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Masking with Channels

 

This week’s tutorial deals with creating masks for complicated images by using channels.

Corey Barker

Corey Barker is Executive Producer of PlanetPhotoshop.com and is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Corey has also made numerous appearances on the highly rated podcast, PhotoshopUser TV, and is co-host of Layers TV.

60 Comments

  1. Arvid said on — February 12, 2010 @ 5:58 pm

    Awesome, thank you. I’ve never really figured out how it worked until now :)

  2. Ganjubas said on — February 12, 2010 @ 6:33 pm

    very usefull! Thanks.

  3. Ryan said on — February 12, 2010 @ 7:05 pm

    Thanks for hitting this topic! It’s really helpful. Using the Multiply Blend Mode is brilliant! I’ve used this technique before and have run into issues at times where my parts of my subject and the background both come out the same tone of gray in the Alpha channel. The overlay brush become relatively useless at that point. Any suggestions on how to make accurate selections in this scenario?

  4. Ethan said on — February 12, 2010 @ 9:33 pm

    Wonderful tutorial. I agree that Channels is the best way to do more complex things. For simpler things I like the pen tool.

  5. Luke said on — February 12, 2010 @ 10:18 pm

    amazing corey, simply awesome

  6. Luke said on — February 12, 2010 @ 10:30 pm

    btw, why didnt you just use levels in the first place?

  7. Eddie said on — February 13, 2010 @ 3:46 am

    this tutorial was great! wished i would of seen this when i 1st started… great stuff!

  8. Kole said on — February 13, 2010 @ 4:41 am

    cool thing about Corey is that he add a little humor in every tutorial….btw nice job ;)

  9. Radomir said on — February 13, 2010 @ 7:09 am

    Awesome! Very helpful!!!! Thank you very much.

  10. Tom said on — February 13, 2010 @ 10:21 am

    Another useful set of tools are Dodge and Burn. Set the Burn to Shadows and work on the blacks in the mask and set the Dodge to highlights and work on the whites. I’ve been using the calculations for the past six months or so. Works wonders.

  11. Arthur said on — February 13, 2010 @ 10:48 am

    Outstanding. Very detail. Cheaper than a
    third party plug-in, it’s always there.
    Long overdue.
    Thank You

  12. Eric said on — February 13, 2010 @ 12:11 pm

    How do you change the gray background to a picture? not the picture, but the background of the actual program.

  13. sharpless said on — February 13, 2010 @ 2:01 pm

    very nice!

    I always want to know how they rendered it..

    THX

  14. Bjorn said on — February 13, 2010 @ 2:48 pm

    Well this is good when you have a solid background with a whole other light than on the subject but if there is a shadow or anything around the edges of the subejct that connects it to the background in a toning way, it doesent work that well.

  15. Erik said on — February 13, 2010 @ 4:54 pm

    Thank you for posting this, this is going to be a very useful technique.
    A true time saver.
    Your tutorials are great, thorough and easy to understand.

    Erik.

  16. Amanda said on — February 13, 2010 @ 8:05 pm

    Great! And I love how your voice isn’t boring :)

  17. Rated Design – Creating masks for complicated images by using channels Pingback on — February 13, 2010 @ 11:34 pm

    [...] Source: www.planetphotoshop.com [...]

  18. Jason said on — February 14, 2010 @ 1:16 pm

    Sry, meant Picture. None of them have had the right amount of snow

  19. RastaRican said on — February 14, 2010 @ 3:42 pm

    Very well done, I actually tried it and got it on the first try.
    Gotta love Spaces on Leopard, made easy to go back and forth.

  20. debbi said on — February 14, 2010 @ 6:57 pm

    I wish you’d see the movie “Tell Tale” and then do a tut on the movie poster!

    I just finished watching the video on Law Abiding Citizen, great tut! Love this one too!
    Thanks
    Debbi

  21. Hector Perez said on — February 15, 2010 @ 11:48 am

    one of the best and useful tutorials I’ve seen, thanks for sharing!

    HP

  22. zur4ik said on — February 15, 2010 @ 11:56 am

    awesome tutorial. Thanks :)

  23. Nick Johnson said on — February 15, 2010 @ 1:05 pm

    Just when i think u did enough u come out with this awesome tutorial that, i would say 98% of the ppl have trouble with, is not only amazing but easy to do. Just keep up the good work.

    Thanx for this tut.

  24. Said Abdullah said on — February 15, 2010 @ 1:16 pm

    Dear Admin,
    Thanks a lot about the nice website and cut information what you provided to us really its amazing corey, simply awesome also i want share my colleagues in from your website complete and free full DVD photshop Training videos ad an other software its free for graphic designer a gin thanks
    take note website link : http://www.ebooks.allnewthings.com

    Kind regards,

    Said Abdulllah

  25. Said Abdullah said on — February 15, 2010 @ 1:18 pm

    Dear Admin,
    Thanks a lot about the nice website and cut information what you provided to us really its amazing simply awesome also i want share my colleagues in from your website complete and free full DVD photshop Training videos ad an other software its free for graphic designer a gin thanks
    take note website link : http://www.ebooks.allnewthings.com

    Kind regards,

    Said Abdulllah

  26. jason said on — February 15, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

    Yes i agrre selecting with channels is somtimes very usfuel but i wish u wouldnt always use the best passible image for doing things like this to show someof the more problams ppl get with day to day shots

  27. RAZ said on — February 17, 2010 @ 1:57 am

    I WAS WATCHING WINTER 2010 OLYMPIC AT NBC. IN THE BEGINNING SOME TIME NBC SHOWS SPORTS FIGURES INTO ICED BLOCKS FRAMES.WHICH LOOKS BEAUTIFUL.IT IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU PRO TO FIGURE HOW THEY DID ,MAKES,CREATED, THEM.
    AND OF COURSE MAKE A VIDEO.
    I KNOW YOU CAN DO THAT..
    YOUR BIGGEST FAN,
    RAZ

  28. Akis Douzlatzis said on — February 17, 2010 @ 9:08 am

    Amazing corey…simply amazing..

  29. Janet said on — February 22, 2010 @ 11:02 pm

    Thank you, that is an awesome video. This will help me will my project for college.

  30. Kata said on — February 23, 2010 @ 11:22 am

    very cool.

  31. Pulse said on — February 24, 2010 @ 12:26 pm

    Awesoome! You’re The Best!

  32. peace1994 said on — February 26, 2010 @ 11:43 am

    thats i like to snow borard

  33. Guillaume said on — February 28, 2010 @ 11:59 am

    Fantastic, very helpful, as always!
    Many thanks

  34. Dave said on — March 1, 2010 @ 6:47 pm

    Thanks, this is something I need to work on for lifting models off my studio background, you did a good job with this tutorial.

  35. Kaycee said on — March 1, 2010 @ 6:48 pm

    Great tut, I can’t wait to try it on one of my images! Keep up the great work!

  36. Marianne said on — March 1, 2010 @ 7:03 pm

    Absolutely fantastic, Corey. Thank you sooooo very much.

  37. Michael C said on — March 1, 2010 @ 8:09 pm

    Good stuff Cory! I totally forget about the calculations panel sometimes.

  38. shome said on — March 5, 2010 @ 8:01 am

    Big thanks for this and your other tuts! They are very awesome. I understand now about alpha channels.

  39. Abdul Akbar said on — March 6, 2010 @ 3:10 am

    Thanks Core,

    That was really a nice tutorial for removing complex backgrounds.
    What really like is the little cool trick of unlocking the layer ;)
    I really love Photoshopusertv.com as well.

    Keep it up good work,

    321webdesigner
    http://ruakbar.deviantart.com

  40. Gary Fredrick said on — March 10, 2010 @ 1:40 pm

    I enjoyed this. A lot to digest and channels and calculations have always been part of Photoshop and a very powerful one at that. We can also duplicate our images and change the mode (Lab, CMYK etc.) to find mask candidates and calculate them into the original doc.

  41. dub bylan said on — March 10, 2010 @ 2:41 pm

    you can turn the alpha channel into a selection more easily by just clicking one the little picture of the alpha channel while you press the Cmd/Ctrl button. channel masking rules!

  42. Eddie Galarza said on — March 10, 2010 @ 3:12 pm

    Wow, thank you so so very much Corey. I am very grateful to you for sharing this tutorial.

  43. Amanda said on — March 10, 2010 @ 4:23 pm

    Bookmarked for future reference :D You are a good teacher Corey, you make the complicated make sense!

  44. Alex said on — March 10, 2010 @ 6:46 pm

    Looks so easy that I’m gonna try it ;-) Thanks for sharing!!

  45. Jessica L said on — March 10, 2010 @ 6:48 pm

    Ahh, thank you so much! It took me forever to select something out of a photo before, but this really helps me for the future :) thanks again ~

  46. Ann said on — March 11, 2010 @ 8:50 am

    Thank you so much. This is a great tutorial.

  47. Andy Bundock said on — March 11, 2010 @ 2:30 pm

    So gonna be using this in future. How many times have I had to really quick and dirty rough visuals with dodgy cutouts to put in front of a client explaining that it will be finished properly in final a/w.

    Wicked tutorial, more please.

  48. TonexBot said on — March 11, 2010 @ 4:42 pm

    WoW.. That’s so awesome ^_^
    I never thought it could be extracted from there…
    It would be impossible.
    But you made it Possible man…

    NICELY DONE!

    Many Many Thanks to you!

  49. BonFire said on — March 11, 2010 @ 9:35 pm

    I knew this technique yet, however the video is an exacting one with excellent quality!

  50. Murli said on — March 17, 2010 @ 7:35 am

    Great!!!!

  51. Ricardo said on — March 17, 2010 @ 7:02 pm

    Oh… Very thanks Corey. This stuff is great i waste so many hours of work doing this in different ways.

  52. David W. said on — March 23, 2010 @ 10:07 pm

    Corey this is great! Thanks for the awesome steps, this will definitely improve my rendering skills. :D

  53. Andrew W.L. said on — March 28, 2010 @ 10:53 am

    I’d been burning and dodging the alpha channel for more precise selections but this masterful use of the blending modes is pretty exciting. Thanks for the introduction to the calculations tool, too.

  54. Mihai said on — March 29, 2010 @ 4:39 pm

    You are really good at this! Thank you very much! As Amanda said “Bookmarked for future reference” ;)

  55. Eric Braun said on — April 7, 2010 @ 8:28 am

    Fantastic!! tnxs, Corey

  56. Haige said on — April 8, 2010 @ 7:33 am

    any idea why is my extraction result always has a bit of transparent effect in some area ? (especially Black coloured area)

  57. zema said on — April 11, 2010 @ 6:08 am

    how you set the blue baground on your workspace

  58. chegayda said on — April 26, 2010 @ 10:45 pm

    cool tutorial and cool website.. :)

  59. jlennon555 said on — August 26, 2010 @ 12:32 pm

    awsome i think this could help in complicated situation ….100% good manner of selecting

  60. Garry said on — January 7, 2011 @ 9:53 pm

    Top class video, Thanks.

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