F_J_Woods

Just to dog-pile on this already mature thread, I completely follow what rui_mac is saying. When you click on the layers mask, you are presented with what looks like a grayscale layer, the black (obviously) being the mask. Of course, the black is usually not uniformly black, especially if you've created the mask via Select Sample Color to mask out, say, a green-screen background. With dodge and burn, you can simply select your desired tonal range (say, affecting the shadows only) and it is breathtakingly simply to tighten your task: you don't have to worry about brushing black onto your white cutout, because you're burning only shadows which in this case is nothing more than your imperfect mask. If you use a regular brush with black color, you are reduced to the painstaking work of brushing just up to the fine edge of your cutout while not cutting in on detail. So, two votes for dodge/burn on Masks! If there's a different way to do this I would love to hear it!

I am also trying to figure out how to dodge and burn on a mask...it's a very simple way to tighten up a mask. I wonder if anyone from Serif can respond?

Absolutely fantastic. I would argue that beginners and intermediate users of A.Ph. alike would benefit greatly from this course. You have a very straightforward and comfortable style that comes from subject mastery, and I found that I learned a great deal even in areas I wouldn't have considered myself a beginner. I look forward to more of your courses.

Sorry to dig up this older thread, but I'm not sure where else to post this. Your website says it supports the Canon G1X MKII. However, the RAW processor is adding quite a heavy vignette to the files, and I cannot remove it. This is the same effect I've seen in other developers that do not support the G1X, such as Darktable. If I could figure out how to attach a file to this thread I would happily do so.