RP LIVE: "Beauty Masking" with Chris Tarantino

[grojg]

Chis is so good! I want to see the beauty retouching webbinar again. Hope u gays air it again.

[Cyberek]

Originally Posted by cricket1961

Tony Krupers techniques are indeed similar to what I do. As I said towards the end of the webinar, there are others who do use this technique out there and I didn't think calling it the Chris technique was the way to go. The difference between what I do and what Tony does is that it can be used to select colors also not just tonal regions. I can and might get into showing that at another webinar but I thought it might be way to much info all at once to recall.

Thats exactly what I was about. I did know most of the techniques, but ability to see how You use them, and that new thing - using channel mixer to create masks was the "thing" the webinar was worth for me. But it is personal... and always risky, that one may know some of things that webinar is all about .

Still i'm waiting for Yours next webinars, where hopefully You will show the practical way of using those methods.

My advice to Doug... Maybe better info about what seminar will be all about (more detailed) would be a good idea?

[tkuyper]

I'd like to say thanks to Cyberek for noting the similarity between Chris' webinar and the tutorial I offer on my website for making tone masks, which I call luminosity masks. While I've not had the opportunity to see Chris' presentation, I appreciate that someone took the time to make the connection.

Luminosity Painting is currently my favorite way to use the luminosity masks. With this technique, the paintbrush paints in the tonal adjustment while at the same time selecting just those pixels of the right tone that need to be adjusted. The technique not only adjusts tonal brightness, but also does an excellent job of adjusting contrast. And because it's painted on, it allows very precise control. While I still occasionally use the luminosity masks on adjustment layers, I can accomplish nearly the same thing with much greater control by luminosity painting on a single layer. Once folks have a feel for how the luminosity masks select tones, luminosity painting is a natural extention in using these masks. I hope you'll give it a try.

Certainly don't want to hijack the thread, just want to provide additional information that might be helpful.

[Cyberek]

Originally Posted by tkuyper

I'd like to say thanks to Cyberek for noting the similarity between Chris' webinar and the tutorial I offer on my website for making tone masks, which I call luminosity masks. While I've not had the opportunity to see Chris' presentation, I appreciate that someone took the time to make the connection.

Hi Tony.
Its not that Chris used just the techniques from mentioned tutorials. The technique was just the base of things, that Chris showed. In short he was using luminescence masks, ekspanding and contracting them with them and other channels, but that was just mentioned and showed how can be done (connecting to Yours tutorial - he showed higlihgt masks, middle tone masks 3/4 tone masks afair, and how to make them).
For me, biggest advantage of this webinar was the idea, to use channel mixer to create maks depending on color (in basics).

[elboertjie]

Originally Posted by tkuyper

I'd like to say thanks to Cyberek for noting the similarity between Chris' webinar and the tutorial I offer on my website for making tone masks, which I call luminosity masks. While I've not had the opportunity to see Chris' presentation, I appreciate that someone took the time to make the connection.

Luminosity Painting is currently my favorite way to use the luminosity masks. With this technique, the paintbrush paints in the tonal adjustment while at the same time selecting just those pixels of the right tone that need to be adjusted. The technique not only adjusts tonal brightness, but also does an excellent job of adjusting contrast. And because it's painted on, it allows very precise control. While I still occasionally use the luminosity masks on adjustment layers, I can accomplish nearly the same thing with much greater control by luminosity painting on a single layer. Once folks have a feel for how the luminosity masks select tones, luminosity painting is a natural extention in using these masks. I hope you'll give it a try.

Certainly don't want to hijack the thread, just want to provide additional information that might be helpful.

Hi Tony,

Thank you for responding to this thread in an informative manner; I really appreciate it.

It is a pity that you did not see Chris' great webinar, as it was packed (to me at least) with lots of tips and insightful guidance. I'm sure that RetouchPro would rebroadcast it again, quite soon I believe, and it would be great if you can attend that and afterwards give your opinion on the differences between his guidance and yours. For the sake of understanding various approaches to a similar challenge.

Thank you also for the links (now deleted?) that you provided to these techniques. Chris' webinar was good, but since we cannot record it, I cannot refer back to it, so to refer to something that is recorded in written form is good.

Thanks for that.

Keep your ideas flowing!

[elboertjie]

Chris,

In your webinar, you keep referring to 'quarter tones', 'half tones' and 'three-quarter tones'; what are these?

This might be a very basic question, but I really wish to know what this is and where I can find more information about this. Is this perhaps the area of focus for the histogram where the image is concerned?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jacques

[Cyberek]

Originally Posted by elboertjie

Chris,

In your webinar, you keep referring to 'quarter tones', 'half tones' and 'three-quarter tones'; what are these?

Hopefully I will be able to answer the question. Look at the histogram and divide it to 4 parts (or 3 parts maybe). The one that is on the left - the darker one is quarter tones, the middle one is half tones, and the right one is three quarter tones. Of course it may vary a little bit in the way Chris was using and describing, but the idea is as described.
In other words, quarter tones are shadows, half tones are middle and three-quarter tones are highlights .
Ofcourse I may be wrong .

[cricket1961]

No, that was a good definition.Just off on which is which.

RGB world:

0-32 would encompass your shadow area's
32-96 would encompass your 3/4 tones with 64 being your center point
96-160 would encompass your midtones with 128 being your center point
160-223 would encompass your 1/4 tones with 191 being your center point
223-255 would encompass your Highlights

CMYK

0-12.5 encompass your highlight
12.5-37.5 encompasses your 1/4 tones with 25 as the center point
37.5-62.5 encompasses your midtones with 50 as the center point
62.5-87.5 encompasses your 3/4 tones with 75 as the center point
87.5 to 100 encompasses your shadow area's


Please keep in mind that when deciding what is what with the image you are working that THAT image decides what is what. It could be that the heaviest portion of the image is 85%. Therefore that is the shadow of the image.

Chris

[cricket1961]

Hello Tony

Techniques are very similar. You use intermediate selections/lum masks to achieve some great isolation techniques.
And the intermediate selections/lum masks are good to use in their own right.

I continually build upon resulting selections of channels to isolate further down without the use of the intermediates and to also Isolate colors for adjustments.

THe masks achieved can be used as Adjustment layer masks for cc's or to paint in specific areas for precision as you mention above about yours.

And I am glad that there was reference to you and your work. You have beautifully written instructions and examples available. While I have been using my techniques since the mid 90's, I have never taken the time to make any white papers regarding their use and construction.

By the way Cyberek, you mentioned Channel Mixer erroneously. It is actually a selective color process. I am sure you are using it the right way though.

Chris

[Andrew Lawrence]

Any dates yet on a rebroadcast for this one?

Of course I keep missing the ones I'm most interested in. Go figure.

[Doug Nelson]

It will be at least a couple of weeks away. Watch the email list for details (and make sure retouchpro.com is whitelisted by your spam filter if you haven't been getting the emails).

[Andrew Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Doug Nelson

It will be at least a couple of weeks away. Watch the email list for details (and make sure retouchpro.com is whitelisted by your spam filter if you haven't been getting the emails).

Thanks Doug!

I look forward to it.... I'll be on the lookout.

[Doug Nelson]

This show is available for rental on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7TlzFnESZU

[edd]

I've watched Chris rebroadcast of Beauty Masking webinar at the Labor Day weekend and after trying some of the techniques I've noticed the ~ (tilde) related commands do not work.

For instance, when you get into the quick mask by pressing Q, the tilde key should toggle between the mask view (b&w) and the quick mask view (image with red overlay). But when I press it nothing happens.

Does anyone know the reason for this?

I have a non-english keyboard (it's portuguese, actually) and the tilde key is at a different location. But it has always worked in shortcuts, including the luminosity selection (Ctrl+Alt+~), until a few photoshop versions back (CS3, I guess), when it changed to Ctrl+Alt+2.

I've tested all symbol keys in my keyboard thinking it could be some key mapping problem due to the keyboard layout, and none of the other keys worked. I've even changed the layout back to English International to reset the key locations and still it didn't work.

Has anyone experienced this problem and know how to solve it?

Greetings from Brazil,

Edd