Make Your Own Mask
This tutorial is the property of hollys closet.com and is for your pleasure. You are welcome to link to it but do not claim it as your own.
What you'll need:
- PSP (I use version X but this can be done in any version)You can get a preview copy of version X2 Here
- A picture of your choice preferably one with great contrasts. My two images are photographs I took, the first of a peony in my garden and the second of the ceiling of a botanical garden greenhouse. You could also use a tube but whatever one you decide to use be sure you have the artist's permission to use their work and always remember to credit the artist on your tags in the fashion they require.
- Where a tool is used more than once, all settings will remain the same unless otherwise stated.
This is really a very simple thing to do and if you've chosen a well-defined picture it only takes a couple of minutes
Step 1
Open your picture in PSP
Resize the photo to no more than 500 px on one side.
File/Save As your final file name.
Remember to save often.
Step 2
There are a couple of ways to change the photo to black and white.
Image/Greyscale
or Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Both set to O.
Step 3
In most cases that will be all you need to do, but if there isn't enough contrast you can:
Adjust/Brightness/Contrast
I used -18 and 50 for the peony and -28 and 100 for the greenhouse roof.
Step 4
You can also just use an image without making it grey scale as stated in my Simple Mask Tutorial
The original picture [Photo by hollyscloset.com]
Greyscale
Image after Brightness/Contrast settings
The Mask Result
And the final tag
Here is the image I used for the mask in the title tag. [Photo by hollyscloset.com]
Try it, I think you'll like it.
