Mask help in Photoshop CS3.

[keithdunlop]

Masks are still an area that are a steep learning curve for me and I need a

little help.

 

I am trying to create a 1" border around an image that is desaturated with a

simple opacity adjustment. I have no trouble making the selection with the

Rectangle Marque tool and using the Inverse command to protect all but the

border area. Now how do I adjust the opacity on the just unprotected border? I

have tried applying a quick mask and adding an adjustment layer, but all I

really want to do is adjust the opacity of the unprotected border area.

[patricklavoie]

1_use a layer adjustment HUE SATURATION

 

2_desatured to -100

 

3_Fill the white mask with black (edit > fill > black)

 

4_Use the rectangle marquee tool to select the area you want

 

5_Inverted the selection

 

6_Add some feathering (in need)

 

7_Fill this area with white

 

8_Deselect

 

9_Adjust the amount of desaturation with the layer opacity option.

 

Seem difficult and long when explain but should take you second to do.

You can even create a action for futur use.

[Ray House]

Do your selection of the border, go to selection - save selection, once saved do a

Ctrl J to copy selection to a new layer. Click on the original layer to make it active, Go to selection - load selection. Once loaded hit delete. Click on the copied layer and adjust opacity to suit.

[keithdunlop]

Thank you Patrick and Ray! The only problem I ran into was that when saving the selection it adds a new channel and the Command J shortcut is grayed-out in the layer menu. With a minor modification to Ray's workflow, I came up with something that works perfectly:

 

1. Make the desired selection. In my case, a fixed size rectangle marque one inch smaller than image dimensions.

 

2. To fix selection to center of image, create horizontal and vertical grid lines at 50% each. Snap to grid.

 

3. Select > Inverse to change selection to border area only and protect image center.

 

4. Save selection. This adds a new channel with mask.

 

5. Highlight the new channel.

 

6. Edit > Copy.

 

7. In layer tab, create New Layer.

 

8. Edit > Paste.

 

9. Adjust opacity to border area of image to taste.

[Ray House]

Glad you were able to get the effect you wanted, I forgot to mention that you might want to try inverting the border, sometimes this makes a nice effect also. Best to you, Ray