> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ OCTOBER 2019[ 96 ]
FAKE IT ’TIL YOU MAKE IT
This issue, we’re going to focus on using custom brush settings for masking when you need to work
quickly. Anyone who has been working with masking for a long time will tell you how important it is
to understand your brush tools. There are a powerful set of controls related to the various types of
brushes that can help you fake your way into the right selection or mask that you need.Painting with custom brushes, such as the grass brush, is
often a great way to isolate things based on the edge tex-
ture of the subject you want to mask/select. You can use this
same grass brush technique to mask fur on an animal, or
maybe to help blend the edge of a mask on a beard or hair.
There are many options, but the technique is fast and effec-
tive because of the variance created by the Jitter controls on
the brush that matches the texture of the image. (More on
this later in the article.)
Say that you want to isolate the lower section of grass
from this Adobe Stock image—the part of the grass image
that’s in focus, showcasing the most texture. Using the Lasso
tool, or any traditional selection tool, would be challenging
and time consuming. So we won’t use a selection tool for
this at all!or soft round brush, but there are settings for each brush
that allow you to adjust the dynamics relating to that brush.
After you’ve selected your Brush, go to Window>Brush
Settings (or press F5) to open the panel, which is all about the
controls for the selected brush. (It’s different from the Brushes
panel, which gives you a gallery of your available brushes.)If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked
version of this image to follow along, click this link,
log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library
button. Double-click the image in the Libraries panel
(Window>Libraries) to open it in Photoshop. To make it
easier to work with the image, increase the resolution of
the practice file. (We normally don’t recommend enlarg-
ing images, but this is only for practice purposes.) Go to
Image>Image Size, turn on the Resample checkbox, set
the Height to 2,000 pixels, and click OK.FAST FINISHING
To learn how to be fast at this technique, we’re going to use
the Brush Settings. Choose the Brush tool (press B on your
keyboard). By default, you’ll usually work with either a hard,©Adobe Stock/konradbakWe’ll focus on one very important area and one impor-
tant concept for this technique.SHAPE DYNAMICS
Click on the words “Shape Dynamics” (in the list on the left),
and you can control several settings. Some are more dynamic
than others, relating to hardware tools like a graphic tablet
and pen (such as a Wacom); and others are just rendering
intents for the chosen brush.MARKHEAPS
The Perfect Selection