One House

[windrider86]

Anothwer picture from our trip. This was a house we saw in Crescent City california. The sky was just a blah sky so i thought I'd add more pizzaz to it. I might have done a better job in the tree area.
I did orginally do the HDR effect on the house and the rocks but the sky obviously was not included in that.

[PLouie]

If the trees were infront of sky in the original photo, you could get a very good mask by using the channels. Go look at the red blue and green and see which channel has the greatest contrast between tree and sky. Duplicate that channel and play with levels on it until it gets as black and white as possible. Soften edges if you have to and paint on black or white if you have to as well. When you are done just use that channel's black and white as a mask.

It works very well and is a common thing we do with VFX composites. You might have to work on it more depending on the image. This is a very good way of getting good masks because its already very close to the original subject.

[windrider86]

I'm sure this is quite simple but I am confused all the way around. I'm not sure what you meant by channels? And how do you go about masking and black and white?

[PLouie]

Well, do you know what masks are? Usually people just erase the contents of a photo to reveal what's behind it. That is okay in some cases but it requires you do erase it manually which at most times makes it look messy. What's usually done for complicated things like hair and trees is using a mask so that you can reveal or hide things in a photo without destroying the pixels (ie. you can fix it without worrying about undoing)

Take a look at these tutorials for a better explanation.

http://www.deneba.com/COMMUNITY/howt...g/default.html
EDIT: I just noticed that tutorial is not for Photoshop, although it's very similar. I'll update the link for a photoshop tutorial ASAP.

EDIT: OK, I found a Tutorial about layer masks for Photoshop. It's a very in depth tutotial. I think it'll help you a lot
http://www.lunacore.com/photoshop/tutorials/tut003.htm

[windrider86]

Thank you for this. I will give it a try!

[PLouie]

No problem. It'll be great if you could show us your results here or on a seperate thread. I'd be happy to help if you still need it.

[windrider86]

Cool beans. I didnt have any paper to print out the tutorial so i am planning on doing that this afternoon.

[windrider86]

I'm flabebrgasted. is what you are saying is - its easier to create a mask and put in a diferent background than it is to erase or delete a background and paste in another one?
Cause I am so confused right now I think I am gonna put my head thru this screen.
I've been trying to figure it out and have figured out how to create a mask and trace around an area that you want lighter or darker. But to bring in a new object has me stumped. And byt he way I am using Paint Shop Pro.

[PLouie]

I use Photoshop. However, they are similar programs and I have found a Paint Shop Pro tutorial for you. It looks very straightforward and very promising. I think the problem before was that it was different software which caused the confusion. Sorry, about that. This should help you out better.

http://www.grafx-design.com/16psp.html

[windrider86]

Instead of using masks (which for one reason ot another I am having a difficult time grasping, but dam it I WILLl get it) I duplicated the picture. Chamged to to Mulitply and reduced the opacity to about 50%. I then made the orginal layer on top and merged. Thsi was my result. I appears to be a little more blended, I th ink..........