Masking plug-ins

G
Posted By
gowanoh
Jun 8, 2008
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582
Replies
11
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Closed
I have been trying the Mask-Pro demo for complex masking: portraits with wisps of hair.
My initial impression is that this product simply does not work as advertised. Perhaps the demo is crippled as certain functions, such as composite view and color decontamination are unavailable. Does anyone have experience with Knock-out or other products? Unfortunately not all images that one would like to composite are shot against green screens with perfectly defined edges.

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D
Dave
Jun 8, 2008
On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 11:26:58 -0700, "saycheez" wrote:

I have been trying the Mask-Pro demo for complex masking: portraits with wisps of hair.
My initial impression is that this product simply does not work as advertised. Perhaps the demo is crippled as certain functions, such as composite view and color decontamination are unavailable. Does anyone have experience with Knock-out or other products? Unfortunately not all images that one would like to composite are shot against green screens with perfectly defined edges.

This is (obvious) a Adobe Photoshop forum.
Do you have PS installed on your PC, and if, which version. Quite a view different facilities on PS make is possible.
J
Joel
Jun 9, 2008
"saycheez" wrote:

I have been trying the Mask-Pro demo for complex masking: portraits with wisps of hair.
My initial impression is that this product simply does not work as advertised. Perhaps the demo is crippled as certain functions, such as composite view and color decontamination are unavailable. Does anyone have experience with Knock-out or other products? Unfortunately not all images that one would like to composite are shot against green screens with perfectly defined edges.

I believe I checked the video of how the Mask-Pro works and I don’t think it can do the hairy thing (flying hair) pretty well. And I think depending on the image, either EZ-Mask or Fluid-Mask would do the hair much better.

And neither one is perfect so you still need your own Photoshop skill to finish the job. I don’t do flying hair but I use Mask quite often (probably around 60-70%), and if I run into some hairy problem then I may use Hair Brush to fool viewer.
GW
Graham Waiffers
Jun 9, 2008
saycheez wrote:
I have been trying the Mask-Pro demo for complex masking: portraits with wisps of hair.
My initial impression is that this product simply does not work as advertised. Perhaps the demo is crippled as certain functions, such as composite view and color decontamination are unavailable. Does anyone have experience with Knock-out or other products? Unfortunately not all images that one would like to composite are shot against green screens with perfectly defined edges.

Fluid Mask works well, but it’s not simply automatic. It takes quite a bit of fiddling, adjusting and manual tinkering, but it can deliver good results in eliminating troublesome and complex backgrounds, including wispy hair. You can find free FM tuts on-line to show you how the thing will work.


Graham Waiffers

The poster formerly known as Roger Thaat, Watson deMeneux or Jack Skwaht.
K
KatWoman
Jun 9, 2008
"Graham Waiffers" wrote in message
saycheez wrote:
I have been trying the Mask-Pro demo for complex masking: portraits with wisps of hair.
My initial impression is that this product simply does not work as advertised. Perhaps the demo is crippled as certain functions, such as composite view and color decontamination are unavailable. Does anyone have experience with Knock-out or other products? Unfortunately not all images that one would like to composite are shot against green screens with perfectly defined edges.

Fluid Mask works well, but it’s not simply automatic. It takes quite a bit of fiddling, adjusting and manual tinkering, but it can deliver good results in eliminating troublesome and complex backgrounds, including wispy hair. You can find free FM tuts on-line to show you how the thing will work.

I think I am going to give up making complex masks
you can send it to India
they do masking for about $2.50 per image
I am getting many offers for cheap retouch services
J
Joel
Jun 9, 2008
Graham Waiffers wrote:

saycheez wrote:
I have been trying the Mask-Pro demo for complex masking: portraits with wisps of hair.
My initial impression is that this product simply does not work as advertised. Perhaps the demo is crippled as certain functions, such as composite view and color decontamination are unavailable. Does anyone have experience with Knock-out or other products? Unfortunately not all images that one would like to composite are shot against green screens with perfectly defined edges.

Fluid Mask works well, but it’s not simply automatic. It takes quite a bit of fiddling, adjusting and manual tinkering, but it can deliver good results in eliminating troublesome and complex backgrounds, including wispy hair. You can find free FM tuts on-line to show you how the thing will work.

I have seen the tutorial videos as well as confirmation from users and it seems like in general the EZ-Mask handles hairy better than Fluid Mask, or each handles some photo better than other.

And just by looking at the video I can see that they may do ok for small print or displaying, but for large print or important photo then neither one is good enough for the final image (without real Photoshop skill).

And it seems like the OP is dead <bg>
K
KatWoman
Jun 11, 2008
"Joel" wrote in message
Graham Waiffers wrote:

saycheez wrote:
I have been trying the Mask-Pro demo for complex masking: portraits with
wisps of hair.
My initial impression is that this product simply does not work as advertised. Perhaps the demo is crippled as certain functions, such as composite view and color decontamination are unavailable. Does anyone have experience with Knock-out or other products? Unfortunately not all images that one would like to composite are shot against green screens with perfectly defined edges.

Fluid Mask works well, but it’s not simply automatic. It takes quite a bit of fiddling, adjusting and manual tinkering, but it can deliver good results in eliminating troublesome and complex backgrounds, including wispy hair. You can find free FM tuts on-line to show you how the thing will work.

I have seen the tutorial videos as well as confirmation from users and it seems like in general the EZ-Mask handles hairy better than Fluid Mask, or each handles some photo better than other.

And just by looking at the video I can see that they may do ok for small print or displaying, but for large print or important photo then neither one
is good enough for the final image (without real Photoshop skill).
And it seems like the OP is dead <bg>

I have not tried any of these services, but get ads weekly the prices seem very reasonable versus the time it would take to do it yourself

______________________________________________________
As a photographer you know image etching and masking is
time consuming, boring and overall painful, your time is worth more.

The good news is www.deepetch.com has arrived!

The world’s largest service provider for Photoshop
J
Joel
Jun 13, 2008
"KatWoman" wrote:

"Joel" wrote in message
Graham Waiffers wrote:

saycheez wrote:
I have been trying the Mask-Pro demo for complex masking: portraits with
wisps of hair.
My initial impression is that this product simply does not work as advertised. Perhaps the demo is crippled as certain functions, such as composite view and color decontamination are unavailable. Does anyone have experience with Knock-out or other products? Unfortunately not all images that one would like to composite are shot against green screens with perfectly defined edges.

Fluid Mask works well, but it’s not simply automatic. It takes quite a bit of fiddling, adjusting and manual tinkering, but it can deliver good results in eliminating troublesome and complex backgrounds, including wispy hair. You can find free FM tuts on-line to show you how the thing will work.

I have seen the tutorial videos as well as confirmation from users and it seems like in general the EZ-Mask handles hairy better than Fluid Mask, or each handles some photo better than other.

And just by looking at the video I can see that they may do ok for small print or displaying, but for large print or important photo then neither one
is good enough for the final image (without real Photoshop skill).
And it seems like the OP is dead <bg>

I have not tried any of these services, but get ads weekly the prices seem very reasonable versus the time it would take to do it yourself

For people with lot of masking to do, and they can’t do any better than Plug-in then it’s well worth the price. Also, I read Fluid Mask has a lousy registration method that has turned off many customers, I don’t know if they have changed the method or not but I read after paying around $300 (they may have lowered the price lately, but I believe it started with around $299) the customers will have to login to reactive the registrationevery 20-30 days if not it will turn into DEMO.

______________________________________________________
As a photographer you know image etching and masking is
time consuming, boring and overall painful, your time is worth more.

I have been doing lot of masking for many years so masking is pretty much one of the commands I use regularly.

The good news is www.deepetch.com has arrived!

The world’s largest service provider for Photoshop® clipping paths and image masking services has opened its doors to the public with our complete online solution.

Our easy to use interface and fixed pricing will enable you to focus on what you do best, saving you time and money.

Visit our site at www.deepetch.com and register for free, we will even give you three credits to get you going at no cost, so you can trial our service with no obligation.

I dunno! I am looking at the Gif Animated samples and they may need a lot more to impress me. Or I do Masking for large print not just for displaying or small print alone, so it won’t be easy to impress me.

And thanks for the link.

Regards
O
OM
Jun 14, 2008
On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:51:08 -0500, Joel wrote:

Also, I read Fluid Mask has a lousy
registration method that has turned off many customers, I don’t know if they have changed the method or not but I read after paying around $300 (they may have lowered the price lately, but I believe it started with around $299) the customers will have to login to reactive the registrationevery 20-30 days if not it will turn into DEMO.

….That’s the main reason I never bothered with FM, but there’s supposed to be like three different cracks out there that will circumvent this – two modify the plugin so it never checks, the third resets the install date each time you use it so it never expires. Trufhfully, I don’t begrudge any programmer for his efforts, but registration methods like this deserve to be busted because it assumed we’re all criminals and pirates.

OM

]=====================================[
] OMBlog – http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let’s face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[
J
Joel
Jun 16, 2008
OM wrote:

On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:51:08 -0500, Joel wrote:

Also, I read Fluid Mask has a lousy
registration method that has turned off many customers, I don’t know if they have changed the method or not but I read after paying around $300 (they may have lowered the price lately, but I believe it started with around $299) the customers will have to login to reactive the registrationevery 20-30 days if not it will turn into DEMO.

…That’s the main reason I never bothered with FM, but there’s supposed to be like three different cracks out there that will circumvent this – two modify the plugin so it never checks, the third resets the install date each time you use it so it never expires. Trufhfully, I don’t begrudge any programmer for his efforts, but registration methods like this deserve to be busted because it assumed we’re all criminals and pirates.

OM

About the Fluid Mask, I do agree with you or anyone that CRACKED version is the better way to go, and the best way is not to support it.

I can understand some expensive stuff like CAD program which costs few grands and they use Dongle protection, and many schools use the cracked version to protect the expensive Dongles <bg>
O
OM
Jun 17, 2008
On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:31:10 -0500, Joel wrote:

I can understand some expensive stuff like CAD program which costs few grands and they use Dongle protection, and many schools use the cracked version to protect the expensive Dongles

….Actually, having worked for a company that made digitizers, and having dealt directly with the suits who determine how much AutoCAD costs, you’d be surprised as to one of the two reasons behind why rendering and CAD software costs so much:

1) Professional illustrators, architects and artists can afford the costs.

2) If only professionals can buy your product, you make money on every sale but you have less costs on tech support because you’re not having to provide it to every dipshit who has no business trying to load your produce, much less owning a computer.

….It’s the second one that surprises a lot of people, because it’s not just the price gouging that’s the primary motivation for why something like 3DS or Photoshop costs as much as it does. It’s like a high cover charge at a Gentlemen’s Club – it’s supposed to keep the riff-raff out.

OM

]=====================================[
] OMBlog – http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let’s face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[
J
Joel
Jun 18, 2008
OM wrote:

On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:31:10 -0500, Joel wrote:

I can understand some expensive stuff like CAD program which costs few grands and they use Dongle protection, and many schools use the cracked version to protect the expensive Dongles

…Actually, having worked for a company that made digitizers, and having dealt directly with the suits who determine how much AutoCAD costs, you’d be surprised as to one of the two reasons behind why rendering and CAD software costs so much:

1) Professional illustrators, architects and artists can afford the costs.

2) If only professionals can buy your product, you make money on every sale but you have less costs on tech support because you’re not having to provide it to every dipshit who has no business trying to load your produce, much less owning a computer.

…It’s the second one that surprises a lot of people, because it’s not just the price gouging that’s the primary motivation for why something like 3DS or Photoshop costs as much as it does. It’s like a high cover charge at a Gentlemen’s Club – it’s supposed to keep the riff-raff out.

OM

To me Photoshop is quite cheap for what it can do. May be $600 is kinda expensive for the first time buyer, but if they are smart enough to go with the Educational way then $300 ain’t too bad. I paid $100 for mine as a bundled with an expensive scanner over a decade ago.

About the dongle protection, I believe it has been around for more/less 2 decades or so, and I am talking about many manufactures, schools use the CRACKED version because they usually license more than one copy for their employees or students. And the only way they can protect their expensive dongle is using the cracked version to bypass the dongle protection, so the expensive dongle won’t be taken home by employee or student.

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