A question about adjustment layers: If I have a masked adjustment layer (where only a portion of the total image is affected by the adjustments), can I somehow use the same mask for a different layer (I want to apply noise removal only to this masked area), and how would I do that?
Oh, I wish I could answer the question. But....... I believe what
you're trying to do is possible. I've seen it used somewhere on the net. Maybe we keep bumping it some ps expert will help out.
Well, my first test worked. I simply clicked and held the mask box in one of my layers and dragged it to another layer and it worked ok! But........ it was a move not a copy. Still working on it.
Well, my first test worked. I simply clicked and held the mask box in one of my layers and dragged it to another layer and it worked ok! But........ it was a move not a copy. Still working on it.
Go to the layer where you want the mask, then Option+click on the mask in the other adjustment layer, and it transfers over. Just like that.
The real key thing to get your head around if you can is that a mask is just an 8-bit greyscale image.
A channel is just an 8-bit greyscale image.
A selection is just an (active) version of an 8-bit greyscale image.
So you can quite easily move between each of those (which when you start to think about it, can be incredibly powerful). The 'Ctrl+Click' on a mask (which turns it into an active selection) is a prime example of that. Then when you have an active selection, if you 'add mask' it converts that active selection back into a mask. You can do the same thing of you Ctrl+click on a channel - it'll turn it into an active selection, and you can again just turn that into a mask. So for most things, you've suddenly got all your complex edges masked, perfectly. With two clicks - and then you can start painting on it to refine it further. Or threshold it. Or apply curves. Or an impressionist paint filter and so on.
So you can apply levels and curves to a mask. You can even use all the weird and wonderful, normally tacky, photoshop filters on a mask. You can Gaussian blur a mask to soften the edges. You can sharpen a mask - and so on.
You can also take a channel and turn it into a mask as a starting point.
Want the reverse form of a mask ? Ctrl+I to invert it and you've got the opposite right there ready to go.
Want to move the edges of a soft mask ? Apply levels and move the black point, white point to change the 'hard edge' and move the greyscale slider to change the rate of transition.
So you can quite easily move between each of those (which when you start to think about it, can be incredibly powerful).
I just realized that since last night. Funny thing (or not so funny thing) is I was "wishing" for something like that, but didn't know how to start on it.
Originally posted by Gordon:
You can also take a channel and turn it into a mask as a starting point.
I just tried this, making a mask from a channel. Tried it on a couple images. It works (open channels, option click on one of them, and a selection appears). That is what you're talking about right?
Question: If I click consecutively on the three channels (red/green/blue), different selections appear for the three, but the addition of the three do not make the whole image. Why?
I just tried this, making a mask from a channel. Tried it on a couple images. It works (open channels, option click on one of them, and a selection appears). That is what you're talking about right?
Yup, then once you've got that selection from the channel, you can turn it into a mask on, for example, an adjustment layer.
Originally posted by ursula:
Question: If I click consecutively on the three channels (red/green/blue), different selections appear for the three, but the addition of the three do not make the whole image. Why?
Yup. Each channel is an 8-bit greyscale image, that represents that colour's contribution to the final image.
If you mean the 'addition' of the three selections (as in additive selections) its because you are making a final 8-bit selection. If you wanted to do the 'whole' image as the selection, you'd need to do something like duplicate the image, convert it to 8-bit greyscale (and there as you know, lots of ways to get to a B&W image, from a colour one, with different tonal relationships) and then pull that 8-bit image back into your original shot and turn it into a mask (e.g., option+click on it when you pull it back in)
I just tried this, making a mask from a channel. Tried it on a couple images. It works (open channels, option click on one of them, and a selection appears). That is what you're talking about right?
Yup, then once you've got that selection from the channel, you can turn it into a mask on, for example, an adjustment layer.
Originally posted by ursula:
Question: If I click consecutively on the three channels (red/green/blue), different selections appear for the three, but the addition of the three do not make the whole image. Why?
Yup. Each channel is an 8-bit greyscale image, that represents that colour's contribution to the final image.
If you mean the 'addition' of the three selections (as in additive selections) its because you are making a final 8-bit selection. If you wanted to do the 'whole' image as the selection, you'd need to do something like duplicate the image, convert it to 8-bit greyscale (and there as you know, lots of ways to get to a B&W image, from a colour one, with different tonal relationships) and then pull that 8-bit image back into your original shot and turn it into a mask (e.g., option+click on it when you pull it back in)
No, I meant it looked like the partials weren't adding up, but I was looking at them backwards. Don't mind me, I was looking at the "unselected" areas as "selected" there for a moment. Duh.
BTW - this is just so mind blowing to me. The things one can do with this!
