Special Photo Software - Topaz Mask AI

Tuesday, May 13 2020
Sunny with Clouds
13 C. 56 F

     Special Photo Software

Please click here to visit this excellent software

On occasion, I like to "extract" or remove an image against a distracting or dark background and place it against a white background.  I was using the old Photoshop, but it was arduous (labour-intensive) to do so.The current Photoshop is much easier, but you have to rent it by the month.

I discovered Topaz Labs Mask A1 while searching the Net for something easier and simpler to work with, and discovered the Topaz Labs website. I had tried their software before on a 30 day trial, but that was a while ago, and they didn't have Mask AI  at the time, or it was not as user-friendly as it is now.

So what I'm going to do  is to demonstrate how I extracted an old toy from Bertoia Auctions that was against a dark grey background, and placed it against a white background. Personally, I prefer white because it's brighter, and it presents the toy best on white.

* All toy photos are copyright 2020 from Bertoia Auctions. 

Please do not use without their written permission.

Victor Bonnet Boy on Scooter

Tin Lithography

Cotton Clothing

Length:  8 1/2". 215 mm

A nicely-photographed toy

against a grey background

When you open up a photo in Mask A1 the image

below is what you see.

The Blue (Compute) colour is used to paint the edge of the toy 

that defines what area inside is to be kept. The bucket icon is used to keep larger areas.

The Green (Keep) colour is used to paint (outline) or fill (bucket) to show the program where the border (edge) is, so as to allow the Program to compute how to keep that item.

The Red (Cut) is brushed or filled by the bucket to have the program

remove these unwanted areas.

You can make the brush larger or smaller with that horizontal slider.

When you open up a photo in Mask A1, the entire photo is coloured green

defining that the entire photo is to be kept.

However, the blue brush will be used to define what exactly is to be "captured".

In the photo below, I've used the  paint brush to "capture"and define the

boundaries of the boy on his scooter.

With all of the screen mostly green, all of that are will be removed.

Therefore we have to define the boundaries or area that will be removed (cut out)

I used the red bucket and brush to define what is going to be removed

and in this case, be replaced by a white background.

All 3 coloure need to be used in order for the pprogram to extract any part of an image.

I f you don't use all 3 colours, a warning will come up, informing you

that the program will not be able to compute the removal 

of the part of the photo being asked to be removed.

Now, we are ready to proceed, and remove

the boy and scooter from the grey background.

THe computer program is programmed to know that blue and green define 

what will remain, and  red will be removed.

All you have to do now is

to press the blue "Compute Mask" button.

Once that is done, the program will

compute the removal of the toy and place it on a checkered background.

And within 20-40 seconds, this is what you will see. Of course, the time that it takes your computer to extract the toy, will depend on how much memory your graphic card has, how much RAM memory your computer has, and how fast the CPU processor is! If your  computer is 10-15 years old, you may or will have problems with the program!

The image below is what you get.

The new image will be saved as a PNG or TIFF ( I have no idea what those file extensions are).

The scooter and boy will be against a white background, wherever you save it. However,

opening it up in Photoshop, you will get the checkered background. This can be corrected by simply flattening the image in Photoshop. Just viewing it on your screen, it will be against the white.

In the checkered mode, it is hard to see if you've "captured the item perfectly,

or if your brushed some parts. 

In the white mode you can see what area have been missed.

 opening 

T;'ooi

Below are arrows that illustrate the areas that AI didn't do well

You can always continue to work on your photo and re-mask it many times, 

until you get what you want.

There are other windows that will present

the image in 4 ways. That image is below.

You can examine the 4 different smaller windows to see what

areas need to be improves. Looking at the silhouette of the white toy against the black background shows you my "errors" from a different viewpoint. These 4 images also represent ways

to make your photo even better, but I'll

leave that alone.

There is a lot to learn in this program. I've only "introduced"

this program to you and shown you how well the program can perform.

Of course, no program is perfect, and there will be times, when you have to

"struggle", or go to Photoshop for an easier way to complete your image to your liking.

However, once you learn this program, you'll have lots of fun.

Also, there are lots of tutorials on YouTube to help you learn the program,

and on its' website,  Topaz also has  tutorials and forums to help you with.

And on a final note, you can download the program to use for 30 days

just to learn how well you like it!

Thanks for visiting,
and as always,
have a great part of the day or night,
and be safe.

I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com
Stacey Bindman