Layer Mask Using Vector Tools

[Maertese]

Hi,
I am masking a BW portrait and there is just about no defining contrast between the face and the background. When I am able to get a glimpse of it sitting at the right distance from the computer and with the right zoom, I have a hard time controlling the brush for a smooth line. I also have some doubts, which leads me to slightly unpaint to be sure I had it right. So it occurred to me that drawing a vector path for part of the mask would work much better; I could see both sides of the selection and the lines would be smooth. This is how I figured out how to do that and it works perfect, however if there is a better way I would be happy to hear your suggestions. Thank you.

Duplicate a layer and make both layers visible
With the duplicate selected, create a layer mask
Flood fill the mask with black
Select the Curve Creation tool and set the first point
Change the fill color to transparent and the line color to white
Deselect Close Path
Draw lines as desired
Select Close Path when done and adjust lines and points as needed
Change the fill color to white
Check the mask and vector layers and reduce to one layer
Reduce transparency on the bottom layer and finish painting the mask.

[Hoogo]

Just about the difficulties of seeing an edge with little contrast:

A temporary adjustment layer "histogram correction" could help when finding the edges.
Additionally you could duplicate the picture, set the blending mode to "difference" and move it a bit into one direction. Together with the adjustment layer this is some kind of edge detection.

[bkh]

Just about the difficulties of seeing an edge with little contrast:

If you have a colour version of the image which has better edge contrast, you might also use that to create the mask, and then use the mask for the greyscale version.

Apart from that, I think that your workflow is fine. Sounds more complicated than it actually is, I believe. (Just one detail: you don't need to close the path before setting the fill colour to white.) There are other ways, but I cannot think of anything simpler.

Cheers

Burkhard.

[Maertese]

Additionally you could duplicate the picture, set the blending mode to "difference" and move it a bit into one direction.

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm surprised I actually discovered how to do something the right way; I had never done anything with vectors before.

Thanks for mentioning the difference mode. After reading more about it I can see it might be useful for lining up things on other projects. From what I can see so far, it's not going to help on this one but I can't figure out how to turn off a switch that is causing the layer to snap into place once it's within 1/4" of perfect alignment, any ideas?

Thanks,
Steve

[Hoogo]

...but I can't figure out how to turn off a switch that is causing the layer to snap into place once it's within 1/4" of perfect alignment, any ideas?

That the align-to-guides-function. You find that button in the toolbar.

[bkh]

...but I can't figure out how to turn off a switch that is causing the layer to snap into place once it's within 1/4" of perfect alignment, any ideas?

That the align-to-guides-function. You find that button in the toolbar.

Or press the "Alt" key while dragging to temporarily disable (or enable) this feature.

Burkhard.

[Maertese]

Thanks for the tips on the alignment switch.

Using the Convert for Previous is a perfect way to make the vector mask. I like the way you can play with the mask against the reduced opacity background. I just can't figure out how to get rid of the bounding box the remains after converting the layer type to gray so that I can use raster tools. The range of the raster tools stop at the boundaries. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks,
Steve

[Martin Huber]

Using the Convert for Previous is a perfect way to make the vector mask. I like the way you can play with the mask against the reduced opacity background. I just can't figure out how to get rid of the bounding box the remains after converting the layer type to gray so that I can use raster tools. The range of the raster tools stop at the boundaries. Any thoughts on that?

After conversion the new layer usually has the same size as the original layer.

You have several possibilities to change the size of your image layer mask, while keeping its content:
- Layout > Image > Bring to Document Size
- Layer > Change Layer Size
- Layer Tool in Extended mode: Select the layer, hold down Ctrl or Command (depending on OS) and scale the layer by dragging one of the layer handles. In Extended mode image layers are not really scaled, but resized.

Martin

[Maertese]

- Layout > Image > Bring to Document Size
Martin

I tried that a few times yesterday and it didn't work, today it works perfect!

Thanks Martin!