Using Layer Masks for Silhouettes

Topics covered in this Photoshop tutorial:

The Magnetic Lasso tool, More practice with layer masks, The Refine Edge dialog, Color Fill layers

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

We will use a Layer Mask to remove the background from around a picture of a hat. Layer Masks offer the most editing flexibility and they are non-destructive. This exercise also involves importing into InDesign. You can do most of the steps if you don’t have InDesign, but you will not be able to finish the exercise.

Selecting the Hat

1. From the Photoshop Class folder, open the image hat.tif.

   Notice how part of the hat’s brim is not in focus, and some areas of the background are a similar color to the hat. With a combination of selection tools and layer masks, even a challenging silhouetting task like this is a piece of cake!

2. Choose the Magnetic Lasso tool .

3. In the Options bar, make sure it has the following settings:

   Feather:	0 px
   Width:	10 px
   Contrast:	10%
   Frequency:	57

4. Click once along the brim to start the lasso selection. (Do not click and hold.)

5. Move the cursor along the edges of the hat, and the lasso will lay down points along the path as the cursor moves. Keep in mind the following tips:
   • When you reach a corner or tricky place, click to manually place a point.
   • Press Delete (Mac) or Backspace (Windows) to back up and delete points that have been placed incorrectly.
6. When you reach the end, place the cursor over the first point, so it changes to a  and click to finish the selection.
7. In the Options bar, click the Select and Mask button.
8. In the Properties panel on the right, click on the thumbnail next to View and double–click On Black.
9. Set Opacity to 100%.
10. In the Edge Detection section, make sure Radius is set to 0 px.

11. In the Global Refinements section, set the following:

    Smooth:	10
    Feather:	0.5 px
    Contrast:	0%
    Shift Edge:	Around −40%, but experiment with what looks best for you.

12. In the Output Settings section, make sure Output To is set to Layer Mask.
13. Click OK.

14. In the Layers panel, notice the Background layer has been changed into a regular layer with a new name (Layer 0) and a layer mask has been added.

    NOTE: Background layers cannot be transparent or have layer masks, so the Select and Mask feature converted it into a normal layer for us!

15. In the Layers panel, double–click the Layer 0 layer and name it hat.
16. At the bottom of the Layers panel, click the Create new fill or adjustment layer button , and from the menu, choose Solid Color.
17. Choose black and click OK.

18. In the Layers panel, click and drag the Color Fill 1 layer below the hat layer.

Cleaning Up the Edges

There may be spots showing through from the old background, and the brim edge should be softer. Let’s start by fixing the top part of the hat. Later we’ll fix the brim.

1. In the Layers panel, double–click the Color Fill 1 layer’s thumbnail .

2. Set the following RGB values:

   R:	0
   G:	70
   B:	100

3. Click OK.

4. In the Layers panel, click the hat layer mask .

5. Select the Brush tool .

6. In the Options bar, choose a small-sized, fairly hard brush. We recommend about 8 px diameter and 90% hardness. This size will let you get into the corners nicely.

   Make sure Opacity and Flow are set to 100%.

7. Press D to set the default white and black foreground and background colors.

8. Press the X key to switch the foreground/background colors so the foreground color is black.

9. Paint over areas where you see the original light background color around the hat (zoom in as needed). This will remove it, kind of like you are erasing it.

10. As needed, reduce the brush size to get into corners, etc.

11. If you removed any parts of the hat and want to reveal them, remember:
    • Paint white over any parts you want to reveal (like the hat).
    • Paint black over any parts you want to hide (like the background).
    • Press the X key to switch the foreground and background colors.

Finishing Up

The front and back of the brim are blurry in the photo, but the edge of our mask makes them look crisp.

1. Select the Blur tool .

2. In the Options bar, choose a medium-sized soft brush (about 40 px, 0% hardness).

3. Click and drag to blur the edges of the brim in the front and back.

4. In the Layers panel, select the Color Fill 1 layer.

5. Drag it to the Trash button to delete it. Now you should be left with a transparent checkerboard background.

Importing the Image into InDesign

To save this file, we need to choose a file format appropriate for InDesign.

1. Go to File > Save As.

2. Navigate into the Kissimmee Brochure folder (inside the Photoshop Class folder).

3. Set Format (Mac) or Save as type (Windows) to Photoshop and name the image yourname-hat.psd. Click Save.

   NOTE: TIFF can also work, but you must check on Save Transparency.

4. Launch InDesign.

5. From the Kissimmee Brochure folder, open the InDesign file Brochure-add hat.indd.

6. Choose the Selection tool .

7. On the bottom left, click on the empty rectangular picture box.

8. Go to File > Place.

9. Choose yourname-hat.psd and click Open.

10. Go to View > Display Performance > High Quality Display.

11. Zoom in and examine the blurry, semi-transparent parts. Very nice.

    Enjoy your work—you’re done! Because we no longer need this file, close the InDesign file and do NOT save changes.