Compositing in Photoshop

[Don Bloom]

You can use LAYERS in Photoshop-then you can either save each layer as a PSD or PNG and bring it into Vegas OR FLATTEN the image in Photoshop and save as “…” and bring into Vegas.

I’m no expert in Photoshop but using Layers is as close to Compositing as I know of.

Don B

[Joost]

Yes, but my problem is: how exactly do I do the parent-child thing in Photoshop.

Let’s say I have two images (textures) that I want to mix. And I want to mix them using a third image (usually a greyscale image). A white pixel means: image A is visible, a black pixel means: image B is visible, a grey pixel mixes images A and B according to it’s darkness.

It’s probably a silly question, but I just can’t figure out how to do it in Photoshop, while in Vegas I would do it with parent-child technique.

[Don Bloom]

Hmmm, Like I said, I’m no expert so you got me stumped. Sorry.

Did you post this on the PHOTOSHOP forum? I’m sure the folks there could answer you question with the right info.

Don B

[Rohdew]

It sounds like you’re trying to do layer masks.

There may be a more efficient way, but here’s how I would do it:

0) Load all three images into separate layers
1) Set the active layer to be your masking layer. Select all (Ctrl-A) and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl-C). You can turn off this layer now.
2) Set the top layer as active.
3) Then switch to Quick Mask mode (Q).
4) Paste in the mask from the clipboard (Ctrl-V)
5) Switch back out of quick mask mode (Q).
6) On the Layer menu up top, select Layer –> Add Layer Mask –> Reveal Selection (or Hide Selection if you want the inverse)
7) Notice that your top layer now has two images – one is the image, the other is the mask. You can click on the mask (Should see its outline bolded), and modify it in the main window to your hearts content.

I hope that helps.

-Rohde

[Joost] “Let’s say I have two images (textures) that I want to mix. And I want to mix them using a third image (usually a greyscale image). A white pixel means: image A is visible, a black pixel means: image B is visible, a grey pixel mixes images A and B according to it’s darkness. “

[Buho]

In addition to Rohde’s post,

* Layer 2 to be masked by Layer 1
* Layer 1

Arrange 2 over 1. Hold ALT and click the line between the two layers on the layers pallette. This will display Layer 2 but MASKED by the transparency of Layer 1. You will even get a little arrow thingie and indent suggesting parent-child. This is a very handy trick that I use a lot. Keep in mind that the child is ABOVE the parent (reversed in Vegas).

Hope this helps.