Digital Photo Enhancement click here for Photos of Ariana, one of the best digital enhancers on the net. Retouching and enhancing your photos!Tutorial 1: Blending parts of one layer into another is easy to do using the layers sliders in Photoshop 4.0. In this example, we will show just a few of the hundreds of possible combinations you can use when you play with the options in the Layer Options palette. Sometimes you want to mask or crop more than one image with the same shape. To allow for the most flexibility, use a clipping group with your layers. In this photo example we used type as the masking layer and two different fabric layers. We wanted to leave them on separate layers to allow for more experimentation. 1. Open or create a file that contains all the layers that you want to mask through a common mask. The layer that will mask the others should be the bottom-most layer. In this example we will mask both the lace and the floral layers with the big type layer. Remember to put your mask shape on a transparent background. retouching of photographs 2. Make a clipping group by holding the Option/Alt key and clicking between the layers that will be in the group. Notice how the cursor changes to indicate that you are making a clipping group, and the Layer thumbnail indents. 3. Option/Alt click between all the layers that will be in digital the clipping group. Note: You can move layers around within a group, but once you move a layer outside of the group, it will no longer be masked by the base layer. Group modes All clipping groups have a base layer. This is the bottom layer in the group, and it defines the shape of the mask through which all the other layers in the group are displayed. The base layer defines the mode and transparency of all the layers in its group. Clipping groups As you click the lines between the layers to make a clipping group, they become dotted lines. The base layer is the one with the underlined layer name. Base layer (mask) The shape that masks all the layers in the clipping group must be on a transparent background or the effect will not work. The masking shape is created by every pixel on the base layer no matter what color it is. The edge of the mask shape is wherever there is a pixel next to a transparent area. 8 CREATING PHOTO ENHANCED LAYER MASKS FROM SELECTIONS
It’s easy to add a layer mask to a layer and draw or paint on that mask. But sometimes you want to mask specific areas of an image that are not easy to create on a blank layer mask. This technique demonstrates how you can create layer masks from any selection made on any layer. 1. In this example we just added the layer with the eyes, but we want the eyes to show through only the glasses lenses. digital image manipulation 2. Sometimes it’s easier to hide all layers except the ones you need to create the selection. Use the selection tools to create a selection that defines the area you want to mask. In this example, we turned off the eyes layer even though it will eventually contain the layer mask. Viewing layers To quickly turn off all layers except the one you want to work on, Option/Alt+click the eye icon for that layer in the Layers palette. To turn all the layers back on again, again Option+click the layer’s eye icon. Selections on layers You can make a selection on any layer, and if you click a different layer in the Layers palette, the selection is still active. This is a real time-saver, because you select the area only once, but you can make changes to that same area on several different layers without reselecting each time. 3. Once your selection is made, turn on all the other layers (Option/Alt+click on the eye icon). Make the layer that will contain the photo layer mask the active layer in the Layers palette. Don’t deselect the selection you made in step 2! 9 CREATING LAYER MASKS FROM SELECTIONS 4. Choose Select > Save Selection. Use the Channels pop-up menu to select the Mask option that will be named after the currently active layer. Instead of saving a channel to the Channels enhanced palette, this will save the selection as a layer mask to your layer. Layer masks on/off You can temporarily turn the layer mask off without discarding it. Simply Shift+click the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette. Click it again to turn digital retouching back on |