Cropping and Masking
This is the first part of two about how to separate images from their background and what to consider when replacing their background.
Home Assignment
Work along the videos and upload your cropped practice examples on a colorful background to your folder.
The Basics
Magic Wand Tool
Select and Mask – refining the edges
Quick Selection Tool
Masking with Vectors
Pen Tool and Vector Mask
Masking information from Colors
Tree
Hair, fringes and custom edges
Hair on light Background
Tips for fringes at the edges
Edge with custom brush
Keeping the original shadow
Know How
Blend If
How To Use “Blend If” In Photoshop Like a PRO:
The Definitive 7-Minute Guide
Blend Modes
We all have surely used them already but do we really know what exactly they are doing? Knowing your Blend Modes will let you work more freely and it will be less Photoshop telling you what looks good but more the other way round.
Blendmodes change the colours of underlying layers according to the lightness and colour values of the layer the blend mode is applied to.
The most important ones are these three groups:
Darkening
Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Linear Burn and Darker Color
A layer with one of these blend modes only affects the underlying ones in a darkening way according to the darkness of the layer itself.
- White has no effect
- Black has maximum effect
Use these Modes for:
- Shadows
- Light images with dark elements
- Textures that are based on white
- …
Lightening
Lighten, Screen, Color Dodge, Linear Dodge, Lighter Color
A layer with one one these blend modes only affects the underlying ones in a lightening way according to the lightness of the layer itself.
- Black has no effect
- White has maximum effect
Use these Modes for:
- Lights
- Dark images with light elements
- Textures that are based on black
- …
Both
Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Linear Burn and Darker Color
A layer with one one these blend modes affect the underlying ones in both a darkening and a lightening way according to the darkness or lightness of the layer itself. Thus creating more contrast.
- Black darkens
- White lightens
- Neutral Gray (128) has no effect
Use these Modes for:
- Lightening and Darkening with one layer
(f.e. sketch lines in Duck painting) - Small detailed Textures after Effect High Pass was applied
(sand, fabric, paper,..) - Custom noise layers
- Every time you want to save the original tones and values and still want to apply some texture/noise/…
High Pass explained:
Links
The Science of All 27 Blend Modes in Photoshop!
Layer Masks 10 Tips