Hello all! I having been trying with no luck to learn pagent retouching on photoshop. I have bought books and read everything I can find and I am having just one roblem with my layer masks. I don't know that I am doing wrong. I havedone step by step what I have read and been told to do. I would be willing to pay for some tips or lessons. This is something I really want to learn and just really need some extra help. I would really appreciate it. You can email me at iheartdesignerpurses@gmail.com

Thanks!

you have to be a bit more specific about the problem you're having...

I am having just one roblem with my layer masks.


You're lucky tiffanyr, I have scores of problems (used to have hundreds) but with Practice, Patience and Perseverance your one problem will be no more.

tiffanyr,

you are a little vague describing the problem that you are having.

Layers are a HUGE topic and nobody is going to be able to give you much help unless you are more specific on what you are trying to do with layers.

Post what you have done and you will see all kinds of knowledgeable people jump in and recommend solutions.

Hello all! I having been trying with no luck to learn pagent retouching on photoshop. I have bought books and read everything I can find and I am having just one roblem with my layer masks. I don't know that I am doing wrong. I havedone step by step what I have read and been told to do. I would be willing to pay for some tips or lessons. This is something I really want to learn and just really need some extra help. I would really appreciate it. You can email me at iheartdesignerpurses@gmail.com

Thanks!

Ok, here goes. I have opened my original image and made a bacground copy layer. With this layer I did the surface blur feature. The tutorial I was using said to then make a layer mask and simply paint over it with white to get rid of what I don't want blurred. My issue is just that.....simply painting over the layer mask. I am not seeing any changes at all. My picture at that point looks nothing like the tutorial. I can email a copy of the tutorial I am using if that will help. I guess I hav somehow missed a step but not sure how. I am wanting to do the childrens glitz pageant retouching I know most people hate that, but my daughter did pageants for years. It was something we enjoyed. I love the pics and think they are beautiful. I just want to be able to do this for the fun of it. An help that you could give would be great. Thanks!

You may have missed the part where you hold down the alt key while clicking the mask icon.. this makes a hide all mask which is black then you can paint with white to reveal the blur

I actually did that also. Is there something I may have disabled that is making it not work corretcly. Mine is doing nothing really. I feel pretty confident in the fact that I have read what everyone has to say about it and bought books and done tutorials. I feel like I haven't missed anything but I just don't understand why this isnt working for me. Its so frustrating. UGH!
Thank you all for help so far.

Is your mask selected on the blurred layer and is it black... is the blurred layer above the layer you are trying to make changes to and the eyeball showing on the layer below the blurred layer.. posting a screen shot of your picture and working layers may be helpful

I suck so badly. LOL Can you please tell me how to do the screen shot for you?? I would really love the mhelp.

Press <print screen> button when you want a copy of your screen... then (in photoshop) go to file>new>OK then edit>paste... you should now see a new picture of your screen.... now go to file> save for web... make sure it is under 100K save it and submit by going to <go advanced> here under the quick reply box... scroll down and click on <manage attachments> click on <Browse> and find the file you want to upload then click upload..

Have you checked all your parameters for the brush tool? Do you have it set to normal, opacity, etc?

Here is my screen shot. Sorry for being so much trouble. But I really want to learn and like I said I am willing to pay for lesons. Thanks!

According to your history you have applied the Gaussian blur to the background image instead of the copy.. I suggest this...

start over and duplicate your background layer twice.. uncheck the eyeball on the original so as not to harm or change the original.. there should be two layers active now.. select the top layer copy and apply the blur to it( you will probably have a lot of people say NEVER BLUR, but for now follow the tutorial you have) then select a hide all mask as you have done on the top layer and paint with soft white brush to let the blur come through.. adjust opacity of the brush for control of how much you want to see on the lower layer

Ok, Im gonna make a go of it. LOL I will get back with you and show you what I have done. Thank you for all your help

Kent Christiansen made an action "KentC Skin Fix" "Paint Soft Skin" which helps you do as you are describing.. there are three different ways in the action to do skin fixes.. the "Paint Soft Skin" is the one you are trying to emulate.. it can be found here:
http://www.atncentral.com/quicklinks.htm
scroll down to Kent's Skin fix V.1... tis in Zip format.. unzip it and add the action to the action pallet by dragging it there..

My personal feeling is it is a lot better to learn how to instead of relying on actions... BUT they can be a useful tool to help learn if you study the mechanism of how the action works

Here is my screen shot. Sorry for being so much trouble. But I really want to learn and like I said I am willing to pay for lesons. Thanks!

Something to check before you go blaming yourself. Assuming that you have done the other steps correctly i.e dup b/ground layer, apply gaussian blur to b/ground copy, click mask, invert mask, made white the f/ground colour and have your brush tool selected .........

The amount of gaussian blur you apply will depend on the size of the image .. example ... the image in the tutorial may be 500k and the suggested amount of gaussian blur to use may be about 1 or 2, if you are using a file of 6mb the amount of blur you use will have to increase perhaps somewhere in the region of 6. I usually overdo the blurring a little and then dial back the amount using the opacity slider.

The one tutorial that made layer masks really click for me was Photoshopmama's makeover tutorial. You can still view it on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/photoshopmama
Click the glamour makeover series. The best!