first post - Mask Pro

[CarlK]

Hi all,

This is my first post here.
Glad i've found a site for retouching. I hope i can contribute often here.

My question is about the Mask Pro app from onOne Software

I do alot of hair work.
Has anyone used this application?
Can you recommend it or otherwise?

[Swampy]

Carl,

I use Mask Pro. I assume you have watched the free videos on the OnOne site and they do a pretty good job of masking hair in their tutorial, but they have a pretty high contrast background to work from. Sometimes MP can do a good job, other times not. Learning curve on Mask Pro can be steep to be effective on stuff like hair.

I've recently said in another thread, that masking hair is probably the most tedious task you can do in Photoshop. Even with high key backgrounds, whispy hair is tedious. Russell Brown has an excellent tutorial on masking hair using channels.

[CarlK]

Thanks Swampy for your reply ;-)

I do alot of hair & beauty work. As you say, hair is one of the hardest masks to execute.

I'm aware of the video's, also lynda.com etc.

Do you find the workflow quick and clean?
I can use channels & so forth to do advanced clean up's after MP. Is this the best approach?

[Swampy]

Carl,

I'm not really proficient with MP and often get discouraged with it. Brush settings for removal are critical and MP can often leave aliased edges that are not what you are shooting for.

I find it works pretty well on landscape stuff. It actually did a terriific job extracting some cabbage palm trees against a very contrasty blue sky. I was amazed. On other things it's more trouble than it's worth.

The workflow is pretty straight forward. I advise to always work on a duplicate layer. I need to spend more time with it to learn the best settings though.

[mom22seans]

Originally Posted by Swampy

Russell Brown[/url] has an excellent tutorial on masking hair using channels.

I'm watching this video right now. Its great!! And, the narrator cracks me up! He sounds like a magician! Amazing! But true!! ROFL

[Swampy]

Mom, Yeah, Russsell Brown is a hoot, but after watching two or three of his cool tutes, I have to take a break. LOL

[pellepiano]

Yes, the Russell brown way is very good, although quite timeconsuming at times.
Had some struggle on the ostrich on this example =).

http://www.pellepiano.com/thread_images/struts_ab.jpg