working order in Photoshop

[crockny]

Hi - I'm still learning photoshop and am having some issues ... I'm often unsure which type of layer to use ... I've been trying to do a number of adjustments with curves, say I have a bird as the main subject and then a washed out sky in the back (didn't have my polarized filter on) ... the bird needs subtle adjustments to make it pop and take out a shadow on the face and I just want to make the sky bluer ... if I select the bird and use curves and then try to use curves on another part of the photo by duplicating the layer and selecting the other part I get into all kinds of trouble ... what is the proper way to make different adjustments on different parts of a photo? What would you do? I haven't seen this addressed in my Photoshop for Dummies book (admittedly I just spot read ...)

[ritewinger]

Try googling a few masking tutorials. When compositing, selecting is important, but for local adjustments, masking is the way to go. When you create an adjustment layer, it comes with a mask ready made. Grab a brush and paint on it, you will pick it up in no time....

[crockny]

I've tried masking a few times -- having troulbe getting the hang of it -- I often paint and see nothing ... but will try again with you tube --
So you would mask the background and adjust the bird and then mask the bird and adjust the background?

[crockny]

Also masking seems like a lot of work, especially around a bird's feathers ...

[ritewinger]

When you add an adjustment layer, say levels, it will open with a white mask (do this by ticking the adjustment layer icon at bottom of layers panel) , white reveals , black conceals. Adjust image until you like the bird, then with a black brush, paint the areas you want to hide.
There are a lot of ways to do it, when you learn it will change the world of processing for you...

[crockny]

I am ready for a world-changing PP event ... can't wait

[milosh]

Just one thing needs to be more clarified here, as ritewinger just said, when you adjust the bird as you like it, then take the black brush and paint the areas you want to hide (from that adjustment) but paint them on the mask. Make sure that the mask is selected (you should see small borders on the four corners of the mask). Also, once when you make a selection of the bird and create a mask from that selection, you can then later copy that mask to another layer and just invert it, you don't have to make a new selection for the background.

If you're up for some learning you can read these really exhausting and great tutorials:
Selections & Masks in Photoshop-- Part I

[crockny]

How do you copy a mask to a new layer - do you just duplicate the layer?

[milosh]

Originally Posted by crockny

How do you copy a mask to a new layer - do you just duplicate the layer?

Ctrl + click (or Command + click if you're on MAC) on the mask that you want to copy, then click on the layer you want to copy the mask to, and then click on the Add new layer mask button on the bottom of the layers palette.