Sean Duggan Photographics: Digital Photography & Photoshop Workshops

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Secrets of the Mask:
Selections & Masking in Adobe Photoshop CS3

Dec. 13 – 14, 2008 • Mesilla Digital Workshops, Mesilla, New Mexico • Register

The ability to make accurate selections and masks is one of the keys to doing good work in Photoshop, especially if you need to make a composite image. This 2-day hands-on class will focus on core Photoshop concepts that relate to selections, channels, alpha channels and layer masks.

Masks can be used in a variety of situations for many different types of digital darkroom work, including contrast and color correction masks for photographs and intricate masks for compositing multiple images together. In many cases, there is a mask, or the beginnings of one, already present in your photograph. You just need to know where to look for it and how to modify it to suit your purposes.

Some of the topics for this class will include:

• How to “read” a color channel

• Differences between color channels and alpha channels

• Why selections, alpha channels and masks are the same thing

• Selection Tools and Skills: Beyond the Basics

• Gray Matters: Understanding how grayscale tonality relates to selections and transparency

• Using existing channel information to “jump start” a mask.

• How to create and edit a Gradient Mask

• Creating a mask that has both hard and soft edges.

• How to create precise layer masks for localized tonal adjustments

• Techniques for mask editing, adjustments and combining masks.

• Using Color Range, the Extract command, and the Background Eraser

• The Pen Tool for precision masking: Why it’s worth all the effort

• Layer Clipping Groups and Blending Options: Masking without a mask

• One Mask for Many Layers: Masking layer groups

Please note that this is not a beginning Photoshop class. You should have a working familiarity with both Photoshop and computer basics on either Windows or Mac . All example images used in the class will be provided to you so you can easily follow along, but you can also bring a few of your own images to work with during the class.