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Posted
16 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

The images you have used are stunning, Sharon.

Thank you Jeni 🙂  I meant to mention that they are AI generated in Midjourney 🙂

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Posted

I wish I could say I love masks.....but not yet!  I'm struggling with all the steps involved.  Does it ever get to be second nature???  I guess it comes down to ...practice, practice, practice (and some ðŸ«¢words).   Here's my lesson 1 layout.  It took me so long yesterday that, unfortunately, my grandsons are now teenagers! ðŸ«£

Grand-Sun Fun600.jpg

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Posted
10 hours ago, Sharla said:

Sue very kindly explains the difference better than I can. The robin in the UK is a very popular little bird who really comes into his own at Christmas time when he is featured on cards and absolutely everything else Christmas. 

Sharla in the Netherlands we have the same Robin and they are everywhere for Christmas too. I was quite surprised when I visited my daughter when they just had moved to the States and noticed a different kind of Robin. Sue was enlightening me on the how and why they were different.

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Posted
8 hours ago, Cristina said:

-Affinity-

At first, I considered using some of my photos, but I didn't feel inspired to create anything with them.   Instead, I chose to use pictures of the famous internet Bald Eagle Couple, Jackie and Shadow, and their eaglets, Sunny and Gizmo.

The pictures are from the internet, and the official site is Friends of Big Bear Valley.

The clipping mask is straightforward in Affinity, although completing this Workshop in PSP a few times made it easier as well.

Also, having Cassel's ClipToIt Script helps a lot.

Background paper by JustJaimee-Gesso textures

 

 

.Day1 Clipping Mask600.jpg

Nice idea to use those rather famous eagles! I have seen those posts about them on the internet.

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Posted
10 hours ago, Sharla said:

I absolutely love how colourful and fun these layouts are. Fantastic.

Thank you Sharla 🙂

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Posted
4 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Sharon, these are incredibly beautiful.  I love the colors and richness in them.  

Thank you so much Susan 🙂

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Posted (edited)
47 minutes ago, Sharon Murray said:

Thank you Jeni 🙂  I meant to mention that they are AI generated in Midjourney 🙂

You must be really good at describing for the AI.  I tried and got something a 4 yr old might draw 😞.  Either way, they are so cool   

Edited by Susan Ewart
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Posted

Day 1 - On a rainy day during our Fredericksburg vacation, we took a day trip to the National Harbor MGM casino in Maryland. I took these photos in the Conservatory of the current exhibit called DMV in honor of DC, Maryland and Virginia. The butterfly and the flower were hanging from the ceiling. The font is a layered Rainboho from CF. The typing is a CF font called Typefont. In PSP, I made my own mask because I couldn't get the effect with the original mask. I used the clip to it script which saves so much time and effort. 

afdsdmv600.jpg

dsdmv600.jpg

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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Sharla in the Netherlands we have the same Robin and they are everywhere for Christmas too. I was quite surprised when I visited my daughter when they just had moved to the States and noticed a different kind of Robin. Sue was enlightening me on the how and why they were different.

The North American Robin is also a  migratory bird, they nest  in  Canada, returning south to much warmer climes for the winter . Although there are some that decide to winter in Canada, feasting on native berries, just like those that decide to stay year round in the states.    I do have my uses you know!!! lol 

Edited by Sue Thomas
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Posted

Day 2: Created in Affinity. I made the plaid tile but didn’t like the plaid effect so just enlarged the tile to create a pattern across the page.

 

Day 2 600.jpg

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Posted
4 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Lesson 2- in Affinity

I used a mask from Jessica Dunn called Into the Wild. I have a lot of her masks but I choose this one because my photo has landscape orientation. The mask worked again so simple! But I had 2 other problems with this page. For making the plaid I had to select a 1 pixel rectangle! However that wasn't doable with my unsteady hands and I ended up with a 2 pixel one with every try. That was the point that I decided to cheat a little bit and I first resized that 2 px layer to a 1 px layer but still with the same width it had. After that I could resize again following the lesson. One problem solved but there came another problem when I wanted to have some paint behind my text. I have done so many times in PSP and after looking at the lesson I thought that it was a piece of cake. Sadly NO, so I looked again at the video to check if I had missed something but I just did it as in the video and still had no paint if I brushed on a separate raster layer. In the end I discovered that there is a setting in the top right corner of the brushed toolbar which for me is hidden (I work on a laptop). By clicking on a tiny arrow at that point there is a checkbox protect alpha! It was checked, after unchecking I could paint under my text to make it a little bit more visible. If anybody has this same problem, this is the solution.

MaskWorkshop-Lesson2-600.jpg

Your layout is beautiful!  Here is a tip that might be easier.  There is a column marquee and row marquee selection tool and they are only 1 px in thickness.  There is also a transform panel (windows, transform).  If you select too many pixels, you can easily change it here.  You can also set rotation and other things in this panel.  There are choices so you can choose what works best for you.  Hope this helps! 

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Posted

Day 2 in Affinity.  I kept the font the same and will try to do so all week.  These woodpeckers are huge and they love suet!  They come right in our front yard within 6 feet of the house.  The male has the full red crest and a red "mustache" where as the female only has a half red crest.   The plaid seems a bit intense, but I do like the colors!  Thank You Carole for the directions on creating the plaid!

Mask day 2 lady 600.jpg

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Posted (edited)

Dash the Beagle was rehomed through the Beagle trust  he belonged to our son and his wife but he would give the children a nip if they went near his toys, they were so sad to see him go but the couple who have him now have had beagles for 20 years. The last beagle they had they had to put a lock on the fridge door as she could open it, they fell in love with Dash in an instant and took him back home with them, the main photo is Dash at his new home looking like he belongs there. I enjoyed learning new things in this lesson like making the patterned paper, the font used was Baby Garland. I kept the plaid background dark as I thought it showed up the mask layer  more.

Dash3.jpg.44ec776efb85a5f2446e61c30190629c.jpg

Edited by gwen jewitt
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Posted

Day 2 - This is my sister and her husband with their grandchildren this past Easter. The oldest grandchild is 17, and the two youngest both recently had their first birthday.

GNL-2025-MaskWorkshop-02.jpg

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Posted

MaskDay1s.jpg.ad0c7e1f840e6c2fc74f168b29fd353b.jpg

I love these tutorials because I am learning so much. I have a lot of templates and never knew how to make them into masks. Now I have the technique to make them into masks. Wow! This is a game changer for improving my photo library into images worth sharing. These images came from a tour in China that I made with friends from work when I first retired. 

Merci Carole pour ton soutien indéfectible aux utilisateurs de PaintShop Pro.    

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Posted

In 2012 my wife and I spent a month in Portugal exploring the Pousadas de Portugal. Pousadas are hotels that are in restored historic sites like palaces, fortresses and monasteries. Then one day on a notice board we saw a flyer for a sand sculpture exhibition in the Algarve region and we went to see it. It was perhaps the best sand sculpture exhibit we had ever seen. The works were so realistic and everyone was easily recognizable. Do you know these characters?

Mask Day2 .jpg

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Posted

Here's my layout for Lesson 2----creating plaids.  Very interesting to see what the plaid looks like when you scale it down.  A little easier to make the masks work for me today.  Practice makes progress!

Buy the Beach House600.jpg

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Posted

Wow, this was a productive day for you all!

@Linda Rexford You must be very fast to capture those hummingbirds. I find that the hummingbirds here come and go so quickly, I would not even have time to lift my camera! If you find any pattern too overpowering, you can always put a solid color layer underneath and reduce the opacity of the pattern. That gives you control on how much of it shows.

@Gerry LandrethThat little girl is so photogenic! This is a perfect way to showcase her. I think you are making a whole family album now!

@AprilDawnYou had a great idea to color the photo frames to match the flowers.

@Cristina Are those birds attracted to the camera? It is amazing how they stare directly into the camera! Back to the plaid "cheat" from Corrie, the reason you need only 1 pixel is that if you have 2 pixels in height and you stretch it, the top half will be one color and the bottom will be another color. That might lead to a mismatch if you want a seamless edge.

@kasanyYour cat is modeling? That is such a cute idea. That frame around the Autumn Park layout is quite effective.

@Sue ThomasIf you find that plaids are overpowering, you can always choose some sections of your image with less contrast to make a more subtle pattern in the end.

@Jannette NieuwboerYou will find out that templates often use layers as masks so you will likely use them in a similar way.

@fiona cookThe technique of floating/defloating to create a mask is something I learned after having used PSP for many years. It was actually someone more knowledgeable than me, in the beta-testing group who told me how to do that, when I was suggesting a way to "turn a raster layer into a mask" (similar to how you can convert a vector into a raster). That was a real discovery and now something I teach too!

@Robert GarrettIt is good to read that you tweaked the mask layer to match what you wanted to get. Sometimes (especially if a photo is not that great), we might want to mask to give a faded look. Other times, we want to showcase the photo in all its glory! Great work.

@Corrie KinkelYes, some settings might be missing if you use a smaller monitor, but sometimes, they just play hide and seek for no reason. I often answer this question on the FB group too. As for the plaid, the way you cheated is perfect. It shows that you understand the steps and you understand how the program works enough to get to the same point with a workaround.

@Karen BorgmannYes, the process becomes easier over time. But if you are REALLY struggling, there is a script in the store that can do it automatically for you. I still prefer to teach how to do it manually instead of promoting an automation. It gives you a better understanding of the process and it will be useful in future lessons.

@Donna SilliaYou are ahead of the workshop as we will use "outside" masks in lesson 3, but it is ok. It means you are already comfortable with masks.

@ClarineI think you squished your grandpa again. Be careful when you resize an image and ALWAYS use a corner handle. Even then, make sure it resized proportionally as sometimes, it might still distort (I am not sure why).

@Hank SobahDid you take those pictures? They are fantastic.

@SharlaUsually, making just a stretched line instead of a plaid might not work, but in your layout, it works fantastically!

@gwen jewittYour plaid works well with the photo and is not overpowering, even if it is dark. It helps show off the pictures.

@Carolyn RyeBeautiful layout. If I could offer a little suggestion, I would brush a bit of white on the mask to show the baby's face better.

@Art KuiperI didn't know you spoke French!!! I am glad to hear that you now have more uses for all those templates. And templates can be such a time-saver!

Time for bed for me, but I am sure others will keep working and tomorrow, we will have even more masterpieces!

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Posted
10 hours ago, Karen Borgmann said:

I wish I could say I love masks.....but not yet!  I'm struggling with all the steps involved.  Does it ever get to be second nature???  I guess it comes down to ...practice, practice, practice (and some ðŸ«¢words).   Here's my lesson 1 layout.  It took me so long yesterday that, unfortunately, my grandsons are now teenagers! ðŸ«£

Grand-Sun Fun600.jpg

Karen, yes it can become second nature.  I wrote the steps out so I could refer to them every time, and I made a lot of masks (advice from Sue Thomas).  Eventually, I remember them (working in PSP that is).  

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Posted

Day 1 using Affinity.  I find using masks a little easier with Affinity.  Thank you, Cassel, for suggestion to brush off some of the white on my PSP version.  I did this with the Affinity one and yes, it looks a lot better and clearer.

image.jpeg

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Posted

Lesson 1 - using the Diamond Extra Template

I wont be quitting my day job to become a bee photographer.  I was actually photographing flowers in the garden and they kept photo bombing my shots.  they are so fuzzy, like flying teddy bears.  the one in the middle looking at me as if to say, "move along human, nothing to see here."  The font is Beauty Nature.  Not real sure how readable this is.  

sje-MasksWorkshop2025-Extra1-MERG-600.jpg

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