Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Step 11:
When you click OK, your image will now
appear on a transparent layer (as seen
here) and if you look in the Layers panel,
you'll see a new layer with a layer mask
attached (just what you asked for). You
can also see it does a pretty amazing job.
It won't get every little thin, wispy hair
strand, but it gets most of the important
ones. Also, I've got a trick or two coming
up that will help a bit more, but first, let's
do a quick check of that mask and fine-
tune it just a bit before we put her over a
different background (that's right, baby,
we're doing some compositing!). Press-
and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and
click directly on that layer mask thumbnail
in the Layers panel to see just the mask
(you can see it in the next step).
Step 12:
Now, zoom in tight near the bottom of
her arm on the right, and you can see
some areas that aren't solid white (which
means these areas will be semi-trans-
parent and that's not what you want for
her arm). So, get the Brush tool
(B)
and,
with your Foreground color set to white,
choose a small, hard-edged brush from
the Brush Picker in the Options Bar, and
then paint along that edge, right over
the grayish area, to make it solid white.
You can see some areas on the inside of
her legs here that need a cleanup, as well.
Next, press
X
to switch your Foreground
color to black to clean up that mess on
the right side of her leg where the white
has spilled over onto the black. That
should be solid black in the background
areas. For a little help cleaning up tricky
areas, switch your Brush's blend Mode to
Overlay
. That way, when you're painting
with white, it automatically avoids paint-
ing over the color black (and vice versa).
