I'll give this video a look-see tonight at home. I found some info on the web last week on how to add a channel to a mask. It seemed to work some of the time. It involved a few easy clicks. Was using it to denoise on a separate layer - then inverting it to sharpen using a TLR sharpening tool. CS4 made it quite easy. I wasn't always successful - when I did a edge mask it sometimes loaded to the layer mask as a B&W photo (little contrast). We'll see how your video works out.
But this is what the doctor ordered!! Can't wait. Thanks!!

I suspect I was one of the folks that prompted this video. Regardless, it was, as always, a wonderful, straight forward explanation of the subject and really makes your actions make more sense to me.

R/Jim

http://jmlphotography.smugmug.com/

There have been a couple this week. Several over the last few months. Yesterday was a productive day at work and for the site. Imanaged to cut four videos (I just have two tiny segments to do tonight) on layer blend modes, the video on masks, and the new LOMO presets for Lightroom and ACR.

All in all, a good 24 hours. ;)

Incredibly useful video - it helps anyone interested in harnessing the power of layer masks for improving noise reduction and sharpening. The video mentions clicking on the alpha channel while pressing down on the CTRL key (PC). One can also simply click on the "Load Channel as Selection" icon ( a round jagged circle) in the bottom of the Channel panel. Many ways of doing the same thing in PS.
One question however: after the alpha channel is converted to a selection it loads automatically to any new adjustment layer. Why doesn't it do this when one creates a new layer using the TLR Landscape Sharpener? The TLR Landscape Sharpener creates a new layer. I end up adding the selection to the sharpening layer mask by clicking on the "Add Layer Mask" icon on the sharpening layer. Not a big problem.

I'm pleased that many people find the video helpful.

You're right, you can use the tiny icon at the bottom. Force of habit, I almost invariably use the keyboard shortcut. You're rightt, Photoshop is very flexible. Usually more than one way to get a task done.

The TLR Landscape Sharpener is a creative sharpener. It does not generate any masks. If you have one from creative sharpening or some other reason, you can certainly recycle it, just as you suggest. ;)

Thank you for clarifying something that has been frustrating me for some time now. I'm still somewhat uneasy about the whole subject of channels, but I've got to risk asking dumb-sounding questions if I'm going to move forward. So...if I want to further modify the mask, say via edge refinements like blurring, is this something that can/should be done before or after loading the mask as a selection? I have experimented with various commands with the alpha channels and ended up making a confusing mess of things...

Thanks again!

Robert

No dumb questions here.

You ask a good question, too.

There are tools for adjusting selections. For example, you can feather a selection. This is pretty much the same thing as applying Gaussian Blur to a channel.

I prefer to adjust masks rather than selections. That means I make my adjustments to the channel, then I load the channel as a selection.

With a layer mask, I can make the adjustment directly on the mask. Click on the layer mask. Any changes to the mask will be immediately visible on the image. If you want to see what's happening to the mask, alt/option click on the mask.

I'd like to join that club of pleased viewers, but my new Win7 PC and fresh download/install of Quicktime 7 aren't allowing me to view the video.

I was accustomed to using the old mask script tool that generated a visual of the mask selection in CS2. Too many learning curves and obstacles to deal with all at once! 

keesindy

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