photoshop is driving me insane... i cant do something very simple

[skimmilk68]

Okay if i wanted to do selective color on an image i would
-quick mask
-paint the part i want/dont want in color
-exit quick mask
-(inverse if needed) and then decrease saturation or whatever effect..

but i don't know what i touched but when i tried doing that today, the masked area is effected ... meaning when i decrease the saturation to convert the selected area of the image to B&W, the masked area starts to fade away with it.... same with any other effect... if i brighten up the selected area, the masked area will be a little bit brightened also...

howerver, the masking works when i use the eraser... (normally the eraser should be doing the erasing, not the masking)
what the heck is wrong with my PS

[PacAce]

I don't think there's anything wrong with PS. Take a look at the brush you are using to paint in the mask. Make sure it's set to 100% opacity. For the mask to be effective, the opacity of the bursh has to be set to 100%. Also, check the type of brush that you're using. Does it have a hard edge or a solft edge. If the edge is soft, the edge will be partially affected by whatever effect you are applying.

[skimmilk68]

its at 100% opacity, and the edge isnt soft... im doing everything the same way i've been doing ever since, except today, my PS is going crazy

[PacAce]

its at 100% opacity, and the edge isnt soft... im doing everything the same way i've been doing ever since, except today, my PS is going crazy
And what color is the foreground color set to. Make sure it is black. If it's not, even at 100% opacity, you still won't get a solid mask.

[skimmilk68]

i dont think it has anything to do with channels but i did a test to show u guys what im talking about

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/skimmilk68/example1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/skimmilk68/ex2.jpg

In example 2, i masked off section A and decreased the saturation to the rest of the pic so that i can have section B in B&W... but notice how section A loses saturation also, its not a bright red anymore..

in example 1 i masked section a, then inversed the selection. this time section B remained unaltered like how it's supposed to be but section A doesnt fully turn B&W ...

i dont know if i explained well enough but i hope you get it

[PacAce]

Just to prove my point (although you could have done this test yourself) that the foreground not being black has everything to do with the masks not behaving as you'd expect, The first image was masked using a gray foreground and then desaturated. Note that there's still color in the desaturated area.

The 2nd image was masked using black foreground color. See the difference?

[skimmilk68]

well if i tried to do what you did with your pic, everything else in the pic would lose color if i desaturate a certain spot

okay thing is i've been doing this ever since.. i personally like selective color on my pics .. but when i tried to do it today, it wouldnt "listen to me"

[PacAce]

well if i tried to do what you did with your pic, everything else in the pic would lose color if i desaturate a certain spot

okay thing is i've been doing this ever since.. i personally like selective color on my pics .. but when i tried to do it today, it wouldnt "listen to me"
You still haven't answered my question. Are you using black as your foreground color?

[PacAce]

OK, let me clarify this a little more clearly. When working with masks, the background and the foreground colors need told be black and white, respectively, or inversely, white and black. Any other color or shades of gray for the foreground or the background is going to mess up the mask unless that's the effect you are after. The best way to see if your mask is set up correctly is to go into the layers palette and deselect everything but the mask itself. You will then see the mask as a black and white layer. If it's not, the you need to redo it using either black or white to get the proper masking that you want.

[mgm]

I find it easier to use the brush tool with the mode set to color and as mentioned earlier the foreground color set to black. This eliminates the need to mask, just simply paint over the areas that you would like to have desaturated. As a rule of thumb, always do this on a duplicate layer so that the original is always left untouched and if things go wrong, simply trash the duplicate layer and start over. Hope this helps.

[Feihung08]

OK, let me clarify this a little more clearly. When working with masks, the background and the foreground colors need told be black and white, respectively, or inversely, white and black. Any other color or shades of gray for the foreground or the background is going to mess up the mask unless that's the effect you are after. The best way to see if your mask is set up correctly is to go into the layers palette and deselect everything but the mask itself. You will then see the mask as a black and white layer. If it's not, the you need to redo it using either black or white to get the proper masking that you want.
This is something drove me NUTTS for awhile too! I was just trying to add a 'Difusse Glow' and it kept taking the 'black' areas up instead of the white! Then finally I realized (about a week later! :o) that I had the black in the foreground! Oh the 'little things' that can drive you to drink!

[grandad35]

This may or may not be related to your problem.

If you double click on the Quick Mask icon, you can select whether the masked areas or the selected areas appear in color. An alt-click on the icon will also reverse the status without a dialog box, and is easy to do by accident. Is it possible that you accidentally reversed this so that colored areas now indicate the masked areas instead of the selected areas? Painting the mask with black will now deselect, not select.

Look at the little circle in the right quick mask icon. If it is gray, the mask selects the selected areas; if it is white, the mask selects the masked areas.

[PacAce]

This may or may not be related to your problem.

If you double click on the Quick Mask icon, you can select whether the masked areas or the selected areas appear in color. An alt-click on the icon will also reverse the status without a dialog box, and is easy to do by accident. Is it possible that you accidentally reversed this so that colored areas now indicate the masked areas instead of the selected areas? Painting the mask with black will now deselect, not select.

Look at the little circle in the right quick mask icon. If it is gray, the mask selects the selected areas; if it is white, the mask selects the masked areas.
I think the problem with the original poster is that he is not using a solid black or white color for his masking but either grays or other colors. And what that does is cause the effect he wants to get applied only partially instead of fully.

[skimmilk68]

^^^ ding ding ding... thanks guys

[PacAce]

^^^ ding ding ding... thanks guys

So, what was the problem?

[Feihung08]

So, what was the problem?
Yes, please tell us tell us!!!

[tim]

I do it a different way, with desaturating the image and the history brush to paint color back in. Is there a better way?

[grandad35]

With PS there are usually many different ways of accomplishing the same task. My preference would be to add a "Channel Mixer" layer, select the “Monochrome” box and adjust the color sliders to get the best grayscale image. The Channel Mixer allows you to select the best information from each of the 3 channels in the image. Before you do this, you may want to look at the quality of the image in each color channel (press <Ctrl-1>, <Ctrl-2> and <Ctrl-3> will select the Red, Blue and Green channels; <Ctrl-~> (Control Tilde) will take you back to RGB).

This will convert the image to grayscale. Invert the layer mask by clicking on the channel mixer mask and pressing <Ctrl-I>; this will convert the image back to its original color by setting the mask to black and blocking the effect of the channel mixer. Use the Brush tool to paint white on the mask wherever you want the grayscale image to appear. Using a mask has these advantages:

· It is easy to un-do/re-do the action by just turning the layer off/on.

· You can later change the opacity of the layer if the final effect is too strong for your taste.

· You can later modify the mask to add/delete areas to be converted to grayscale.

· You can layer modify the channel mixer ratios to change the look of the grayscale image to fine tune the effect after you see the final result.

· By painting the mask at less than 100% opacity, you can change the strength of the effect in local areas (to only partially desaturate the colors). You can also do this by selecting various shades of gray for the painting color (if you select a color other than black or white to paint the mask, it will be converted to grayscale as long as you are painting the mask - this is also true for quick mask).

· By selecting various hardness values for the brush, you can control (and later change) whether the transition between color and grayscale is sharp or gradual.

HTH