Hiding and Showing

Of the first 4 chapters in How to Cheat in Photoshop  6th ed., by Steve Caplin Chapter 3: Hiding and Showing has by far been the most useful to me.

The chapter covers two very important technique: Clipping Masks and Layer Masks. Every one of my Friday Challenge submissions required at least one, if not both, of these techniques. Plus, most of the future lessons in How to Cheat in Photoshop also require mastery of these skills.

While my CS3 class did include a lesson covering both Clipping Masks and Layer Masks, neither of these techniques was touched on again. So, I didn’t understand the usefulness of them until I started working through Caplin’s book. However, now that I do understand them, Masks are near the top of the usefulness scale for all the skills I’ve learned thus far. That and Curves, which I’ll discus in a later post.

Well Suited
Caplin only has one tutorial on Clipping Masks, which he combined with a demonstration on layer modes. When I ran through this lesson, I did not immediately see the utility of it. That would come with later chapters when Clipping Masks are used extensively.  The two images below cover the gist of the lesson.

The lesson started out with a gentleman and an image of what looks to be Victorian era wall paper:

The instructions are simple enough: Create a clipping mask. Below are the results with the wallpaper layer changed to various modes.  Some actually look like they could possibly be worn by a man, although I’m not sure in what situation it would be appropriate.

Unlinking a Layer Mask
As mentioned, my CS3 course covered layer masks, but it never discussed unlinking one. Being able to move an object behind a mask is very useful when creating a photomontage. In fact, I’ve used the unlinking technique in every Friday Challenge so far.

Here is Caplin’s example:

 

Now, let’s say you’ve been given the assignment to put the man behind the desk for a corporate brochure. Here’s how it looks with the basic Masks technique:

But now let’s say your boss (or client) wants the man to stand between the desk and the chair. With the basic Masks techniques, moving the man would move the desk as well.

As Caplin teaches, click on the chain icon in the layers panel to remove the link as follows:

With the link removed the man can be moved and the desk stays put. The man can be move behind the desk as long as that desk section was masked. Otherwise he would just pop out in front of the desk again.

A Soft Touch for More Realism
There’s even more I learned about Layer Masks from Caplin’s book. For example, while most layer masks are created with brushes, it turns out any of the painting tools can create a mask in order to make the image look more realistic.

Consider this original image:

Note in the layers panel, the image is composed of three separate elements: a “people” layer, a “sky” layer and a “grass” layer.  Notice how it looks like the people are floating above the grass. Also, the sky and the grass come together along an unnaturally hard, straight line.

Layer masks can be used to fix it like this:

First, the sky was masked using a gradient, making the horizon line look more realistic. Also, an inverted mask, that has been streaked with the smudge tool to simulate blades of grass, has been applied to the people to give the appearance of being on the ground rather than hovering above.  Finally, a new layer was added to create a shadow under the people.  Note how the couple now look as if they really are lying in the field. Why they are doing so is still a mystery.

Take this image:

Now that’s dramatic!

Blending in Some Fire Power
The final technique I’m going to discuss from  How to Cheat in Photoshop, is blending. This really isn’t a mask. But it does fit in with this blog’s theme of hiding and showing.

Take this original image:

It consists of three elements: The hand holding the gun, a picture of lit fireworks that has been rotated on its side and a background that looks like a library. Caplin wrote that whenever he thinks of gunshots, libraries come to mind. I concur. If a firearm must be discharged indoors, it should be in the library.

However, to make this scene look real, the black box around the fireworks needs to be removed.  It could be removed using one of the previous Masks techniques. But, there is another way. By using the Blending Options dialog box, under Layers>Layer Style, nothing gets erased, it just gets hidden. This technique definitely wasn’t covered in my CS3 course despite the capability being there all along.

Here is the image after adjusting the Blending Options:

Next: Throwing Some Curves with Image Adjustment