TLR Edge and Surface Masks
Submitted by mitch on Thu, 11/06/2008 - 19:27.
TLR Edge and Surface Masks is a useful collection of Photoshop actions for generating edge masks and surface masks.
- Edge masks are a useful addition when you sharpen an image. You can use stronger sharpening settings without increasing the visible appearance of digital noise when you keep your sharpening limited to edges.
- Noise reduction tends to soften image features. By using a surface mask, you can keep noise reduction where it is needed -- the surfaces of your image with gradients or large areas of nearly uniform color -- and keep it away from the edges where it can soften image features.
Conventional edge and surface masks use contrast in tone (i.e., luminosity or brightness) to define the edges in an image. The TLR Edge and Surface Masks action set includes actions for luminosity edge masks. However, it also includes a unique set of edge and surface masks that start with the customary luminosity edges and enhances them by also including edges with differences in color (even though they have the same tone). Enhanced masks take longer to generate and require more resources while the actions run, but they do pick up detail missed by the conventional luminosity masks used by sharpening tools like PhotoKit Sharpener, Focal Blade, etc.
You also have a choice of four widths for the masks generated by the TLR Edge and Surface Masks action set. The general purpose default is Medium width. Bit for portraits and softer subjects, there is a Wide width. Very fine details can be obscured by a broader mask, so there are also Narrow and Extra Narrow width masks, too.
The actions in TLR Edge and Surface Masks are compatible with images in RGB, CMYK, L*a*b, and Grayscale.
Generating masks can be time consuming, especially when filters like Median are used. To speed operations and save resources, the mask is generated on a flattened duplicate of your image that is converted to 8-bits per channel. The result is then copied back to your image. Your original is unchanged.
When you run this action, make certain that no additional images are open.
The TLR Edge and Surface Masks action set is compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS/CS and with earlier versions of Photoshop.
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When I try this action I
When I try this action I can't tell if anything happened. Is it supposed to create a separate layer with the edge/surface mask? After I run it on an image there is still the one and only background layer. And there is no mask.
For what it is worth, I run it on a 16 bit image converted from a 30D RAW file. Must it be run on an 8 but image? I use 64 bit Vista and CS4.
Re. When I try this action
The TLR Edge and Surface mask toolkit makes masks. Those are alpha channels.
You can find them on the Channels palette.
The mask will have no visible effect on the photograph until you load it as a selection and then apply it as a layer mask for some sort of adjustment to the photograph, like a sharpening layer, a noise reduction layer, etc.
Channels work with 8-bits, 16-bits. OS doesn't matter, either.
Go to the Channnels palette after you run one of the actions. Look for the mask. That way, you can confirm the actions do work. Then get yourself a good book on Photoshop and read about layer masks and selections to learn how to use them. ;)
Re. When I try this action
I'll have a brief video this week that demonstrates how to take the masks from the TLR tools and use them to edit photos.
I'll also add a FAQ entry about it, to make it easier for people to find.
Re. When I try this action
I added the video tonight.
http//www.thelightsright.com/UsingTLRMaskTools
I hope it helps!
Mitch
Update to TLR Edge and Surface Masks
I posted a maintenance update tonight for TLR Edge and Surface Masks. It fixes an unreported bug with one of the mask actions.