› › THE PERFECT SELECTION> KELBY ONE.COM
[ 91 ]This is a great utility when you’re trying to sharpen details
in such things as hair, eyes, edges on product shots, or land-
scapes, but don’t want to damage the blending in smooth
areas like skin or skies.
Although that sharpening mask is really helpful, you
can’t bring it into Photoshop from ACR and Lightroom via
any feature in either program; it only exists with the RAW
editor. If we “Think Different” about how we build masks,
there are actually some more abstract approaches that can
accomplish a very similar result completely within Photo-
shop. [Note: See closing paragraphs to find out more about
Apple’s “Think Different” slogan.—Ed.]
FILTERS FOR SELECTION TECHNIQUES
We have lots of filters in Photoshop, many of which are little
programs (plug-ins) that run within the program to accom-
plish different production effects. A couple of commonly
used filters are Gaussian Blur and Unsharp Mask. Some
filters can be used to create interesting image effects that
could be used to generate a layer mask to isolate edits, such
as sharpening. A key step in this approach is to apply the fil-
ter to a duplicate of your image, and then use that duplicate
image as a reference for a layer mask or selection.
In the Filter Gallery (Filter>Filter Gallery), there are sev-
eral different types of artistic effects, paint styles, etc., many
of which are from early versions of Photoshop, and thesecan be really handy for making a selection mask. For exam-
ple, look at the results above of the Stamp filter found in
the Sketch set. It already looks a lot like a layer mask.
This is just one of many options with which you can
experiment to quickly target details in an image. We often
think of filters as something to use for “special FX,” but
they’re just another tool that targets certain types of data
to output a programmed result. If you “Think Different” in
regard to these features, you might start seeing the results
as a potential mask or selection.REPLICATING THE MASKING SLIDER
FROM ACR AND LIGHTROOM
Let’s try and re-create the approach that we see in ACR and
Lightroom where we want to target the edges for sharpen-
ing and not sharpen the out-of-focus areas.Step One: Press Command-J
(PC: Ctrl-J) twice to make
two duplicates of your origi-
nal image layer. Double-c l ick
the name of the first dupli-
cate layer in the Layers panel,
and rename it “First Copy.”
Rename the second duplicate
“Second Copy.”ALL IMAGES BY MARK HEAPS