On Sat, 19 May 2001 15:13:13 -0700 Douglas Landrum
(dflandrum@earthlink.net) wrote:
> Tony:
> Could you please expand on how you masked off the image and used layers?
> This part of Photoshop has me confused.
> Doug
1. Start with a saved 16bit image ("A")
2. Adjust saturation and colour balance and levels to give correct
midtones/shadows, and then reduce to 8 bits and save as "B".
3. Go back to "A" and click on levels on the history list, so you can
adjust levels differently for the highlights. Disregard the midtones
and shadows, which will probably be very dark. Reduce to 8bits. You can
save this as "C".
4. On "C", mask around the highlight areas you want to transfer to your
composite. There are several ways to do the masking - either use the
lassoo tool on the bits you want (which was the way I tackled this
particular image which had a large background area I wanted to work on -
you don't have to do a pixel-perfect trace around, so long as it's not too
rough it'll be fine), or selective colour (a good way to deal with lots of
specular highlights). You *will* need to feather the mask an amount which
depends on the image and resolution, 20-50pels IME. Do Edit|Copy.
5. Switch back to "B", the version which you have adjusted for midtone
values, and Paste - which will create a new layer. Align the new layer
with the one underneath by dragging it around (easy if the pasted layer
includes a corner of the frame, not so easy if it's free-form - this wants
to be pixel perfect.
6. Flatten the image when happy, and save it. "B" is now your composite
image. Delete your "C" file if you saved it, it has served its purpose.
7. If necessary go back to stage 3. and go round the loop as many times as
you wish if there are other areas you wish to change.
If you are on PS6 you can probably figure out a slicker way.
Regards
Tony Sleep
- Online portfolio & exhibit; + film scanner
info & comparisons
