ProCreative > All Reviews > Software > Graphic design > Professional image editing > Mask Pro 4 Review

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 Mask Pro 4 Review

Remove foreground objects from cluttered backgrounds with familiar painting tools

Karl Hodge

Manufacturer: onOne Software
Pros: Selection and masking capabilities, online tutorials make learning easy
Cons: Still requires a degree of skill to get the best results
Min specs: Photoshop CS2/CS3, Photoshop Element 4 or later
Price: $159.95 (£83)
Star rating:

Let’s say you have a picture of friend with unruly hair or a furry coat. As long as there’s sufficient contrast between the subject and its background, creating a mask is a cinch. Using a familiar eyedropper tool you select a range of colours in the image you wish to keep. Next, you switch the Drop tool to select colours you want to mask off. To remove the background you then simply paint it out. You may have to go back and make some adjustments to get your selection right; the tool will remove busy background elements, leaving your foreground intact. As you paint you can audition your new background with a key press.

With some images you can skip the painting stage altogether and double click on the paint tool instead. This automatically makes a mask for you using the colours you originally chose. If the automated process doesn’t quite cut, simply select additional colour in the areas that remain unmasked and reapply. That’s not all though. There’s Mask Pro Select too – a tool that enables you to create Pen Tool selections just as easily by simply tracing around the edges of objects.

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