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Selections and Masking Part 2

Lesson 23 from: Adobe Photoshop 101

Ben Willmore

Selections and Masking Part 2

Lesson 23 from: Adobe Photoshop 101

Ben Willmore

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Lesson Info

23. Selections and Masking Part 2

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Adobe Bridge Basics

27:08
2

Sorting Images in Adobe Bridge

29:24
3

Processing Images in Adobe Camera Raw Part 1

29:42
4

Processing Images in Adobe Camera Raw Part 2

34:57
5

Image Processing Q&A

08:13
6

Contrast and Color

18:15
7

Adjustment Brush and Auto Mask

16:19

Lesson Info

Selections and Masking Part 2

I'm gonna open another image because maybe I want the shape of that that fish thing too you know change where something else shows up so open this guy and I want to somehow use that fish shape within this well you remember when you go to the select menu and you choose save selection usually it saves it within this file but you see the top of his document I could choose another document the only problem is it have to be the exact same size the width and height in pixels would have to be the same in order for it to show up in this menu and that other file is not the exact same size so it doesn't show up here I could grab a selection tool though and I could click in the middle of this because usually that allows you to move it reposition it and I congratulate it to another tab and then dragged down into this image and even though it's not previewing it why let go I have it I I just dragged a selection between two files I'll add a lair master this now showing up inside of the shape of a fi...

sh she's undo let me do that again because there are some things that people mess up on this I used to and that is I need to be in a selection tool so it knows I want to move a selection and not the picture if I was in something like the move tool it would be moved the layer the physical part of the image that you're seeing but a selection tool if you click in the middle of the selection should be able to move it around in which you want to do is move and tell you're on top of another tab that tabal come to the front but don't let go yet your mouse can't still be on top of the tab dragged down into your picture so it's within the image then let go and you'll see it so yes you can bring him between documents other questions yeah how can you turn this election into a mask when you wanted to be a mask? Well all a mask is is a selection attached to something and so you need to figure out what is it you wanted to be attached to? If it's a layer just make that layer active clicking on it and the layers panel and while the selection is visible at a layer mask that layer mask icon at the bottom it looks like a circle inside of a rectangle if there's ah selection active at the time that you click it it's gonna convert it into a mask that's attached to the layer so if I brought it over to that other image brought it down here look at my layers panel you see the layer sitting there I come down here and I clicked the layer mascot count if there's a selection active he just got converted over and now you can see it right there so you need to just click on what it is you want to attach it to and then click the layer mask icon got on there unless there was already one attached like right now there's already one attash now, if I click on that what I would have to do is simply modify this mask by grabbing the paintbrush tool and the on ly area I can change is what selecting that's how selections work so right now if I paint the paint won't go into where the selection is so wide campaign in that sense this is what was active there's the pain uh just hit that part but that could get a little confused uh any other little ones you want to sneak in there? We got to two fun comments though channels have always been on my bucket list but I never thought I would get there so people are really getting this as you're walking through what's really funny about it though, is if that same person says they love quick mask mode or layer mass that means they love channels because that's what they are right it's just people are afraid of channels to somebody made them they're scary awesome one more comment yeah that section totally rocked I cannot express how clear the mask concept is now so okay so now what we need to learn though there are different ways of making selections that just means isolating an area and we need to know different ways of manipulating masks meaning when they're in the form that doesn't look like little marching aunt's things we could do with them so we could explore that a little bit uh for instance I can type a letter q right now so that this is looked at as a red overlay when that's looked at as a red overlay it's just like a grayscale picture because if you were to go look in the channels panel that's what it is is a grey scale pictures sitting there anything you could use on a great scale picture you can apply to that so if I want the edge of this look different I could come over here in blur it if I wanted to soften its edge then when I was done it would look a ziff I used to soft edge brush to paint it uh if I blurt it I could come down here to distort and remember there's a filter called ripple I could apply that right now and I'll see if I can zoom out on this little preview here see it rippling the edge I choose my amount probably want a smaller ripple on that click okay and now if I zoom up really close it's hard to see can you tell the edge is no longer straight out to shoes undo before after it's rippled but when it looks like a mask a channel or a quick mask it's a grayscale picture in any tool that would work on a great scale picture can be used to modify it that means filters will work adjustments will work anything will work that would work on a great scale picture and that means that might be sixty percent of photo shop would work on it she's undo so what that means is if I came in here and I need to change this I'm not limited to painting with paintbrush tools I'm use anything to change this that would work on a great scale picture and it's just a matter of me deciding what would be useful and not everything is useful but it's available in sometimes it can be overly useful um so two selections channels mass there in essence the same thing in different forms there either attached to something they're saved into the channels panel or they look like little marching ants but in general they isolated area if it's attached to something it's saying on lee make a certain parts show up of this thing if it's a selection like this it means whatever I do next on lee do it there uh that kind of thing all right so what I'd like to do is get away from that concept for a while because for most people the moment you bring up channels and you start doing some things your brain it seems like a third of it in the back side just melts away and you're like, you know, it happens to everybody it seems and you need to get away from it for a while and then come back and when you come back the more times you come back, the more you're like, wait women really like that and then your brain starts figuring out after a while that it's actually a relatively simple concept even though it feels overly complex because there's a lot to places that can show up in and there's lots of terms people can use for them because when we save them with our file weren't they called alfa channels? Why isn't it called save selections? They could've called it that the channels palate could be called saved selections panel you know, and then you'd be all okay and then a layer mass could be called selection attached to layer the now thing and you brain we've gone on selection attached there, it saved their I'm saving my file and it wouldn't be it's confusing, but they like using a lot of terms uh when they do things okay, so before we get away from them I'll mess with you just a little bit I want to turn this into a selection let's figure out how first to introduce you to the concept let's make a selection using a selection tool I'll use the lasso tool there's this election then I'll modify that selection using quick mask remember quick mask is letter q or that's the icon on the bottom left right below your foreground background colors cute then I'll modify it by grabbing my paintbrush in painting it's the sun you can tell I can't uh I'm using the trackpad on my laptop don't expect much shit here you want to be able to draw get a walk on tablet now I'm going to type a letter q and what's gonna happen we're gonna have a selection of that shape partly does that make sense from what you've learned thus far now going to get rid of that selection and let's turn that into a selection how are we going to do it? Well I'm going to select all and I'm gonna copy it okay? So we have that copied it stored in what's called the clipboard just a hidden place where it stores whatever you copy and now let's try the same thing let's say I had a selection again by type of letter q this time I'm not going to paint why don't just pace the picture in if I go over here and shoes paste it's going to paste it into whatever is active right now, what's activists, this thing called quick mask paste it just I don't think intel or not it's hard to see it pasted the picture in so the parts that are red are the parts where the the black stuff was in there, the parts that don't have right on that's, where the white paper was. The only problem is the paper was not perfectly white. And so where the paper is, I see this little hint of red that's, because there's a hint of something there other than whiteness. It was a shade of gray, where the paper wass and the text that was there, that this ink that's here didn't scan in is perfectly black had it come in with a perfectly white background in a perfectly black text, I could hit q right now and be done, and I would have a selection, but instead I need to adjust what we have to make it so that where the the ink was here is black and where the paper was is white and so I can make an adjustment. There are many different adjustments we can use. I'm going to use one called levels do you see our bar chart? Remember how they work you over how blacks on the left and this is mohr and more and more light. Do you see a hump right there? That means that things that are a bit brighter than black, they take up some space. I bet you that's the ink that's there. You can actually see how bright it is when you're in levels go straight down its this is how right it is. The bar chart lines up with this thing there's black. This forces things too black, and if I pull it into right there, I just forced what was in there too black. This forces things toe white to see that huge, really tall thing that's the white paper. It didn't scan in a solid white it's canada's around this bright. But if I bring this until goes to the other side of that hump, highness made it. Wife click okay, now I'm gonna type of letter. Q. We have a selection shaped exactly like this. Al jake, the only problem is, do you everyone use quick mask mode when we paint with that black stuff and it shows up his red on our screen that usually indicates where it's not selected. So right now we have everything except for where that black stuff was selected, but if I want the opposite, I choose inverse, right, and now I have exactly the text selected and exactly the cake selected and there was something on the edge on the right edge and the bottom edge of my file that had blackness on it that also has selected so let's add a layer mask and see what happens way just isolated that from its background now for some of you that's way too much to think about but it's actually relatively simple once you get used to the individual pieces used because quick mask mode you just paint with black it shows up as red over lakes and so were late on your picture but wherever you put the black use words not selected we just happen to pace that in and it thought we just painted it all in it became what was not selected when we turn quick mask mode off we had the exact opposite of what we wanted so we had to choose inverse to get but we've now isolated that from its background you have to practice that a few times have you never done it before but it's overly useful if you ever scan your signature and you want to get the background to be gone if you have a scandal logo you want to get the background to be gone all that kind of stuff uh there is other things we could do with that but it's anytime you scan something that is close to black on a close toe white background you could do that technique to uh do it so I'm gonna do it one more time because messes with people I'm gonna select all and I'm going to copy this after that I don't have to choose it but I'm going to choose d selected because we don't need this election that's there it's okay if it was still there but we don't need it then I can turn quick mask on you don't even need a selection there when you turn quick mascot were used to starting with a selection and we turn quick mask on and you see it convert but you could just type the letter q to go too quick mask paint paint type a letter q to turn it off and you made a selection that way from scratch uh so it doesn't matter if you have a selection or not just type you paste and then adjust what you have to make sure that you had solid black and solid white and all you got to do is move this black slaughter to the middle of one hump and move the white slaughter to the end of the other hump what this means is make all of the paper turn white and make most of the, uh writing turned black you type cue to get out of quick mass mode and then you're gonna have the white area selected so if you need the opposite choose in verse so a lot of little steps. There is what we did it twice. And if you buy the course, you, khun pas me playback, possibly playback, tried again. And then, if you've done it five times and you play a little bit with the techniques used, then it actually becomes no problem. In once you, you get the concept of selections, masks in layer mass, all that stuff. Then this is child's play as far as what you're doing, it's just going to painting that shape, you just happened pasted down, uh, but it takes a while to get to that point.

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Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Ben, thanks again for this course. I have taken and purchased quite a few of your courses to date. I keep thinking I will only watch to make sure I am on the right track and you always bring more to the table than the last course. Your teaching methods are the best, sorry to all the other instructors from Creative Live, but you are very easy to understand and you speak in layman's terms so we all can understand. I am following your instructions and working along with your files and it is the best! It is hard to keep up with you even when I watch you on one computer and work with the same files on another computer, to do what you are doing...impossible but I gain so much by trying. You provide so much info on each topic, it is amazing. Thanks to Karen for the PDFs, she does a fantastic job and also, for her templates/layout documents. Thanks again and to anyone who thinks this is too much money for all the videos, the exercise files and the instruction PDF, I am sorry to say but you are mistaken.

John Taylor
 

Like all of the Creative Live courses, excellent training. Ben does a great job of explaining the entry part of Photoshop. A lot of things cleared up in my head and i like his easy pace into this complex program. Thanks Ben.

Cecily
 

I had several "lightbulb" moments with this class, after many years of photography and when you think you know it all, you don't :) Ben Willmore is an excellent tutor, with his many years of experience teaching PS, he obviously knows the types of things a lot of us struggle to understand. I learnt a lot about Bridge, and have since implemented these things into my everyday workflow, so much easier to sort out what I want to keep etc.. Thanks so much Ben and Creative Live. Thanks also to Ben's wife for her amazing work creating the Guide etc. Even though being in Australia, I pay more for the courses (the conversion rate, the aussie dollar is low at the moment) it's very worth it to me. I have paid more for courses here, and learnt next to nothing. Thanks again.

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