Comments on: Refine Edge hair masking in Photoshop CS5

By: Birmingham Photographer

Birmingham Photographer — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:51:24 +0000

I have 2 books from Martin and use lots of his techniques in my photography. This is a great addition now I’ve got my hands on CS5. Thanks for extending my photography toolkit, Martin!

By: 2dealsnet

2dealsnet — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:00:08 +0000

Any tool to make selection and use the “Refine Edge” and finally “out”, is how to “tips”?
Or you in the “output” and “output to” select “New Layer”

By: pho213

pho213 — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:01:51 +0000

Thanks for good step through video.This book is very userful.

By: outlet hogan

outlet hogan — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:04:25 +0000

this isn’t something new as there are a number of third-party plug-ins that have been able to do this type of masking

By: outlet hogan

outlet hogan — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 01:40:19 +0000

Thanks for good step through video.This book is very userful.

By: ecosway

ecosway — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 05:55:05 +0000

useful articles. I will try later.

By: Martin Evening

Martin Evening — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:18:44 +0000

The book should at some point be available as an ebook, in which case it would be possible to view the pages in colour, providing that is, you are able to view on a computer display or via say, an iPad. However, I don’t have any information yet from the publisher as to when the book is going to be published as an ebook version.

By: waxart

waxart — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:51:19 +0000

Martin, this is the best video tutorial I have seen so far on Refine Edge in CS5. It is truthful, not just demonstrating an easy quick selection and a miraculous final result. I had become so discouraged with my own efforts, but your tutorial has given me new hope! I have to work at it.
I’d buy your book, but when I tried to take it off the shelf in B & N, it was too thick and heavy for my arthritic hands. If e-readers displayed color, I’d love it that way. Many thanks!
Ann

By: Jason1009

Jason1009 — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:29:43 +0000

I like it nice tutorial. Thank you for sharing it.

By: Martin Evening

Martin Evening — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:15:50 +0000

Hi Rob,

When you edit the mask in the Reveal Layer preview mode it is the case that when you paint using the refine mask edge tool that the green overlay is only temporary and disappears after recalculating the edge. If you hold down the option/alt key you can switch the tool into eraser mode which will allow you to subtract from the mask edge. I suggest you give it a few more tries to get the hang of how the tools respond. I can’t say it will work wonders on every image, but the new refine mask does seem to me to be a significant improvement and very capable of achieving some great results.

Martin

By: Rob Keijzer

Rob Keijzer — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:36:16 +0000

Hi Martin,

Thanks for replying. I tried all the view modes (starting with the one you suggested), but still it fails.

Not only is the green overlay missing, it also refuses to add the corrections to the mask: it seems to do its work during painting, I then release the pen, the “busy” indicator rotates for a second, then the just painted-in correction vanishes.

I’m also not able to work on the mask the traditional way; painting black to add to the mask, painting white to subtract from it.
No black or white is added to the mask icon in the Layers Palette.

I temporarily reverted to CS4 for masking, until I find the reason for this behaviour.

Life is a work in progress anyway.

Thanks for the suggestions

Cheers
Rob

By: Martin Evening

Martin Evening — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:04:25 +0000

Hi Rob,

You need to have the Refine Mask in the ‘Reveal Layer’ Preview mode in order to see the green overlay when painting with the refine mask edge tool. If you are working with the ‘On Layers’ Preview mode you won’t see the overlay.

Martin

By: Rob Keijzer

Rob Keijzer — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:54:38 +0000

Indeed a nice tutorial and a promising new way to isolate images.
Only, when I follow the same steps, one step doesn’t work the way it is expected.

In the movie, when Martin is painting over the fine strands of hair to refine the mask, we see a green indicator colour, and when the computer finished calculation, that dissapears and the refining is committed.

When I try this, there is no green indicator, but during calculation (after releasing the pen) the correction is visible, but then seems to be undone, and leave me in the state before the correction.

I have the Layer Mask selected. Im on Win XP.

Cheers, Rob

By: siliconbeachtraining

siliconbeachtraining — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:44:19 +0000

Thanks for posting the tutorial – it’s good to see CS5 tutorials up already! We’re only just installing it today…

I’ve included your blog in my list of the best 8 photoshop blogs: http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/best-photoshop-blogs/

Cheers,
Natasha

By: Jann Lipka

Jann Lipka — Sat, 08 May 2010 05:35:57 +0000

Very nice tutorial ( as expected from Martin

One small comment :
While using “decontaminate colors” command.

Photoshop defaults for a new layer creation.

From what I understand the reason for this is that decontaminating means PS is manipulating original pixel image (colors) in non reversible way.

So maybe it is a bad Idea to get rid of the original version as a last step.
Just in case you want to change the background later on.

Thanks again for good step through video.

Regards from Stockholm.

By: robertdawes

robertdawes — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:53:43 +0000

Very helpful article. I will be playing with this later.