A Retrospective View of Photo Masking Services

Photo Masking also knew as Image Masking involves techniques involving extracting from an image or photographs through digital technology its unnecessary background, but ensuring that the shape of the image remains untouched. Image masking enhances the quality of an image or photograph and helps to restore some of the perceived qualities of the original picture.

Photo Masking Services plays a crucial role when there is a need to create a different background of the concerned image or photograph for giving different look for catching the attention or concentration of the audience or the clients of an organization using photomasking services.

Photo masking services are very technical in nature all the way from observing the picture for its masking needs and then implementing the tools provided by the software like the Adobe Photoshop. With the help of photomasking services, photographers or photo masking service providers or firms can easily decrease their photo capturing costs in the form of traveling costs such as going to the client’s place to get the desired background.

Photo masking services are advantageous when compared with other technologies such as clipping path (which is another photo editing technique) is no longer an option when the subject (image) that needs to be selected has so much detail such as fur or hair where this technique (clipping path) becomes very hard to use.

However, photo masking technique can be applied in combination with the clipping path technique to remove or replace the background of an image or photograph.

Categories/ Types of Photo Masking Services – An Overview

There are usually four types or categories of photomasking services depending upon the client requirements for the image or photograph. Each of the categories of photomasking technique has been described in brief herein below-

• Layer Masking –

In this type of photomasking category, masks are applied directly to the layer using soft and refined edge with a pen tablet

• Alpha Channel Masking-

Alpha channel masking involves removal of background or extracts the main image to save it in an alpha channel that gives an opportunity to edit the file anytime.

• Fur and Hair/Flesh Masking

This category of the photomasking technique is quite laborious due to the fact that the hair of flesh images has many soft edge curves and thinner line area.

• Transparent Object Masking-

This type of photomasking technique involves removing the background from the transparent or translucent objects yet retaining the originality of the image. Images like glasses, sun-glass, thin plastic product packets, bottles, fabrics etc are images under this category.

The photomasking specialist teams work on huge volumes of images to bring in the desired look as per the requirement of their clients.