The onset of Photoshop opened up infinite possibilities of modifying images and allowed creativity to flourish in photo editing. Starting from professional photographers to ordinary people, almost everyone is aware of Photoshop and the boundless advantages it has to offer. In this article, we shall learn how to do contrast masking in Photoshop CS6.
- The first step, as always is to upload the image into Photoshop. Then we duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl + J to make a duplicate background layer. Press Shift +U to desaturate the newly duplicated layer.
- The next step is the inversion of the duplicate layer. For doing this, Click on Image>Adjustment>Invert and this step is of utmost importance in Contrast masking.
- Now we change the mode of Blend to ‘Overlay’. This can be done by pressing F7. Then select the duplicate layer and finally change the mode to Overlay.
- The penultimate step is applying the Gaussian blur to the image. Click on Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Then set the value of radius between 10 to 20 pixels and then click on
- The final step involves adding a layer mask to the image to change the colour tone of some specific portions of the image such as the sky. Press F7>Add layer mask. Now press B to select the brush tool. White is the foreground colour and to change it to the background colour, press X. Then set the percentage of hardness value to 0%. Now keeping the background colour as black, brush the region you want to bring it to the old colours. Now we are finished with the process of contrast masking.
The process of contrast masking is thus a very easy process as seen from the above steps. To master carrying out the action on images, beginners must practice the above steps sequentially and systematically. This will make the process a child’s play to be learnt and mastered.
