conclusion....
Non-Contiguous Paint/Magic Eraser
Both the Paint Bucket Tool and the Magic Eraser have a special setting called “Contiguous.” Leaving this setting on means your fill will go to work on all enclosed shapes of that particular color. Turning it off will erase every instance of that color in that layer
in the entire image. In cases where skies and random bits of backgrounds end up in enclosed parts of the image, this can be helpful, as it grabs all of it at once, reducing it to transparancy.
It doesn’t discriminate between the parts of the image you want and those that you don’t, so use with care and be prepared to with a quick Ctrl + Z to undo goof ups.
Delete:
Shortcut Key (Backspace, Delete)
With a selection loaded on an unlocked layer, a simple press of the Delete or Backspace key can knock a layer down to transparency. It doesn’t get any simpler thanthat!
Fill:
Shortcut Key (Shift + F5)
A much under-utilized tool, the Edit > Fill tool is the superpowered version of the Paint Bucket Tool that works independent of the cursor. A quick tap of Shift + F5 will bring up the Fill dialog box, where you can fill all selected areas with preselected sets of colors, or simply fill said areas with transparancy.
Because the Fill command is independent of the cursor tool, there is no way to control which colors will be knocked back to transparency, so make certain your selections are the way you want them before using the Fill tool.
To knock back to transparency using this tool, set your “Blending Mode” to clear, as shown on the right.
Advanced Methods for Creating Masks
Quick Mask Mode: Shortcut Key (Q)
Press Q to jump to Photoshop’s Quick Mask mode, which allows you to create masks using the paintbrushes and buckets. The mask color is automatically transparent red, marking the color you’re masking out, or removing. In Quick Mask mode, you can use the
Brush Tool, Pencil Tool, or Paint Bucket Tool to paint in solid colors. Since you’re technically working with a mask, you can only work with shades of gray, preferably black and white.
In Quick Mask Mode, painting black represents masked or “erased” areas, while painting white represents your image areas.
Press Q again to end quick mask mode, which will automatically create a selection from your painting.
Pen Tool:
Shortcut Key (P)
The pen tool is the go-to solution for many photo professionals that want to isolate an object quickly and easily. While the pen tool is notoriously difficult to master, skilled pen tool users can cut quite accurate selections in short periods of time. Using the pen tool, draw a vector shape around your object or objects. This can be tricky, as the pen tool is difficult. Once you finish your enclosed shape, you’ll need to find your
Paths panel to load your selection.
You’re looking for the button that looks like a Photoshop marquee that creates a selection for this path.
Vector Masks with the Pen Tool:
You can also create a Vector mask from any path you’ve drawn. Instead of creating a raster selection from your vector drawing, you can navigate to
Layer > Vector Mask > Current Path to automatically create a mask from your currently loaded path in your Paths panel. Vector Masks have the advantage of being scalable, and keeping edges clean even when artwork is blown up to large sizes. Beyond that, there’s little advantage of vector masks over Layer Masks, as vector masks seem to render masked images in a near-identical manner to raster-based Layer Masks.
Simply use whichever mask style suits you best.
Freeform Pen Tool:
Shortcut Key (Shift + P)
For those of us that dislike using the pen tool, but like the advantages of vectors, there’s the Freeform Pen Tool. This tool allows you to draw line segments in the same freeform manner the Lasso tool allows. Simply click and drag to create vector paths to become selections or vector masks, exactly like the previous techniques.
If you find you have broken line segments, you can simply switch to the Pen Tool to join them.
Vector Mask from Type Tool
One of the fun things about Photoshop, is that there’s rarely one single way to do things. In the case of vector masks, they’re not limited to paths drawn by the pen tool. Typography can also be used as a mask with this trick. Create some type of any size or typeface. Right click on your text and find “Create Work Path.” Photoshop creates vector lines around your text.
From there you can return to Layer > Vector Mask > Current Layer to create a mask from your typography.
Like last week’s how-tos, these techniques aren’t necessarily independent of each other—the beauty of Photoshop is the creative combination of all of these techniques to create interesting, easy, and fun ways to accomplish your image goals. Check us out next time, where we’ll take on Part 3 of “50+ Ways to Remove Image Backgrounds.”
Eric Goodnight
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