Project 7: Layer Masks

This was the funnest, yes a new word, the funnest project yet! I thoroughly enjoyed working with masks. I played around with masks before without any understanding or direction and never knew how powerful and useful they are. The teacher’s instructions and tutorial on You Tube was right on the money and very helpful. Thank you. Masks open up a whole new world of creativity and excitement.

My procrastination was what to use for pictures. We were instructed to use photos with tonal range, good shadows and midtones. Yesterday, as I was looking through photos I had taken I spied one of a plant taken on a rainy day and seeing as yesterday was Earth Day, I found this to be quite appropriate. I finished it today, Thursday, and we are receiving the first rain of the year in the Fairbanks area. How cool is that!

The steps to recreate Earth Day

1. Select a photo and make a copy. Hide the original.
2. From the Menu choose Select – Color Range – Shadows. Click OK
3. Click Control J to make a new layer. Rename the layer Shadows
4. Hide the background layer
5. Bring up the Fill Box and select Black and check the Preserve Transparency checkbox. Click OK
6. Hide the Shadows layer.
7. Turn back on the background layer and Select the background layer.
8. From the Menu choose Select – Color Range - Midtones. Click OK
9. Click Control J to make a new layer. Rename the layer Midtones
10. Hide the background layer
11. Bring up the Fill Box and select 50% Gray and check the Preserve Transparency checkbox. Click OK
12. Making sure the background layer is Hidden, turn back on the Shadows and Midtones layer. The Midtones layer is to be above the Shadows layer. Select both layers and from the Menu choose Layers – Merge Layers. Rename the merged layers Tonal Mask.
13. Create a new layer. Rename the new layer Fill layer. Fill the new layer with White and uncheck the Preserve Transparency checkbox. Click OK.
14. Select the Text tool and create a text box that fills the entire layer. Type Earth Day, using Tekton Pro font, size 16, green font over and over to make a line of text. Copy and paste to fill entire text box with text.
15. Add a layer mask from the bottom of the palette to the Text layer.
16. Click on the Tonal Mask layer to select it. Click Control A to select everything from the Tonal mask layer. Choose Edit – Copy from the Menu.
17. Hold down the Alt key and click on the new layer mask in the Text layer. Paste the Tonal layer into the new layer mask.
Invert the image by choosing from the Menu – Image - Adjustments – Invert.
18. Create a new layer. Fill the new layer with Green color. Move the layer next to the hidden background layer and below the other layers.
19. Create a duplicate Tonal Mask Layer and place it above the original Tonal Mask layer. This seems to add depth between the green fill layer and the original tonal mask layer.
20. Create two new layers. With the Text Tool write Earth in one layer and Day in the other layer, using Tekton Pro font, size 300, Bold, green font. Using the Move tool place the words Earth Day into the image. I also used the eraser tool to erase some of the water beads next to the plant. I was really surprised and pleased with the outcome of the final result. At first I had the words Earth Day scrolling over the whole picture. I played with the Invert command and liked this result better. I originally used a white background, but played around and ended up using a green background. I thought about erasing all the water spots, but after trying this I decided to leave them as it adds to the dimension of the overall image.

The steps to recreate Sensation

I used most of the same steps as above to recreate the second image, Sensation. I left out Steps 14 and 15, which was creating a text background. Instead I played with the gradients and played some more with the gradients. The Gradients are fun. Wasting time, I created a new layer and found a gradient concoction I liked. I then Flipped Horizontally the Tonal Mask and placed it on the left portion of the art board and moved it upwards. I created a new layer and filled it with Red and placed it below the Gradient layer. I lowered the Opacity to 35%, giving the Gradient a richer feel to it. I tried not to make it to vibrant because with the palm frond and the shape of the gradient, there is a lot of activity going on in a small space. I was trying to compliment two different kinds of movement in a congested area keeping it together. I don’t have any idea where the word Sensation came from, but I liked it. I created a new text layer and using a font called African, size 48, blue font, wrote Sensation. Using the Move tool I placed the word so the S would align up with the gradient arrows, the V shape. I had to create a copy of the Gradient Fill Layer and place above the original in order to align up the V shape towards the bottom portion of the art board. By placing the Gradient Fill Layer so low it left a blank area and that is how I corrected it. Kind of tacky, but hey, it worked. Again, I was really pleased with the end result and had so much fun with both of these projects. I am definitely going to continue playing and learning different ways and techniques of layer masks with Photoshop. Fun, Fun, Fun!!!