Layer Masking on Corel Paint Shop X3?

I've only had a DSLR for about 6 months now. I do a lot of automotive photography and would like to edit the car/sky/landscape separately in PP. I find a lot of tutorials for CS4/5 (can't wait to get it someday).

I know how to select/feather. But I hear masking is much more productive.


If anyone has any tutorials or links on here that'd be great. I know newbies asking the same question over and over can be really annoying to senior members.

Even some tipes on multi-layer editing would be helpful. Right now my editing simply consists of curves/levels, color saturation, and color tone. I've heard that using multiple layers can really make an image "pop" so to speak.

Taylor02GT wrote in post #10461484
I've only had a DSLR for about 6 months now. I do a lot of automotive photography and would like to edit the car/sky/landscape separately in PP. I find a lot of tutorials for CS4/5 (can't wait to get it someday).

I know how to select/feather. But I hear masking is much more productive.

I'm not sure what you're asking. You've made a selection, maybe with the lasso tool, and you want to promote it to a layer?

After making the selection choose Selection > promote selection to layer. Or you can make a selection, invert it, and promote that part (that wasn't the selection) to a layer.

Don't worry about that. First off, just about everyone is glad to help. Secondly, there's very little about PSP anyway - not many users here.

-js

Well I always here about "mask layers" to edit portions of a digital picture. Its basically making the rest of the photograph invisible to the edits.

I've read tutorials but they aren't explanitory enough. The selection always leaves a hard line, even when feathered, and creates a halo around the object or area.

Even some tipes on multi-layer editing would be helpful. Right now my editing simply consists of curves/levels, color saturation, and color tone. I've heard that using multiple layers can really make an image "pop" so to speak.

Taylor02GT wrote in post #10462087
Well I always here about "mask layers" to edit portions of a digital picture. Its basically making the rest of the photograph invisible to the edits.

I've read tutorials but they aren't explanitory enough. The selection always leaves a hard line, even when feathered, and creates a halo around the object or area.

OK, we're talking about the same thing. I use PSP XI, but it's not much different from X3.

If the image is full sized I usually feather my selections by 10 pixels, a compromise between sharp-edged selections and extraneous junk beyond the edge.

Then I promote the selection to a layer and edit the background and new layer separately. For example, I might sharpen the new layer (containing the subject) while applying noise reduction to the background. Or reduce the brightness of the background.

Some difficult shots require several selections, which would each have its own layer.

-js