Since I’ve been doing more digital art lately, I’ve really come to appreciate how easy it is to remove backgrounds using Topaz Mask.
Of course, you can remove a background in Photoshop, but I find the task harder to do and less forgiving. My hand is a little shaky these days and when I use Topaz Mask, it uses it’s artificial intelligence to compute the edges. It’s so much easier than Photoshop!
In this video demonstration, I use Topaz Mask AI to remove a background in one of my digital art pieces.
Click here to watch the video on YouTube.
Get more information and pick up a copy of Topaz Mask here: https://annemckinnell.com/topazmask
Get 15% off using coupon code MCKINNELL.
You can also pick up a free trial and try it out first.
Anne:
Very nice tutorial. I recently bought Topaz Mask AI and it is an amazing product.
Just the background blur tool is worth the price of admission.
I an not an Adobe fan because the learning curve is so steep and I do not want to rent my software for life
So I use Luninar 4. While Topax Mask AI will not work as a plug in for Luminar jt is very easy in Mask AI to export the mask and then bring it in as a new image layer at 100% opacity. Create a Luminosity mask in Luminar, copy the mask so it can be pasted into any Luminar tool that has masking.
Now I can use all the tools in Luminar with my edits on one side or the other of the mask by inverting as needed. Or creating more adjustment layers.
The good news is the mask is perfectly aligned to the source material. And the mask is fully editable In Luminar. I can even soft brush paint in just portions of the mask say the subject’s face..
I took a ten year old snapshot of a couple in Barcelona at the entrance to a concert. I took it with an iPhone 3g and it isn’t a well focused and exposed photo. For that reason I never shared ir with the couple.
But Luminar does a great job with portraits and I used the mask to do background replace (a feature woefully absent from Luminar although they already have the technology nailed in their sky replacement tool.) just dropped in a nice bokeh BG and sent them the snapshot. It would never hold up being enlarged to hang on the wall but it looks fine on a computer screen.
And their were very happy to see this long lost photo for the first time.
Hi Norm, Thank you for this excellent information about how to use Topaz Mask in conjunction with Luminar. I’ve had a few people ask me about that, so this is perfect!! Much appreciated. I think importing the mask into Luminar makes sense and is probably a better way of going about it.
Being able to easily blur the background is one of the great features of this program. Especially if you want to keep it as natural looking as possible (as opposed to doing digital art) while removing background distractions.
Thanks for your visit and comments! 🙂
Wow, this is amazing! Is the foreground a photo of trees? Love this.
Thanks Kathy! I painted on the foreground elements using a foliage brush. I’m starting to really love photoshop brushes!!
Ann, after trying AI Mask, I think Photomatix Is still a better product. I say this even though I own EVERY Topaz app going back to their beginning. Maybe another video comparing th two.
Photomatix?! Interesting. I haven’t used that program since Aurora HDR came out. The last time I used it they had selections for ghosting, but I didn’t know you could use it to replace backgrounds. I’ll have to check it out! Thanks for your comments Bob.