Week 1 — Technical Section (Compositing in Photoshop)
In the lesson, we learnt about the basic skills of making and controlling composite images in Photoshop. In order to show we understand how to use ‘Quick mask’, there are two images for us to practice. Below are the evidences of my practice.
By using ‘Quick mask’ in Photoshop, it allows me to enhance images easier and quicker instead of using Lasso tool. Also, by using ‘Quick mask’, it is much more controllable to edit the shadow and light on an object without showing an obvious demarcation line on the image. Beside, ‘Quick mask’ is good for doing a selection if the background and foreground are too complex and natural objects where there are no hard, straight edges. But there is one disadvantage when using ‘Quick mask’, which is it costs time and need to be patient.
Image 1
Press (Q) to enter ‘Quick mask’. Being with a hard-edged to paint on the area I want to cut out; ([) and (]) can change the brush size on keyboard. A red transparent layer is highlight the selected areas.
When doing the painting, there must be some mistakes, which is going over the edge on the place I wanted to select. In this case, press (X) to change the foreground color from black to white to paint over the mistake like using a rubber tool, press (x) again to switch back to the selection tool.
Once I confirmed the outline is selected, leave ‘Quick mask’ by pressing (Q) again, then press (command)+(J) to make a new layer from the selection. After removed the background, it is more clear that the right side of the image is too dark. To do an enhancement without showing an obvious demarcation line by using ‘Magic Wand’ tool, ‘Quick mask’ is a powerful tool in this situation.
A large and soft-edged brush should be choose when doing a selection on a shadow area. Press (Q) again to leave the ‘Quick mask’ tool.
Before & After. I can do adjustments to lighten up the dark area without showing a line between the changed and unchanged areas.
Image 2
Begin with a hard-edged brush to paint around the body of the fly. There is a shortcut to save time when paint a large selection; choose ‘Magic Wand’ tool to select the middle portion, click (select)>(Modify)>(Expand) to expand the selection to 4 pixels, make sure the edges are covered when fill up the selection. Deselect the ‘Magic Wand’ tool by (command)+(D).
Switch to a smaller brush to paint the legs. In order to present the transparency of the wings, the brush need to change to a dark gray color to build-in transparency from the swatches panel on the left before painting.
Press (Q) to exit ‘Quick mask’, then press (command)+(J) to make a new layer from the selection. Use an eraser to tidy up the edges if there is a bit of background on the fly. Image on the right is the final image.
This is the final image, a cut out fly with a transparency wing on a different background.
