, but Levels is more straightforward.) Then you paint inside the lines until you get the mask the way you want it. The only way to get a feel for masking is to try it out for yourself. The following steps explain exactly how I masked this girl and pasted her against a different background. The final result is so realistic, you’d think she was born there. STEPS: Selecting a Monstrously Complicated Image Using a Mask 1. Browse the color channels. Press Ctrl+1 to see the red channel, Ctrl+2 for green, and Ctrl+3 for blue. (This assumes you’re working inside an RGB image. You can also peruse CMYK and Lab images. If you’re editing a grayscal ...