Adobe teases new 'Focus masks' feature: Digital Photography Review

Adobe teases new 'Focus masks' feature

Published Jun 11, 2014 | dpreview staff

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jerrith

Well, I can't wait to try this out. It looks very promising and should make replacing backgrounds even easier than with OnOne's Perfect Mask.

Jun 15, 2014permalink

LA Headshots

DEATH TO CREATIVE CLOUD

Jun 15, 2014permalink

abolit

I don't give a $hit about adobe and their new "features". Can't wait to see them filing chapter 11 with their CC subscription.

Jun 13, 2014permalink

Rick Knepper

CSx used to cost me $199 every 2 years for upgrades and the CC version costs me $240 over the same time period and it has produced several features and enhancements not available in CS6 that I can't work without.

Jun 13, 2014*permalink

Just a Photographer

This argument is getting old.
The price of a bread in 2004 was $0,94 in 2014 it is $1.41

Nobody forces you to use CC, still you are complaining...
If you don't want to use CC then don't use it, but don't complain either.

Jun 13, 2014permalink

Oli4D

Well, there definitely IS reason to complain.
Your comparison with bread is nonsense.
Adobe almost has an almost absolute monopoly for mature 2D creative tools. I don't think anyone has a monopoly for bread ^^
They use (or abuse) their situation because they KNOW that most creative professionals simply need their tools because they are the de facto standard in the industry.

Jun 13, 2014permalink

Just a Photographer

Again nobody forces you to upgrade.
If you are satisfied with what CS6 has to offer you then keep using it. In fact those people that still are on CS6 should actually feel very lucky that Adobe is still offering ACR updates - They didn't do that in the past after a new version of PS was released.... And even if they didn't you could use LR or any other RAW editor and export your files from there to CS6.

Adobe changed their income model.
I don't like it either, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to use the best editing software on the world.

The price of $10 shouldn't be a problem for anybody in the first world. Just take one or two beers less and you can edit a full month all of your wonderfull images.

Jun 13, 2014*permalink

Roman Korcek

@Just a Photographer
Huh? The OP is actually praising CC, not bashing it.

Jun 16, 2014permalink

Svetoslav Popov

Haha Adobe, still not interested in CC! (I'm so glad CS6 has everything i need as a photographer.)

Jun 13, 2014permalink

TLD

It annoys me that Adobe invariably demonstrate new features with the best possible subject matter. The huge contrast between the subject's dark against the very light tones of the background, would be ideal for Refine Edge. Most of the coat outline, and subject's face is not far behind, with the only problem areas being the specular highlights above the glasses, and top of the right shoulder. If they used a dark and busy background, I'd have been a lot more impressed, and would not feel taken for a mug again.

Martin Evening has an 'honest' demonstration of Refine Edge using typical real world subject matter here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJRkbkHAa4&feature=kp

Jun 12, 2014permalink

BaldCol

Well obviously they do. They are not going to demo it on an image on which it doesn't work are they!
Its the same reason cars are advertised speeding down bendy roads in the mountains not stuck in traffic on the daily slog to work.

Jun 13, 2014permalink

Bob Tullis

[insert obligatory snarky derision here.]

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Michael Ma

Aw yea. It's like Christmas in July in June.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

nelar

I hope you are right. But this is Adobe. They could be announcing that with the addition of Focus masks, they have completed the last of the features they hope to add to Photoshop CC and have moved the entire development team onto their new mobile product. Ever since the CC announcement, any expected announcement from Adobe has filled me with a sense of dread. I certainly hope that I will be pleasantly surprised on the 18th, but my expectation is that I will be deeply disappointed by their decisions yet again.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Koosla

It sounds great, but I'm wondering if Adobe should start integrating all their various selection/masking/cutout technologies & algorithms under a single, comprehensive tool that lets the user guide the tool into what techniques to use for every individual case: color-based, luminance-based, focus-based, advanced shape analysis / segmentation... whatever. For many pictures, what works for a specific area may fail for the next, and getting different results from each tool and then combining them is a bit cumbersome, so why not uniting all these tools under a single, ACR-like interface that lets you choose what to use for different areas, and then come up with a single, optimized result?

Jun 12, 2014*permalink

BaldCol

Great idea.

Jun 13, 2014permalink

Danny

I only have 2 words for this: Topaz ReMask

https://www.topazlabs.com/remask

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Angus Rose

Great, thanks for that!

Jun 12, 2014permalink

tabloid

Will it be available as a app/plug for photoshop (CS6).

Jun 12, 2014permalink

BaldCol

Of course not. They want people to buy CC. It shouldn't matter anyway because every CS6 user on DPR for the last 12 months has been saying that CS6 is good enough and they will never need to move to CC.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Marcin 3M

The better question is: will photoshop/lr bundle users get the new PS or will they stuck in cc version 1?

Jun 12, 2014permalink

BaldCol

CC is CC... there are no versions as such so yes the photography bundle users will get it as well.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Debankur Mukherjee

Nice tool but may work only for shallow depth of field.........

Jun 12, 2014permalink

tripodfan

The comments on this article are the funniest ones on DPReview yet. Reminds me very much of this April Fool's article: http://kotaku.com/a-reminder-that-not-everyone-reads-before-commenting-1557812641

Jun 12, 2014permalink

chida

Good idea which helps enhance the speed in workflow.

Jun 12, 2014*permalink

Gosman

It is so nice to have Photoshop CC. So many improvements! You Sixers out there will soon be left behind!

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Marcin 3M

Yup.
And CCers would not even bother to pick the camera to get a new photos.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Danny

I am a CS5 user, and I have more tools at my hand than I will ever need.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

DStudio

Me too Danny. I still have a 20MB hard disk in my computer, and it's more storage than I'll ever need.

Jun 13, 2014permalink

vadims

Yeah. 640k should be enough for everyone...

Jun 14, 2014permalink

Top Dog Imaging

I see this tool as being targeted more to designers than to photographers. Most photo retouchers are adept at doing this with the existing tool set.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

BaldCol

Doesn't mean we wouldn't like an easier way of doing it.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

ageha

Funny comments. People should read the title and maybe watch the video if reading isn't their strongest skill.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Lynn David Cole

I see it now. Instead of using a green screen, we can use a checkerboard pattern. ;-)

Jun 12, 2014permalink

bugbait

Guys/gals, this is not specifically a DOF modification tool.

Perhaps watch the video? It is only one minute, forty two seconds long.

Like all tools, it will take the the effort of the individual artist or craftsman to make it useful. And also like most tools it will be all the more useful when combined with multiple, tools, filters, etc.

Each new selection method has particular strengths and weaknesses, very glad to have another option.

While I can only think of a couple ways I will use this off the top of my head, I am sure I will use the hech out of this within a year. Selective sharpening, denoise, clarity etc.

Jun 12, 2014*permalink

davids8560

Is this tool sort of like the Big Lens iPhone app? It makes your iPhone images appear to have bokeh.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

ageha

Obviously it's not.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

ManuelVilardeMacedo

Excuse me if I sound profoundly naïf, but isn't it much more fun to do with the lens? I mean, once you've mastered the technique?
I do agree with the commenter below who deemed this as a 'bone-tosser'.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

ageha

Oh well...

Jun 12, 2014permalink

nachos

You're not understanding what this tool does. It makes a selection in Photoshop (more precisely, a mask) based on whether or not the area is "in focus".

To save time in Photoshop, a retoucher makes a selection based on how an area stands apart from the other pixels in an image. Contrasting lines, color ranges (for example, choose blue areas to select a sky) are just a couple of them. This adds focus to that toolbox.

So if you have a subject in front of a busy out of focus background, this will speed up the task of isolating that subject. Before, you'd might use the quick select tool, but would end up doing a lot of refinement to select just the subject and not bleed into the background, especially if they were of similar color in places.

Jun 12, 2014*permalink

ageha

Exactly. Most people here seem to think the tool selects magically the area you want to have in focus from an evenly sharp photo. It doesn't of course.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Just a Photographer

Those are the same people that claim that Lightroom is better then Photoshop.

Yet they don't know that the ACR module is 100% the same thing as the LR editing module. The difference is its skin not it features.

Jun 13, 2014permalink

ManuelVilardeMacedo

Thank you all for your interesting feedback. It was extremely useful. Pointless, but useful.

Jun 13, 2014permalink

Lab D

Alien Skin and Topaz Labs have had similar features for while. Topaz Labs takes it a step further with a map of varying focus levels/depth levels. It is great for increasing blur and decreasing DoF. Perfectly in focus areas stay the same and depending on the level, out of focus areas get more blur.
I would think that if you can take 3-5 images quickly with varying focal planes, the camera could determine the approx. distance to every pixel via contrast. DoF could then be decreased on a pixel level via blur.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

Stu 5

You clearly did not watch the video. Give it a go and you will see you do not currently have a clue about what the tool actually does.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

Lab D

I did watch the video and Topaz does the same thing. You need to look at things before posting. Topaz and Alien Skin have special masking tools for selecting what is in focus. You can adjust selection by how how sharp the area is too. In fact Topaz takes it to another level by creating a multi level map and selecting areas by level of in/out of focus.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

TLD

It's a nice idea, and one I suspect was not to hard to code, but in real world terms it is not super useful, because the shallow DoF images the feature will work on already respond really well to Refine Edge. I think it will be a slight time saver though, and that is always welcome.

Call me sad, but I am like a kid on Christmas eve waiting for the full announcements on the 18th :-) (I have a full CC subscription)

Jun 11, 2014permalink

nachos

If you look closely, Refine Edge is still used. This provides a quick way to knock out a complex background with differing shapes of light and color. Compare with Quick Select, where you'd have to do a lot of dragging the mouse around, and refinement especially if your subject has similar colors to part of the background.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

madeinlisboa

How about a do-all-the-work-for-you feature? I could have a good night sleep while PS does it all for me.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

Pat Cullinan Jr

Just a bone-toss.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

RadPhoto

That’s a nice feature feature to have

Jun 11, 2014permalink

AbrasiveReducer

Everything new is new again. With slogans like this they should get out of graphics and go into advertising.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

abluesky

Could be reduced to "New is New"

Jun 11, 2014permalink

Jogger

Im surprised this is just being developed now. The underlying algorithms are probably similar to focus peaking.. with the added step of creating the selection mask.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

AlanG

Phase One has had a focus masking feature for a long time. The main application is for the photographer or an assistant to quickly see if the subject is moving out of the focus range while shooting tethered.

I don't think it can be used to mask an area for retouching since C1 has limited retouching capabilities anyway.

Jun 11, 2014permalink

(unknown member)

This is not even close to the same thing as C1Pro. Watch the video. C1Pro just shows you what's in focus, so you can decide what you should process. This creates a mask layer. Two very different things.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

nachos

I've found the focus mask in C1 to be nearly useless, at all settings in the preferences. Perhaps it works better with some cameras than others.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

AlanG

I know this creates a mask layer for retouching and C1 does not. But the point is this is generated the same way as what C1 does using similar technology. I was responding to the post about the algorithm being similar to focus peaking.

However, I don't see why C1 could not use the focus mask to generate a retouching layer should they wish to. But C1 has limited retouching capabilities although it does have local masking and layers. So most people would retouch in PS or some other program.

Jun 12, 2014permalink

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