photography

everyday funny

Everyday quote:
…Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck. – George Carlin

Alright, so today I looked at the “ignoble” masks. The secret tool of compositors and retouchers everywhere. Frankly, I’ve always been confused by the idea of masks hiding and revealing layers. I’ve heard that “black reveals, and white conceals,” but that only confused me further. In reality, the concept couldn’t be simpler. When mask is attached to a layer (in Photoshop, that is) it is like a perfectly opaque sheet. When we paint on it with a black brush, everything that is completely (100%) black becomes 100% transparent and reveals the layer underneath it. Dark grey will reveal less, light grey less yet, and finally, a perfect (100%) white will take us right back to full opacity (opposite of transparency).
OK, so what do we do with masks? Well, for one, as I will demonstrate below, it comes really handy when working with photographs (or parts thereof) with under/over exposure, or, say, replacing a dull gray sky.