Using masking tool

[PhilT]

Hello dear fellows,
I made a quick overview of the previous threads to find an answer to my question(s), but did not succeed to find exactly what I'm searching for (please be comprehensive if I missed the right thread ). Then can the experts between you explain me, when you use a mask to work on a specific part of the picture (for replacing a sky, an entire background, doing focal sharpening or noise reduction, and so on) what is the best way to adjust the border of the area to be accurate (without small spots of the previous area) and naturally looking, mainly when the limits are irregular. How much feathering is the best, more or less? What other tool(s) is (are) the best for correcting these small parts of the border that are not fitting? I'm a LR5.2 & onOne10.1 user. Do you know a good specific video tutorial on it, not one of 30mn long or more, if possible?
As you can guess I'm not a great specialist in the field
Thanks for your comprehension and help.
Philippe

[chauncey]

I don't use your software but a YouTube search revealed this...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I31HKGQuS68

[Manfred M]

Phillipe - masking is probably one of the most important tools in post-processing work and in my opinion, Lightroom is probably the worst possible tool to try to do this type of work in because it does not support layers. Being able to view and manipulate the data you are trying to blend separately makes the type of work you are trying to achieve so much better; which is where programs like Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have a significant advantage over Lightroom.

Normally, we do try blend two different elements together (new clouds into a landscape, for instance), we don't want the results to look like we have cut out the clouds and have pasted them onto the landscape. Assuming that you have made a good selection, we then feather the edge by a number of pixels to smooth the transition between the two elements. How much to feather? That depends on a lot of variables, the size of the images you are blending are one, the details in the scene (lots of small branches on the trees is another). Too little will look wrong, and too much will look wrong too. This is something you have to play with and get some experience with.

All that being said, creating good masks is one of the most complicated and advanced aspects of this type of work. The tools you are using are fairly basic and work well for fairly simple blends. Just don't expect miracles from it.

[rpcrowe]

I tried to post an answer bot somehow it came up as a separate topic OnOne Perfect Mask - NIK Control Point

My bad, sorry...

[NorthernFocus]

...All that being said, creating good masks is one of the most complicated and advanced aspects of this type of work. The tools you are using are fairly basic and work well for fairly simple blends. Just don't expect miracles from it.

Agree LR is primitive for masking. But actually the masking tools in OnOne are quite good. To refine the mask you can use what they call the "chisel" tool. Or, if the mask isn't too complex(like hair), then you can use the simple brush with feather set to 100 percent and go around the edges. Another thing that helps in OnOne is to change the color of the mask to suit your preference. There is a selection drop-down at the lower left edge of the workspace that lets you choose how you want the mask to appear. It is definitely a trial and error learning process.

Regarding tutorials I'd simply look at the ones on the OnOne site.