Tutorial - Seamless Blending | Summer School 2021: Week 2 ART CLASS

Welcome back to week 2 Art Class of Summer School (July 12-July 18)!
(FYI: Week 2 store sales coinciding with the classes are Art Journaling + Mixed Media, Ephemera, M3 old kits, Stamps)

More Masking/Blending!!
I have done a few tutorials in the past of using masks for scrap book pages. Tutorials on simple blending of photos into a background, and another photo blending technique for an MOC7 challenge which I have linked below:

Simple blending of photo into background:

https://the-lilypad.com/forum/threa...-photo-into-the-background.49733/#post-910318

Blending photo technique:

https://the-lilypad.com/forum/threads/blending-photo-technique-from-moc7-day-4.61267/

Both of these techniques are great for Art Journaling and layout creation having fun with painting.

Today I will be showing you another technique …how to do seamless masking. Before we get to that, I just want to refresh with you what a mask and a clipping mask in Photoshop/ Photoshop Elements do.

So, what exactly does a Mask do? Just like you would wear a Mask to a costume party to hide your facial identity, the Mask tool in Photo Shop does exactly the same thing without damaging, or changing the original element or photo. This is wonderful as you can change things at any time if you are not satisfied with something you did. You can also delete the layer mask totally, and you will be back at your original image. Once you start playing with Masks (if you haven’t already), you will find it/them, to be a go to tool in your Tool Box arsenal! (A white mask “reveals” and a black mask “conceals”)

The Clipping Mask is such a fun tool as well, and there is so much that can be done with it. There are infinite uses, and you will just need to play and experiment to experience it!

Clipping Mask: A clipping mask is an attached layer. The layer is clipped to the layer below and will not expand past the layer below’s boundaries. This feature is available in CS3 (and above), and PSE10 & above versions of Photo Shop Elements. (alt + ctrl + G is the shortcut)

I like the clipping mask for use in adjusting photos etc. I can clip an adjustment layer just on the item I want the adjustment to apply to instead of the entire layout. This can be done with anything you want to clip. The clipping mask will clip the item to the layer below and mask the out-bounding area.

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Now on to our lesson today on Seamless masking

Seamless Masking using Gradients (Done in Photoshop but can be done the same with PSE)

I like to play and have fun with different things that are in Photoshop and PSE. Today I will show you how to use masks to blend a few photos together. In addition, I will also combine that concept with using a “Custom Shape”, so the shape is like a photo frame for the blended/masked photos.

Photoshop already has a default stash of Custom Shapes available, however I wanted to make a destination page using the state of Virginia shape and some photos taken there, to look like a postcard.

You can either use a cut file like Scrapping with Liz of your state or country, or find a shape you want to use in your stash. [Liz has this great template of my state of Virginia that I would need to fill in for a solid shape, so I will use a shape of Virginia that I already have in my Custom Shape stash.]

Let’s begin!

Create a new workspace.

1) Start with a workspace [width= 3750 pixels x height= 2500 pixels - 300dpi and white background] so it will be like a large postcard.

2) I have set my foreground and background colors to the default Black and White. With Black as my foreground, I am going to select the Custom Shape tool and choosing the state of Virginia, draw the shape on a new layer.




3) Once I placed my shape in the center, I used “ Bebas Nueue“ font to type the state name Virginia, and placed that next to the base of the state so it would flow and appear that the name is part of the state shape.



4) Gather the photos you want to use. I am using 3 photos… One (King Neptune), I will duplicate and use in the text as well.


5) All of these photos I am placing in layers above the state shape and “Clipping” them to the shape by highlighting all photo layers in the layer pallet and using the keys Alt+Ctrl+G on a PC, (or Opt+Cmd+G on a Mac), at the same time. This clips the photos to the shape.



As you can see I duplicated King Neptune and clipped it to the text Virginia so the photos will be exactly in the same spot. Using your Ctrl key (on PC) or Cmmd key (on Mac) I selected the 2 Neptune layers and at the bottom of the layer pallet I chose the first icon the “link” to link those photos, so that when I move them to place to fit them, they will move together for alignment as I want the photo to blend right into the word/title.

6) The 3 photos I have used are overlapping and clipped to the state shape. We definitely need to rotate the middle and left photos to angle the way the shape is. Also I am going to rearrange the photo layers by moving the beach layer up above the boardwalk one, after rotating.




7) As you can see they overlap quite a lot. Here is where the blending and masking come in to play. We are going to use a soft round brush to mask. On the 3 photo layers that are clipped to the shape, we want to add masks to. At the bottom of the layer pallet, the 3rd button in (to the right of the fx) is the mask button. Select each photo layer that is clipped to the shape and click on the mask button to add the mask to each one. There should now be a white box next to those 3 photos in the layer pallet.

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8) Once you have your masks ready, we will now use the soft round brush and starting with the first photo, and the foreground color as black, make sure you will be painting in the white box. You will see the little frame shown around the mask (as reflected here in the above photo) showing you are working on the mask and not the photo. Paint black where the photos overlap so it will blend seamlessly. Do that with each layer.



9) As you can see the mask reflects in the area painted with black the masked out portions of the photo so it blends together.

10) Once it is blended as you wish, decorate the rest of it, and add a shadow. More text, or whatever you wish, to make your page a lot of fun.


Here is my finished page that to me looks like a great destination vacation page:



[Credits: Paula Kesselring’s Seaside elements (Life preserver, crab, star fish, 2 shells & seagulls) Allison Pennington’s Beached (sand castles & sand dollar). NBK designs Sandy Beaches ( sand clusters & overlays from ABP1 & 2) fonts: Bebas Nueue & Passengers Script]

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You can do this same technique with papers too, to blend two papers together.

Just use a gradient on the mask going from black to white and paint in the mask on the one paper and it will blend it for some great fun. You may have to do the gradient flood fill a few times undoing etc. to get it as you wish, but just play and have fun.

1) Set your foreground & background colors to the default Black and White (Short cut is the D key) making sure black is the foreground.

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2) Under tools, choose the Gradient Tool (It is bundled with the paint bucket tool) (Shortcut key G)

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3) When you select the gradient tool it will reflect the gradient in the tool bar. To get the tool box to change selections double click in the gradient. (Second one in) That will open the gradient editor.


Gradient editor:

Most of this is default and no need to adjust. Just make sure you are choosing under Basic the Black to transparent Gradient.

4) Select the two papers you wish to blend together. In my example, I am using 2 papers by Rachel Jefferies from her June 2021 M3 Add on Bundle Incomparable solids 1 & 7. Add them to your work space.

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5) In the layer panel is the 2 papers. The beige paper will be the base, and we will blend the green into the beige with the gradient. Add a layer mask on the green paper layer by choosing the mask icon in the layer panel. That will add a white box to the green paper layer.

6) In the mask you will click on the gradient tool and place the cursor to the left edge of the green paper mask and drag your cursor towards the center. This will mask out the left edge of the green paper and have it appear that it blends in with the beige paper for a seamless transition.

Here is the 2 paper example. See the gradient in the layer mask? Then you can see where the papers are overlapping each other the mask blends the one with the other to have it blend from one to the other. (My layer panel shows the papers clipped to a shape, but this can be done with no clipping for the entire workspace.)




The bottom photo reflects the blend.

The same can be done with photos… Here is 2 photos from pexels.com blending them together to create a new photo, just like we did with the shape but using the gradient tool instead of a soft brush.





As I said, you can do this with lots of things. Papers, Photos, paints… Have fun blending!

PSE Screen shots

Here are 2 screen shots with PSE to show the gradient with editor and then the mask on the paper layer in the layer panel. Have fun!



Drag the gradient from left to a bit over the middle of the workspace as reflected in the mask.


I hope you enjoy this and I hope you have fun with these blending techniques!

Also: Screen shots here reflect using clipping masks and brushes and reversed masks.

 

You are welcome.. I love blending a lot with a soft brush, masking and gradients I do that in many of my pages

 

glad you will try it Jennifer

 

Thanks Lisa.. Yes I do too re the shadow on top of photos.. the gradients are great for page bends too

 

Thanks Ona Me too re Masks

 

Have fun and enjoy it Ferdy.. I love the black to transparent gradient masking Especially to blend papers together!

 

oh my goodness Vivi.. hope you will be ok.. definitely get some rest with your hand.. have a glass of wine and chill Hugs my dear.

 

Thank you Farrah!

 

You are so welcome Grace... I am happy to help!! Have fun Grace!

 

You are welcome Amber. I use them a lot with photos or papers too... check out the additional 2 tutorial links...
Also: if you have a black mask (reversed mask) on say the photo and use a soft round brush or even a canvas style brush and you paint in white on the mask it will allow you to "paint in" your photo/paper where you want it for that blend effect too... I did that here on these pages:

You can paint on the layer below your photo/paper (or use a purchased mask or paint transfer) and use a clipping mask to clip your photo


or you can do the paint in the reverse mask


painted (or a purchased mask) on layer below and photo clipped:


And with the painted in reverse mask:




Have fun!