Bryce and Photoshop

Masking, Continued

When you have completed the masking of the image, you are ready to see just how clean and sharp it is by checking it in the Alpha Channel.

With the selection active, click the Channels tab on the Layer Palette.
Click the second icon from the left to save the selection as the Alpha Channel
Click the Alpha Channel to view the masked photo in the Alpha Channel so that you can clean up the mask.
Using white, paint any white areas that look as if they have some transparency.
Inspect the black areas. Using black, paint away any white areas visible.

As you can see in my Alpha image, I have some cleaning up to do. If these places are not cleaned up, the 3D program will show them as either artifacts or unsharp edges.

As a matter of fact, this mask was particularly difficult to clean up. I decided to make a second image, used the magic wand to select the black, invert the selection and copied the masked image to a new background and resaved the selection as an alpha channel image. I was able to get rid of every remaining artifact in the mask by reworking the mask in the new image. You will notice this when you see the Bryce picture panel on the next page.