Photoshop CS4: What’s New and What’s Missing in Masking
Author of this post: Tara MacKay | About Blog Authors »Extracting detailed objects from a background can be a tricky thing in Photoshop, particularly when dealing with fuzzy edges like hair, fur, and leaves of trees. The Quick Selection tool and the Refine Edge feature introduced in Photoshop CS3 go a long way, but there are more powerful solutions…
Personally, I’ve been a fan of the Extract filter for a while. With it, you use a “highlighter” to roughly define the edge of the object you wish to extract, and Photoshop comes pretty close to what you’re looking for. The results can be a little rough or jaggy, but usable or easily fixable in many cases.
Extract makes quick work of this tree, though it does leave me a bit of cleaning up to do.
Sadly, it seems Extract didn’t have too many fans… it’s not part of the CS4 release. But, if you have been a happy user of Extract in CS3, you can copy it from your CS3 plug-ins/filters directory and place it in the same directory for CS4. When you relaunch CS4, it will be sitting happily in your Filter menu.
An even better extraction of an object can be done with layer masks, which have always been a little misunderstood in Photoshop. In CS4, layer masks are a bit friendlier thanks to the new Masks panel.
Taking the same tree example, I begin by making a selection of the area I wish to extract. You can use any selection tool you like for this or a combination of them, same as any detailed selecting you routinely do. It’s OK if it’s a bit rough.
: Marching ants surround the tree I'm about to extract using a mask.
Now I head to the Masks panel and click the “Add a pixel mask” button. I immediately see the extracted tree and transparent background, and can carefully adjust the edges with the Feather slider and the Mask Edge button.
My tree is ready to place over a brand new background.
The beauty of this method is that you can modify the mask any time. Click on the black and white mask in the Layers panel, and your Masks panel will invite you to make any adjustments that you’d like.
I can’t entirely understand the loss of Extract in CS4, but layer masks aren’t quite so misunderstood for me now, and they will finally work their way into my regular Photoshop routines.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:03 pm
is there a book or something for beginning photo shop people?
thanks
December 7th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
what is the differences between CS3 and CS4?
I still use CS3 for my computer.
thanks
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
thanks you for good information about masking
December 25th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Thanks for the information about masking layer’s and for solving the mystery of what happened to the extraction filter.
How long did it take you to get the hang of this new method and do you ever use the extraction filter anymore?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Dammit! why take things away? i used to love the extract tool, great for cropping animals etc but anyway, thanks for the top with the masking tool, i never really understood it either so i guess it breaks a habit.
Good work!
@Dennis: lynda.com have a great tutorial site, you should try this
Shelton
April 17th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Thank you very much,
A little more and i go uninstall photoshop cs4 of my computer, but with your help, i copy the filter extract from my «old» cs3 and i have now extract with cs4 !!!
Me too and don’t understand why adobe remove this filter in cs4 edition ?
Maybe for the cs5 XD : «New Photoshop, with new fonctionnality like Extract !!!».
April 29th, 2009 at 9:44 am
I still use the Photoshop CS4. Thanks for this information for given.
Thanks.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:11 am
What is difference between cs3 & cs4?
Please reply me
May 26th, 2009 at 6:57 am
Many thanks for this great post.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:44 am
Good tips, thanks.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
thanks for sharing this wonderful post.came to know what features are available in photo shop CS4
June 13th, 2009 at 8:37 am
hi, great post. Was just fiddling around the whole program. extract has been a great tool for me.
Abhi - photoshop CS4 is an upgrade to CS3, especially if you do complex tasks like 3D apart from photo editing
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