Masking and 2-Zone and 3-Zone transformations

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phototransformations
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Masking and 2-Zone and 3-Zone transformations

Post by phototransformations »

I love the new 2-zone and 3-Zone transformations! I was never able to figure out how to implement them manually, following Den's detailed instructions, but the transformations are a breeze to use. However, one question, which I fear the answer to is "no" but hope it is "yes" or at least that there is an easy workaround. Is it possible to manually alter the mask created by the transformations? For instance, I have an image of a birch tree that is on an almost-white background. Limiting the highlights to the background area will work for turning the sky completely to light, but it also will result in some highlights on the tree itself becoming too light. I'd like to be able to modify the mask so that it excludes the tree portions but leaves in the background. I realize I could create a new image which includes the too-light areas of the birch tree, then composite it with the original image in "darken" mode and mask out everything except the parts of the tree that I want to be as dark as the original, but it would be nice to be able to modify the mask itself while doing the transformation.

Thanks,
David
jsachs
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Re: Masking and 2-Zone and 3-Zone transformations

Post by jsachs »

Not within the tranformation - as with any transformation you can create a mask manually and use Composite to blend the transformed image back into the original image with the mask to restrict the effect to certain areas.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
phototransformations
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Re: Masking and 2-Zone and 3-Zone transformations

Post by phototransformations »

Okay, that's what I figured when I played around with hit. A future enhancement might be to allow users to open the Mask transformation and make changes to the transformation-generated masks (or at least to save those masks) so that they can be edited for future use.

Best regards,
David
den
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Re: Masking and 2-Zone and 3-Zone transformations

Post by den »

Previous PWP5Beta posts have indicated a desire to utilize the tone range masks of the 2/3-Zone Adjustment transforms as well. Extraction of these masks and forming them into both symmetrical and asymmetrical tone range mask types is possible but perhaps as manually intensive as deriving them directly with the Mask Tool... but perhaps the 2/3-Zone Adjustment transform approach is easier for some to visualize.

A 'first draft' method is here: http://www.ncplus.net/~birchbay/tutoria ... /index.htm
phototransformations
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Re: Masking and 2-Zone and 3-Zone transformations

Post by phototransformations »

Thanks for taking the time to develop this mask extraction technique. However, it seems more complicated than I can tackle. Some way of directly accessing the Mask tool from within the transformation would seem to me to be the most obvious way to make the tool even more flexible, or some way to save the masks from within the transform once they are tweaked as needed and then brought back into the transform, as you can bring masks into most other transformations.
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