Topaz ReMask 5 Review

Feature Overview

When you load an image in ReMask it looks like this.

ReMask's work area

In the top left hand corner there is a preview navigator. This displays the region of the preview image you are focusing on.

At the top tool bar you have a set of Editing Views icons on the left. These display views used during the masking process. To the right of the top tool bar, you can select single, double or quad views. The views are user-selectable and include the original (without any markings), a mask view, a checkerboard or colour background view, the trimap view, the view of the image you wish to keep.

Below the Preview Navigator are tools to edit your mask and what aspects of the image you wish to keep.

The TriMap view looks like this.

Understanding TriMap

The Quad view image offers up to five different ways to review how well the mask is being built.

Four-way ReMask view

The five separate views: Original, TriMap, Mask, Keep, or Cut modes.

These views are all live in that an edit or an action on any one of the these (apart from the original) will change the view in the others. The Mask view is useful for cleaning up stray bits of image not required. The TriMap view sets the boundaries between what is being discarded (red), what is being kept (green) and what requires more attention and refinement the so-called "compute" area (blue). You can also rebrush a section in blue if you are unsure of its status (to keep or discard). The Keep view which features a checkerboard transparent background shows the resultant image from the mask. You can also alternate the transparent background with solid colours as well to highlight how the mask is working. The cut view shows the original image with the keep selection deleted.

There are tools to develop and focus on your image below the preview navigator

The arrows represent undo and redo, the cropping square allows you to select a smaller part of the image to work on. The hand icon (or Press H) lets you drag the entire image in the work area around for ease of editing. You can also pan your image by holding the spacebar and moving your mouse or even using the red selection in the preview navigator. The magnifying glass offers access up to 400% -- effectively pixel level, if necessary.

Initially you start with everything as green. A blue brush is set as the default. The thicker the blue the longer it will take to compute. But it's always best to outline with blue compute brush rather than second guess where the boundary of the mask occurs. Brush sizes range from 1 - 255.

Brushes include a magic brush to aid decisions on what should be in the mask

The primary (or basic) brush tools allow you to select the elements in the image that you want to keep (green), remove (red) and compute (blue). The primary brushes will turn into the Topaz Magic brush after you select Compute.

A red fill bucket is used to drop out unnecessary background generally.

Then a compute mask is hit to set up a draft or initial mask. It does a fairly good job. A dual screen can used for refining. The “keep view” with a colour background helps identify the ghost or ambiguous areas.

Colour Range Brushes

The Color Range brush selects or deselects based on color

These brushes allow you to brush out the foreground or background area in your image, based on the color selected and the setting of the Color slider. The Color Range slider allows you to determine the
spectrum of shades affected within the image based on the main color selection.

Moving to a single colour selection allows mask selection based on colours to keep or cut. The mouse turns into an eye dropper to select the relevant colour for keeping and colour. This works great with selecting a shaggy white dog from a grass background, for example. It's also great for dismissing blue sky colours from landscape views as well.

Transparency Brush

This brush allows you to define two colors (keep/ green and remove/red) to target at once. The transparency brush is key for images where transparency is a factor because it will allow users to select a foreground color, such as the white of a wedding veil, and a background color to be removed from behind the veil.

Adjustments

The art of masking requires adjusting it

After you make your trimap selections you will need to click on “Compute Mask” for your selections to be analyzed and your mask created. Once your mask is created the Adjustment options will appear, allowing you to refine your mask further.

The recovery slider will try to discriminate between foreground and background, Recovery set to 100 especially with hair. It takes more time to calculate especially with high quality set. It reduces ghosting and bleeding. The desaturate slider will allow for natural transition with a new background. It’s a blending and merging tool.

Edge Hardness determines how hard your mask is applied to subject edges in your image. The higher the parameter the harder your edges will be. The lower the parameter, the softer (more feathered) your edges will be.
Mask Strength determines the brightness of the mask. Increasing this parameter will give you more detail by making the weaker mask details stronger.
Edge Shift shifts the mask edge by one pixel in either direction.
Recovery revives the color of your foreground in weaker / more transparent areas.
Desaturation (Foreground Color only) desaturates the edges of your mask (in weaker/more transparent areas) to help with color contamination and bleeding.

Background

Transparent or Solid Background option

Once your mask is ready you can select which type of background you would like for
your image: transparent, solid color, or image. You also have the ability to make some adjustments to the background, if you choose an image background or composite image.

Transparent selects a transparent background and hides everything that you selected to Cut in your mask and will appear on screen as a gray and white checkerboard pattern.

Solid Color background option allows you to choose what color will appear in place of Cut selections. This is an excellent way to check your mask as well.

Image will open your computer file browser, allowing you to select an image as the new background.

Transform icon (bottom left) lets you change the scale and orientation of your background image.

Image Select icon (bottom right) lets you change your background image to a different image. In turn this will three more slider tools to adjust the background, brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, tint and blur. These tools help with making a better composite result.

Brightness  adjusts the brightness of your image. Drag to the left to decrease brightness. Drag to the right to increase brightness.

Contrast adjusts the difference between light and dark colors in your image. Drag to the left to to increase contrast difference. Drag to the right to decrease contrast difference.

Saturation adjusts the depth of color in an image. Drag to the left to decrease depth and brightness, moving closer to a monochromatic image. Drag to the right to brighten
and deepen colors.

Temperature adjusts how cool or warm an image is. Drag to the left to create a colder (blue) image. Drag to the right to create a warmer (yellow) image.

Tint adjusts the color tones of your image. Drag to the left to give your image a green tint. Drag to the right to give your image a magenta tint.

Blur Adjusts how clearly you see the background image. Drag to the right to increase the amount of blur on the background image.

Saving your image

To save your work, navigate to the bottom right corner and select ‘Save As’ Another way to save your image is to navigate to the top menu bar and select File-> Save As You’ll then have the option to name the file and choose the file types: JPEG, TIFF and PNG. Depending on the file type, you’ll then be presented with several options including color space and bit depth.

It's important to save in the highest possible resolution and perhaps save separate versions of both the mask and composite in case you wish to return and vary the final composite or refine the mask even more.