The Power of Masking

Masking, or the process of protecting portions of an image, used to be an entirely manual process. In ancient times ”that is, prior to the introduction of Photoshop ”one of the most common methods of altering a photograph was to paint it with an airbrush. Air-brushing required a person with a steady hand and a razor -sharp knife . A piece of transparent frisket film was placed over the entire image. The artist slowly, carefully , and gently (so as not to damage the photo) cut a hole in the frisket to expose the area of the photograph to be painted. The exposed portion of the image was painted , and the areas where the frisket remained were protected. The frisket was then peeled back to reveal the colored shape of the hole.

Photoshop CS offers an arsenal of tools and operations that give the user versatility and control unimagined in that bygone era. The selection tools range from purely manual, such as the Lasso, to semimanual, such as the Marquee, to semiautomatic, such as the Magnetic Lasso, to fully automatic, such as the Magic Wand. Each selection tool is designed to hasten the masking process, depending on the characteristics of the image. Because images vary in contrast, tonality , color , and content, Photoshop provides tools and methods that can be applied to every possible situation. Nevertheless, making selections is undoubtedly the most labor- intensive and time-consuming of all Photoshop operations. In many situations, one selection method is insufficient and several must be combined to define the target area. Often, other selection techniques will be employed in combination with the tools for greater accuracy or to isolate a tricky area.