Masking help

[Koorosh]

Hi everyone,
I am trying to learn some practical techniques to work with when it comes to post processing, but my first port of call concerns compiling numerous stacks together into 1.
Here is a link of a wasp where I compiled multiple stacks together:
https://flic.kr/p/yg4xEE

I had to take multiple stacks for two reasons: because legs weren't in the right places and were getting burned out when the lighting was right for the main body region, and because the wings were taken off and placed on a microscope slide so they weren't obscuring anything. Unfortunately I couldn't do much about the collar lifting from the front of the thorax :/
It took me forever to rub the background out for each part, and I also had trouble making the wings look right- to me they look more like clip art than an actual wing, but the important thing is that the characters they need to have are there (ultimately going towards book illustrations). For the wings, to try and make them translucent and 'wingy' did selective colour, and pasted those parts into a layer, playing with the opacity. I did this numerous times (as you can see, the wing has some smokey areas that are less translucent).
I tried to use colour selection as a way to get rid of the background, but that didn't really work, and so I have been manually rubbing things out to get a nice edge. Massively time consuming...
I tried another thing the other day, but which didn't seem to work: make a quick selection with the magic wand or lasso tool, then go to refine edge, and sort of fiddle about with that. Didn't seem to work, but I'm not sure I fully understand it.
My hope is that one of you might know a quick and good method of masking desired areas to delete backgrounds, or just generally make selctions of bits to edit?

[Asha]

Koorosh, what program are you using to do your compositing?

There are many Photoshop tutorials out there, and even if you are using a different version, most of the steps have analogous methods.

Masking is indeed hard work, whether you are erasing as you describe, or making non-destructive masks. There are some 3rd party products that help too, such as Topaz ReMask https://www.topazlabs.com/store

[Koorosh]

Hi Asha, ah I forgot to state that I'm using Photoshop cs6.
I have heard that Topaz and others work well when there is strong contrast between areas, but not as much if not? My concern is that there is not going to be an easy way out of this

[ChrisR]

Best way I know is to use the Magnetic Lasso tool, then spend time with the pen tool. If I'm doing much with the pen tool I need a crib sheet of keyboard shortcuts, I don't find it always intuitive to use.
There are many tutorials about that one.

[Asha]

Here is a tutorial for masking hair in CS6, but this would work in other PS versions as well. The trick is to use the highest contrast channel, put the content into a spare channel, and boost contrast of the new channel with levels or curves.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/h ... n-pho.html

You can load selection from the channel and then make a mask. From there, you can refine the mask edge, if needed.

I could swear that at one time there was a Topaz-like masking tool within Photoshop, where you paint on the edge and then define the masked area. Perhaps it was absorbed into the refine mask controls.

[Chris S.]

I'd second ChrisR's recommendation to use the pen tool, though I also find it unintuitive. But since people who are really good at making selections in Photoshop tend to make heavy use of the pen tool, it's worth becoming skilled at. (Or so I tell myself, when dealing with it.)

--Chris S.

[D34N]

Based on years of retouching experience, the pen tool is great for making masks on man-made items, i.e. lots of straight edges, like cars for example. For natural edges, bodies, insects etc., you ideally want to be using a Wacom and hand painting the mask. There’s a great new trend in retouching that uses Luminosity Masking (basically you get more choice in selecting a mask based on its luminosity, rather then just having to use the R, G or B channel). Maybe do a google for it.

A further trick to using the highest contrast R, G or B channel, is to copy this to a new channel, preferably the Mask for the layer. You then use a black, or white brush set to Overlay mode. Start low at 20-30%, don’t be tempted to go too high as you will get high contrast edges (sharp edged pixels). Overlay mode allows you to brighten (white brush) or darken (black brush) WITHOUT effecting the much darker, or much brighter areas. Easier to see the effect by trying it out.

Use the shift key - This allows you to jump from one point to another, rather than click+hold to paint a mask. After a while you learn where you can get way with this technique, by going backwards and forwards over areas, you can make a perfect curve.

With the shift key held (whilst drawing masks etc.,) if you move the pointer of to the side of the window (any side) the window moves around MUCH faster than if you were to just move the pointer off the side of the window.

Hope those little tips help.


Dean

[Beatsy]

Topaz Remask 5 will solve all the issues you are describing. Very easy to use too (much easier/quicker than refining selections in CS6). Also integrates as a plugin to CS6. Cheap too. What more can I say - I couldn't imagine working without it now.