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You're reading from  Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements 2023 - Fifth Edition

Product typeBook
Published inDec 2022
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781803248455
Edition5th Edition
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Author (1)
Robin Nichols
Robin Nichols
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Robin Nichols

Born in the UK, Robin Nichols has always had a great love for recording the world with a camera. After finishing school, he studied fine art, before moving on to study at Nottingham Trent University, where he gained a degree in creative photography. He subsequently worked in the advertising industry for several years, before emigrating to Australia in 1985. Robin has always worked in photography: as a black and white printer, a cameraman, a stock photographer, and a freelance photographer. During the 1990s, Robin contributed to several photo-centric publications in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK.
Read more about Robin Nichols

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Layer Masking: advanced techniques

Hold on to your hats, this section is likely to take you to yet another creative level. As we just saw in the previous sections, simple tonal corrections using basic Layer Masks is actually quite easy.

Finished image: This project involves taking two stock images (and other objects) and blending them together as seamlessly as possible using Layer Masks, contrast, 3D shadows and color tweaks.

Before we get into the next project, let's recap on the main points:

  • A Layer Mask is attached to its own layer and appears as white in the Layer Panel.
  • In its unedtited form, it's white. White = opaque. If it's black it's 100% translucent.
  • To make a custom mask, select the mask first (i.e. click it to highlight its edges) then paint into the main image (NOT the thumbnail) using the Brush Tool.
  • Set the Color Picker to black (foreground) and white (background) and paint over the object to be...
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Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements 2023 - Fifth Edition
Published in: Dec 2022Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781803248455

Author (1)

author image
Robin Nichols

Born in the UK, Robin Nichols has always had a great love for recording the world with a camera. After finishing school, he studied fine art, before moving on to study at Nottingham Trent University, where he gained a degree in creative photography. He subsequently worked in the advertising industry for several years, before emigrating to Australia in 1985. Robin has always worked in photography: as a black and white printer, a cameraman, a stock photographer, and a freelance photographer. During the 1990s, Robin contributed to several photo-centric publications in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK.
Read more about Robin Nichols