loading a previously saved mask

[madhg]

In the Selective Correction dialog I saved a mask. It appears in the image browser, labelled Selective Correction, in the same column as the various stages of the photo I'm processing. I'd like to use it as a mask in another transformation. But I can't see how.

Clicking the white square in the Color Curves dialog does not give that SelCorr. mask as an option. I read through the Help on Masks and didn't find what I wanted.

I'm using v8.0.106, and I'm not an expert user: I use transformations, as I've been doing for many years, but I don't use automated/batch processing, and I don't normally save all the processing information.

[jsachs]

You can only use a mask image as a mask for another image if it has exactly the same dimensions in pixels, and if it is the original transformation does not depend on the transformation you want to add the mask to.

To apply the same set or mask operations to a different image (with potentially a different resulting mask), re-open the mask dialog box and select Save Settings As... and save the mask settings in a file. Then go to the transformation you want to use the same mask operations with, start a New Mask, and from the Mask settings menu load the saved mask settings.

If this does not make sense, maybe try to post a screen shot of the image browser showing all the images, and I can make more specific comments.

[tomczak]

It may be that you are trying to use correctly sized mask, but the transformation that you want to use the mask in (Colour Curves) is upstream from the transformation in which the mask was created (Selective Colour). You can only see masks if they are at the same level or upstream from the transformation you want to use them in, unless you save mask settings, as Jonathan suggested - then you can rebuild the mask for any transformation but it may not necessarily become the same mask as before.

If this is the case, maybe some of the mask cloning techniques in this thread could help to solve the problem?

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2492

[madhg]

Thanks for your help, Jonathan and tomczak,

What I was trying to do was create a mask, not using the mask dialog, but using "Save As Mask" in the Selective Color Correction dialog to pick a colour and generate a mask from that. It does save a black and white image which looks like a mask, as you see from the screenshot. But it shows up in the column of images, not in the second column which currently contains blank masks.

I've not found a way of using that BW image as a mask. It is never offered to me when I click the Amount box in a transformation for an image downstream of the SCC transformation. (Meanwhile I've done more or less what I wanted to do, by a different method.)

[tomczak]

The mask you created in SCC is an output of this transformation (save as mask means output as mask - the mask file is not really saved), which is 8bit B&W image that can be used as a mask. But you can't use it upstream of it in the same stream of transformations because it will create a circular reference.

There are 2 options I can think of to resolve it.

You can go to the last image (the SCC mask) and save it as a 8bt file, then open the saved file (it will open in a separate stream). This newly-opened image will be recognised as a mask in in any transformation in the browser as it is now decoupled from the original SCC output and will not create circular reference.

You can also use Transformation/Copy, make its input image in the dialog box to be the first image of your current stream (file open), than copy the SCC transformation (your mask) below it. It should make it available as a mask in the original stream without having to save the mask as a file.

[tomczak]

It looks to me that the easiest way to do what I think you want would be:

1. File/Open the original image (first stream/column)
2. Transformation/Copy, with the original image being an input. That will create the 2nd stream/column to the left in Browser
3. Add SCC in one of the streams (doesn't matter which one) to 'save as mask'. Add Color Curves to the other stream - the mask should be available.

[jsachs]

I think you may have the terms upstream and downstream reversed -- there are no downstream images from Selective Color Correction in your example as downstream images show up below upstream images on the same branch. Downstream images from Selective Color Correction would be operating on the black and white mask image. When you do create transformations downstream from the mask image, the mask does show up in the Amount mask menu.

Using the mask generated from the Color Curves transformation in the Color Curves transformation is problematical as the mask would change the Selective Color Correction which would then change the mask and so on. This is called a circular reference and is not allowed.

Assuming you wanted to use the mask in Color Curves, there are several strategies to avoid a circular reference.

1) Add a splitter above Color Curves and make a copy of the Color Curves transformation in the empty side branch. You can select the mask in this copy and then proceed from there. This works because, by analyzing the dependencies in the workspace, Picture Window computes the left branch before the right branch and the left Color Curves does not depend on the right one, just on the images above it.

ss1.jpg (37.2 KiB) Viewed 3904 times

2) Use the brand new Hue Saturation Mask tool to create the mask instead of Selective Color Correction. The same algorithms have been incorporated into the Mask dialog box and can be used to create the mask when you need it. This makes Selective Correction unnecessary and eliminates the problem. I added this new mask tool recently just to avoid the type of problem you encountered.

3) Save the mask as an image file and re-open it. This gives you a new top-level image that can be used as a mask anywhere, but it will not update when you change the image above Color Curves.

[madhg]

Thanks, that's very helpful.

I used your first suggestion

You can go to the last image (the SCC mask) and save it as a 8bt file, then open the saved file (it will open in a separate stream). This newly-opened image will be recognised as a mask in in any transformation in the browser as it is now decoupled from the original SCC output and will not create circular reference.

and it worked. I think I now understand what's going on.

[madhg]

Ah, I've just seen Jonathan's posting. Time for lunch now but I'll read it later.

[madhg]

I hadn't noticed this new mask tool. Looks very useful.