Week Aug 27: what post processing tips / tricks / lessons did you learn ? (Select & Mask )

[BlackRockArt]

Hi y'all

Photography is the art of painting with light. In the modern age, it expands into the realm of digital post-processing. With a plethora of tools in photo software, I try to learn something new every month, sometimes a suite of new programs, sometimes just a new feature.

This week I have been using the "select and mask" tool in Adobe Photoshop, with each new iteration, this tool is getting better at detecting objects in complex scenes, I could fine-tune the mask to make the selection very precise.

What tricks did you learn this week?

Oliver

 

[JimFox]

Hey Oliver,

That sounds like a fun trick! What photo did you use that on?

I have to think, but my biggest trick was getting in touch with Adobe support as the Preview Pane in Bridge started to show the photos as a thumbnail instead of filling up the Preview Pane Window. Adobe remoted into my laptop and got it going! But now, 4 days later it started to do the same thing again. So it looks like I will need to call Support again when I get back to California.

 

[JimFox]

BTW Oliver, I typically use the Quick Selection tool and have had great success. But I will try out the Select and Mask in a few days and see how it fairs.

 

[Ken Rennie]

Oliver I have used Select and Mask in the past but never with much success, perhaps I should try harder. However recently I discovered Select Objects within Adobe Camera Raw and , for me, this is a game changer. I don't usually use the phrase game changer because , all too often, it is used by You Tubers to describe a minute change in something that will have minimal, if any, impact on processing. Back to ACR open file, apply the normal sharpening, brightness etc. global changes then you notice that a part of the image needs changing, in this case an island and some rocks. So create a new mask and then painstakingly select the part of the image with a brush, this is tedious and usually leaves halos. Now go to create a new mask "Select Objects" get your brush and roughly draw over the object release the mouse and as if by magic your object will be selected, you can now brighten it change colour balance or indeed do anything else you want. If you find that the mask isn't perfect you can add or subtract using the brush. It takes seconds and is stunningly accurate. For lightroom users it is exactly the same, so complex masks in seconds for Lightroom users without having to resort to Photoshop. If, like me you use ACR and Photoshop using Smart Objects you can go in change luminosity, colour, saturation etc. of an object. Save the object. Later open and look and find that you have overdone the effect. It is easy, click on the Smart Object thumbnail, now it opens in ACR, Select your previously drawn Mask and alter the brightness etc. Save and it will bring back your Photoshop document with the new changes. This explanation may seem complicated but it really isn't. The proof 2 images just using ACR, I could have used Lightroom.

Less than a minute to mask the island and the foreground rocks and the spit of land on the left, brighten, warm it up, increase saturation, apply clarity and it looks as though the evening sun was still hitting this part of the image. I could have selected all of the foreground rocks but deleted the bottom parts of the mask to make it look as though the sun was just skimming over them. Ken

 

[Kyle Jones]

I use select and mask on almost every image to create a sky mask allowing me to process the sky separate from the ground. I start with the quick selection tool then go into select and mask. My first pass is to zoom in near 100% and use the refine edge brush which does a really good job (usually) tightening up what the quick selection started with. I'll use the brush tool to fix things that misses (mostly snow near the tops of mountains) and then set the radius to 1, select "smart radius", and set smooth and feather both to 1.

This almost always leaves me with a good mask and little or no halos. I trust it more that the object select tools when I really care about an image since I am verifying everything at 100%. Since most of my adjustments are contrast (with a little color correction) I can get away with some small errors anyway. Sky replacements (including blending Milky Way shots) are a lot more demanding.

 

[BlackRockArt]

Oliver I have used Select and Mask in the past but never with much success, perhaps I should try harder. However recently I discovered Select Objects within Adobe Camera Raw and , for me, this is a game changer. I don't usually use the phrase game changer because , all too often, it is used by You Tubers to describe a minute change in something that will have minimal, if any, impact on processing. Back to ACR open file, apply the normal sharpening, brightness etc. global changes then you notice that a part of the image needs changing, in this case an island and some rocks. So create a new mask and then painstakingly select the part of the image with a brush, this is tedious and usually leaves halos. Now go to create a new mask "Select Objects" get your brush and roughly draw over the object release the mouse and as if by magic your object will be selected, you can now brighten it change colour balance or indeed do anything else you want. If you find that the mask isn't perfect you can add or subtract using the brush. It takes seconds and is stunningly accurate. For lightroom users it is exactly the same, so complex masks in seconds for Lightroom users without having to resort to Photoshop. If, like me you use ACR and Photoshop using Smart Objects you can go in change luminosity, colour, saturation etc. of an object. Save the object. Later open and look and find that you have overdone the effect. It is easy, click on the Smart Object thumbnail, now it opens in ACR, Select your previously drawn Mask and alter the brightness etc. Save and it will bring back your Photoshop document with the new changes. This explanation may seem complicated but it really isn't. The proof 2 images just using ACR, I could have used Lightroom.

View attachment 64680

Less than a minute to mask the island and the foreground rocks and the spit of land on the left, brighten, warm it up, increase saturation, apply clarity and it looks as though the evening sun was still hitting this part of the image. I could have selected all of the foreground rocks but deleted the bottom parts of the mask to make it look as though the sun was just skimming over them. Ken
View attachment 64681

Ken, thanks for sharing your work process, many of the steps you described are just what I do, especially when it comes to ultra wide angle shots and complex scenes.

The “Select & Mask" object tool selection is working much better than a few versions before, it works best when there is a slight contrast, by

Pressing ALT or Shift with left mouse click button, I can modify complex masks easily, the software must have gone through an algorithm change.

Oliver

 

[AlanLichty]

I have grown addicted to Select Sky and the selection layers in Lightroom and use it in almost every image I process for light adjustments between the skies and the ground. I love being able to duplicate the sky mask and invert it in one command to create a new selection layer for the ground.

 

[JimFox]

Oliver, I just looked at the Select and Mask tool. Wow... it looks pretty complicated and it felt overwhelming I have to be honest. I have been using the Quick Selecttion tool for years and it's so simple to use and very accurate once you have selected a small enough radius.

I will have to look more at the Select and Mask tool, but I am just sharing that at first glance it seems pretty complicated.