by Vikki Hansen
The Quick Mask tool is simply another way to make a
selection.
The reason I like to use Quick Mask,
is because it allows you to make the most precise selection - and it's
easy!
In this tutorial, I will show you how to use the Quick Mask tool to select and change the background as I did
in the photograph below. (I only did a portion of the
photo)
The Quick Mask
buttons are located on your tool bar. The one on the right, turns on the
Quick Mask, and the one on the left, turns it off. Keep your foreground
and background paint colors at black and white.
Go ahead and double click on the right Quick Mask button. This allows you to customize the Quick Mask settings. Notice I've chosen "Selected Areas" - this means that when I apply the Quick Mask, it will be my selection. Now double click on the bright green button (yours may be a different color). This will bring up the Color Picker box. This allows you to choose a color for your mask. You want to pick a color that will show up on your photo. If I were working on a photo with green leaves, I would probably pick hot pink, because this green would be hard to see. (You'll see what I mean by this later). For this image, I will pick a bright pink color, as the water is sort of green. Press the "OK" buttons until both boxes are closed.
You won't see the hot pink paint color we just picked until you start using the Quick Mask. Keep your foreground and background colors at black and white. This part is a bit tricky to explain, so I'm not going to go into all the details. Just remember that BLACK paint adds the mask, and WHITE paint removes it.
OK, you're ready to start. Click once on the Quick Mask button (the one on the right), select the paintbrush tool, pick a brush size, and start painting the area you want to get rid of.
Now, for those of you who are panicking right now, your are not actually painting on your image with pink paint. You'll see what I mean later - trust me.
You can see below that I'm painting with the Quick Mask (remember I set it to hot pink). I want to get rid of the area around the little girl. You'll notice that even though my foreground and background colors are black & white, the area I'm painting is pink-that's the Quick Mask. This is so I can see the areas I've masked off.
***If you want to make some adjustments, (say you accidentally masked off her foot) switch your foreground paint color to white, and start painting the area. Remember, BLACK adds the mask (pink), and WHITE removes it.
Ok, that's enough masking (painting) for demonstration purposes. Now click on the left Quick Mask button. You will see that you haven't actually painted your image pink, but rather, you've created a selection!
What you have now is a selection that you can use in the same way you would any other selection. Instead of using the lasso, magic wand, or whatever, we've used the Quick Mask - the results are all the same.
Once you have everything the way you want it, and you're happy with your selection, you want to save it. To save your selection: from your menu, choose SELECT, SAVE SELECTION. When the little save box pops up, just click on OK.
Now to change the background. I'm just going to demonstrate a very simple and easy change. You, of course, can try anything you like.
To get rid of the existing background, I just pressed the DELETE key on my keyboard.
Next, I used a Photoshop filter, RENDER CLOUDS. (I chose blue
and white colors for my clouds.)
Look back at the very top of this page to
see my finished project.
Copyright © 2001 - Vikki Hansen