The
second of a series, this tutorial will teach you how to use
contrast masking to give your images and even tone, more
detail and more even
contrast.
To follow along with this tutorial you will
need to download this image:
contrast-masking.jpg
(right-click and choose: Save As)
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What is contrast masking?
Contrast masking is a developing technique, initially for
film photography, that is used to provide a more consistent
tone across an image that have overly dark or light areas.
Essentially this technique balances the tone across an
image. In the darkroom, contrast masking is a very difficult
and time-consuming task. Using Photoshop it takes only a few
minutes.
What images are ideal for contrast masking?
Contrast masking will not work on all images. It is
recommended you use it on images where distinct areas are
significantly brighter or darker than others, images that
lack definition or look to flat. It only takes a few minutes
to apply contrast masking, and it doesn't hurt to try you
can always 'undo' or adjust it if it doesn't look right. I
found the contrast masking works great on images that are
slightly under exposed. It is recommended you experiment
with all types of images to get used to the effects of
contrast masking.
When do I apply contrast masking?
I recommend applying contrast masking after adjusting
levels, prior to any color adjustments, cropping, or manual
touching up the image.
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The
image above is slightly underexposed, increasing
the exposure would blow out the highlights in
the water currents. Deep shadowing in the upper
right quadrant leads to an uneven tone across
the whole image. |
With contrast masking applied, the overall tone
of the image is more balanced. There are less
highlights and less shadowy areas. |
Applying contrast masking
Open your image in Photoshop and make
sure that your layers palette is visible. If it isn't,
choose Window>Layers or hit F7. The first
thing you're going to want to do is duplicate the background
player of the image, by hitting Ctrl-J. You will now
have two layers in your layers palette. Double-click Layer 1
and rename it Contrast Mask.
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What to do |
Where to do it |
Result |
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With the Contrast Mask layer selected
(1) in your layers
palette, set the blending mode for this layer to Overlay
(2).You will notice that the image
gains in excess of contrast and loses a lot of detail. |
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Then set the
opacity to 80%
(3). The opacity this
layer can be changed later on in order to adjust
the strength of the contrast mask. The higher
the opacity, the stronger the contrast mask. For
right now 80% will do. |
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Now Desaturate the
contrast mask layer
(4). Desaturate is found in
the image menu under Adjustments. You may
alternatively press Shift-Crtl-U. This
will remove all color from the contrast mask
layer making it now black and white.
Under the same menu, choose
Invert or press Ctrl I
(5). This will invert the layer,
and now your image will show much more detail
than the original.
What you did up to this point
was to use an Overlay layer to apply contrast to
the whole image, using a duplicated, saturated and
inverted copy of the original image to apply the
overlay to just the right spots. The problem is
that your Contrast Mask layer is much too
detailed for this contrast improvement to make
the image look better. It's bringing out too
much detail. It needs to be softened. |
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In the final step you will need
to apply Gaussian Blur
(6) to the Contrast
Mask layer. Gaussian Blur is found under the
filters menu. Adjust the Radius between 20 and
200. Keep an eye on the image preview to see
which Radius works best for your image. For
this example I used 37. Images with more
resolution will need a higher Radius.
Applying a blur applies the
contrast mask effect to the general area instead
of the exact detail of the image. The the
trade-off is that you lose some detail gained in
the previous steps, but the result is a more
realistic photo.
You may further adjust the Opacity of the
contrast mask layer to tweak its strength. |
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Final Results
To directly compare the before and after,
repeatedly disable then enable the Contrast Mask layer in
your layers palette at look at the change in the resulting
image. In the final image
you'll notice that overall detail is increased, shadows are
reduced and more balanced, in the overall brightness is
better without blowing out the highlights of the waterfall.
Contrast Masking can be a powerful tool for balancing the
exposure across an image without destroying details. It's
best that you experiment on multiple types of images in
order to find out what works best in what situation.
For more PhotoShop tutorials, visit our
Articles section.
