Topaz ReMask - Plug-In for Creating Masks and Extracting Objects in Digital Photos

 Most major photo editors support some form of masking, with certain applications having better tools than others. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, masks basically let you modify a digital photo so that you can choose which parts of the image are visible and which parts are hidden. Topaz ReMask is a photo editing plug-in that facilitates the mask creation process, making it easier to do the following tasks – just to name a few:

• Make the background of a digital photo or other image transparent so that it can be placed in web pages or publications.
• Extract objects from digital photos so they can be used in other photo editing projects.
• Change the background of a digital photo.
• Make better selections of objects in a photo so that particular effects can be applied to different areas of an image.

Although ReMask is marketed as a Photoshop plug-in, it's also compatible with Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro. In this review, we'll examine the capabilities of ReMask while using Paint Shop Pro as the host editor to see how well it works in that environment.

Before you can use ReMask, you will need to convert your background layer to a full layer. If you don't, you'll receive a pop-up warning from the plug-in when you try to access it, reminding you to do so. There are a couple of ways to do this – one way is to just select Promote Background Layer from the Layers menu (see below).

 For more details about layers, see our tutorial on working with layers in Paint Shop Pro.

After promoting the background layer, you can call up ReMask by selecting it from the Effects menu. When the ReMask window first appears, the photo will be covered with a green tint. This green tint indicates the area of the photo that you want to keep visible when creating your mask.

From here, you can outline the object that you want to keep with the bluish-purple Compute brush and then use the red flood fill bucket to Cut the part of the image you want to hide.

Once you've made your selections, click the Compute button to create the initial mask. Then, you can use the other tools in the plug-in to further refine your mask, if necessary. As you work, you can choose to view your image in several ways:

Image – Selecting this option will show your original image.

Trimap – This view shows which portions of the photo were marked to keep and cut as well as the edges marked using the compute brush.

Mask – This selection shows the actual mask created by ReMask.

Keep – In this view, you can see the portion of the image that will be visible when the mask is applied to the photo.

Cut – This view shows the portion of the photo that will be hidden by the mask.

Overall, ReMask is very versatile as well as easy to use. The interface is quite intuitive, and you should be able to jump right into using it with little to no time spent on help files and tutorials. If you do need some help getting started or if you want to find out more about different ways you can use the plugin, there are some excellent PDF and video tutorials available on the ReMask web site.