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This week Ben and Ian discuss a full range of topics, from the theoretical implications of time travel and parallel dimensions, to photographing fractions of time, to thoughts on horror movies, to the ergonomics of vertical mice, to the Pomodoro Technique and the various timers for it, to a thorough conversation on masking. There are many programs out there for masking. You can use Chroma Key Live and Camtwist to achieve live video chroma key and make single image composites with Decompose as well as standard tools like Photoshop and Final Cut.
Useful Tools in Photoshop
- Lasso Selection Tool – Polygonal and Magnetic Lasso tools help a lot with areas that have a hard edge.
- Magic Wand Tool – Quick Selection and Magic Wand Tool – Helpful with areas that have rough and complex hard edges.
- Blur Tool – Useful in blurring parts of your mask in specific areas.
- Smudge Tool – Useful in softening, pushing, and pulling parts of your mask in specific areas.
- Dodge and Burn Tools – Useful in lightening or darkening the brighter and darker areas of your mask.
- Pen and Brush Tools – useful for manual painting areas of your mask, especially while holding shift to paint a straight line.
- Rectangle Tool – Useful for filling in your entire selection, to add to your mask.
- Selecting By Color Range – Useful for keying out specific colors.
- Selection Refine Edge – Very useful in selecting complex areas such as hair and foilage, especially using the Refine Edge Tool. You can add to your layer mask, to your selection or to a new layer.
- Channel and Image Desaturion – Desaturing and inverting parts of your image and your image channels can also help in masking.
- Blending Modes and Layer Blending Options – Can help in mixing your masks together.
Tutorials
Advanced Hair Selections with Masks
Different Methods for Making Selections