Description:

• Let us make a blending mask and apply it to an image.
  
  The basic idea of a mask is that it blocks out parts of images. Black will mask out everything, grey will partially black out and white will not mask out at all. This is not very academic, but that is how you would look at it, when you are a beginner. The mask, that we will make in this tutorial will allow the center of the photo to show and it will hide the edge, like in the example you see above.

Skill Level:

• Beginner. I assume you know where the tools are in PhotoImpact.

Author: Wouter Démoet.

Terms of Use: Please read

NOTE:

• Save your work often. I suggest you read the entire tutorial, before you start. And if you need help, or if you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me at wouter@demoet.nl
  

Open a new BLACK image of 400 x 400 pixels, resolution 96 pixels/inch Take your Standard Selection Tool from your Tool Panel and in the Attribute Toolbar use these settings: Shape: Circle Soft Edge: 75


Click and draw a circle of about 250 x 250 pixels, look at the coordinates in your status bar at the bottom left of your worksspace


Right click: Convert to Object. Right click: Align --- Center Both In the Menu Bar: Edit ---Fill --- Color --- White. Right click: Merge All This is what your image should look like now:


It looks like a mask, but is NOT a mask yet. To enable us to use this as a mask we need to convert this image to Grayscale. In the Menu Bar go to Format: Data Type and select Grayscale (8-bit) PhotoImpact will generate a new image. This is your mask. Close the original image, no need to save it, as it is useless. At this point you may want to save your mask in the Object Library of the EasyPalette ( If you have not done it already, create a new library and name it: My Masks or somethingk like that )


With your mask active: go to Selection in the Menu Bar and click on: Import Selection. A new window will open and it will show your grayscale mask like this:


and click OK.
Go to Selection again and select: Copy Selection to Object Library. In the new box that opens, browse to your My Masks Library and click OK. ( If you wish to do so, name it Blending Mask or something like that ). You can see your mask in the library now. Deselect the mask by clicking Enter or the Space Bar (PI7)


INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO APPLY THE MASK:

We will apply our mask to the photo now. Open the flower photo, click on it to activate it. Double click the mask in your Easy Palette. You will see the selection lines on the photo.
Change to the Transform Tool Change to the Transform Tool and click the Selection Button (see screen shot below) in the Atributes Toolbar:


Note: PI7 does not have this button, but you can see on your photo that the transform box is smaller than the actual photo.


On the Attribute Toolbar, change the numbers of the Width and Height to the actual size of the photo = 480 x 360 pixels if you use my photo. (If you use a photo of your own, change the size of the selection accordingly)


Change to the Pick Tool and use the Arrow Keys on your keyboard to center the selection. When you are happy with it: Right click: Convert to Object. With your background color set to white and still using the Pick Tool, drag your object to an empty place on your workspace. It should look similar to this now


If you like, you can close all the other images, but this one. With your flower object selected (use your Layer Manager to check it) go to
PI8 and XL Effect: --- Illumination --- Lights --- Options
(PI7 : Effect: ---- Magic --- Light --- Options) Default settings, except for Spread, change it to 40 and in the left preview box, move the left square to the position shown in the screen shot below and click OK.


Deselect the flower object. Now the white background is selected.

In the Menu Bar go to Edit: Fill. Click on the color tab and right click on the small color box and select: Color from Screen. Pick a very light shade of green from your flower image ( or any other color ). I used: #E7F0CE and click OK .


Effect: Noise --- Add Noise --- Options and use these settings:


Note: PI 7 does not have the Monochromatic Option You may want to increase the Variance to 4 or 5.


Change to your Outline Drawing Tool: Shape: Ellipse Mode: 2D Width : 1 Color: #893A3F :


Draw a shape of about 450 x 300 pixels. Right click: Align --- Center Both Right click: Convert Object Type - From Text/Path to Image. Right click: Arrange --- Send to Back. Note: Actually there is no point in doing this, because the mask has such a large soft edge. But when you use a different mask, it looks better of course). With the Object Paint Eraser Tool with the default settings, erase parts of the ellipse to suggest the ellipse goes behind the flowers, like this:


In your Layer Manger increase the transparency of the oval shape to 50%


Right click: Merge All.

Resize your image to 75%, Format: Focus --- Options. Check the Auto-adjust box and click OK. Optimize and save your work, you are done !


Note: You don't need to have a grayscale mask in your EasyPalette to be able to use it. Open any grayscale mask in your workspace with the photo you want to use it on. Make the photo active by clicking on it, go to Selection in the Menu Bar and select Import Selection and the grayscale mask will be available in the box. It will work in the same way as the method we used in this tutorial.




That is all, I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I liked writing it for you.