The effectiveness of your retouching is directly correlated to how well your mask. Because there are so many tools at our disposal for developing and refining masks, we frequently overlook those that are the most fundamental and practical.
One of them is quite concealed, and it appears that many people are unaware that it even exists! Nevertheless, it is most likely one of the most effective alternatives to modify a mask and make your alteration show through in a manner that is more natural and believable. It’s called the feather option, and I’m going to demonstrate how you can put it to use with a practical scenario right now.
It is not overly difficult to create a realistic vignette; nonetheless, the borders of the vignette need to be blurry in order for it to appear natural and work in harmony with the rest of the image. The manner in which the feathers are arranged is also very important.
Before I learned about the feather slider, I always utilised the gaussian blur tool to make my masks seem more realistic. It does what has to be done; but, it cannot be modified at a later time and it is not the most practical approach either. The feather slider will perform precisely the same function as the gaussian blur effect when applied to a mask; however, it may be modified at any moment.
You’ll find the choice on every layer that has the capacity to have a mask. Let’s add a vignette to my picture by making a curve layer and applying it to it. I’m going to begin by making a selection that encompasses my model, and after that, I’ll proceed to make the necessary adjustment layer.
We can make the vignette using our newly formed curve by simply pulling the RGB curve down to make the selection darker. This will give us the desired effect.
Because I chose to focus on my model when I created the layer, you can see that the portion of the picture that has a darker appearance is her. Simply selecting the mask and then pressing the cmd/ctrl+i keys will invert the selection.
It appears to be moving in the direction of the outcome I had envisioned. The transition from my modification to the remainder of the image, on the other hand, is much too sharp. The feather slider will become useful at this point in the process. You may access it by hitting the mask icon that is located next to the curve in the Properties panel while the mask is active or you can access it directly from the Properties panel.
It is as simple as opening the Gaussian blur filter and choosing a radius to apply the effect. There is nothing more involved that makes it difficult. When you move the feather slider, you will see the effect immediately, both on the picture and the mask you are working with.
And if we compare the image before and after the vignette was added, we can see that the adjustment is powerful enough to make the model more significant in the frame, but it is not so severe that it seems strange. This can be seen by comparing the before and after versions of the image.
For instance, when compositing numerous photos together, if the edge of a selection is too harsh, you might use it to soften it up a bit. This would be useful in situations when the edge of a selection is too harsh. The work you generate and the masks you build are the only things that will determine how you utilise it.