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Masks

Masks are related to selections, but they're a more permanent way of masking out adjustments made to an image. For example, you might make an initial selection in an image-editor and then convert it into a layer mask which can be saved with the file and re-edited later if necessary.

Capture One 23 review

December 3, 2022 by Rod Lawton

Verdict: 4.8 stars Capture One 23 is a professional Lightroom rival that offers a step up in both image quality and editing tools, and supports a greater variety of professional workflows. The RAW processing is excellent, the editing tools are powerful and the new Cull view, layered Styles and improved Variant handling alone make the upgrade look worth it. Capture One is not cheap, but it’s designed for professional, quality-orientated workflows.

Filed Under: Best software, Capture One, Featured, ReviewsTagged With: Adjustment layer, Asset management, Capture One, Cataloguing software, Culling, DAM (Digital Asset Management), Masks, RAW processing, Session (Capture One), Style (Capture One), Tethered shooting, Variant (Capture One)

Selections and masks: what do they do, what’s the difference?

April 22, 2022 by Life after Photoshop

Selections and masks are subtly different, and the ‘parametric’ masks in non-destructive editors give more flexibility than ever.

Filed Under: Editing A-Z, FeaturedTagged With: Adjustment brush, Adjustment layer, Brush, Feathering, Gradient mask, Lasso tool, Luminance mask, Magic wand, Magnetic Lasso, Masks, Polygonal lasso, Radial mask, Selection, Selection brush

Local adjustments explained

March 10, 2022 by Life after Photoshop

Local adjustments

‘Local adjustments’ is a bit of a catch-all term. It means picking out an area of an image for adjustment while leaving the rest unchanged. So how do local adjustments work and which software does them best?

Filed Under: Editing A-Z, Featured, GeneralTagged With: Adjustment brush, Adjustment layer, Brush, Burning in, Control point, Dodging and burning, Feathering, Gradient mask, Local adjustments, Luminance mask, Masks, Non-destructive editing, Radial mask, Selection brush, Sensei (Adobe), Subject recognition

5 quick masking tips to save time and get better results

June 25, 2020 by Rod Lawton

Masking complex outlines can be a slow and fiddly business, but there are tools to help, and once you’ve got your mask, there’s a lot you can do with it.

Filed Under: Capture One, Featured, General, Listicles, TutorialsTagged With: Masks

How to mask effects in ON1 Photo RAW

June 12, 2020 by Rod Lawton

Masks can quickly get confusing in ON1 Photo RAW. It’s not the tools themselves which are confusing, but the fact they can be used in three different places: Local adjustments: These are applied to the image as a whole in their own ‘Local’ panel. In other words, they are not associated with any specific layers […]

Filed Under: Featured, ON1 Photo RAW, TutorialsTagged With: Masks

How to use masks in Luminar

June 8, 2020 by Life after Photoshop

Often you want to apply an effect or adjustment to a whole picture, but not always. Sometimes you only want to apply it to part of the picture, and this is where the Luminar mask tools become really useful.

Filed Under: Featured, Luminar, TutorialsTagged With: Adjustment layer, Masks

An Icelandic church edited in Exposure X

March 31, 2020 by Life after Photoshop

Exposure X

This shot of an Icelandic church looked nice enough in color but I thought it had a bit more potential as a black and white image – though there were a few issues I wanted to sort out first. For this project I used Exposure X. The same tools exist in other programs, but I […]

Filed Under: Exposure X, Featured, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, LUTs, Masks, Perspective correction, Vignette

The power of adjustment layers and masks

February 14, 2019 by Rod Lawton

Adjustment layers started out in Photoshop as a way of altering the look of an image without actually changing its pixels. It was the start of non-destructive editing. Now, adjustment layers are everywhere, not just in Photoshop, and for me they are the key to successful image enhancements. There’s a second factor, though – layer […]

Filed Under: Exposure X, General, TutorialsTagged With: Adjustment layer, Graduated filters, Layers, Masks, Presets

How to use layers, blend modes and masking tools in Luminar 3/4

March 24, 2018 by Rod Lawton

Luminar layers

This tutorial shows how to use the powerful layers, blend modes and masking tools in Luminar 2018, but actually the same principles can be used in other image-editing programs which support image layers. I’m going to start with a perfectly pleasant lakeside travel shot and give it a more dramatic Game of Thrones look by […]

Filed Under: Luminar, TutorialsTagged With: Layers, Masks

How to add a new sky to a landscape without selections

August 25, 2017 by Rod Lawton

How to add a new sky to a landscape

Very often in landscape photography you get the landscape or the lighting you want, but not the sky. In the perfect world you’d keep going back again and again until everything was perfect. In our not-so-perfect-world, however, it’s sometimes useful to be able to add a new sky later, as the final touch to an […]

Filed Under: UncategorizedTagged With: Blend modes, Layers, Masks

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