Firstly, this is not an April Fools ruse.  I am giving away activation codes for this new software 🙂 Technology can be embraced or ignored, it can be celebrated or feared, or it can fumble somewhere in between all those things.  I myself, really enjoy much of what is on offer, especially as a photographer.  I totally appreciate those that take a purist approach, but for me, I love playing with digital imagery using various software applications, and here my friends, is a very cool, very affordable piece of remarkable software.  Enter, Topaz ReMask Prime (click here to see in in the Mac App Store).  A fully functional, standalone desktop version of the irreplaceable ReMask software.  If you already own ReMask and run it as a plugin for PS, you’ll probably not need a standalone version (although, I’m starting to see a benefit), but for those who do not, this is a very cheap way to see the power of ReMask in all its glory.

Come on in to see some info and examples from Topaz ReMask Prime, a new standalone app built on the standard ReMask plugin…

Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it, said one fictitious icon from my early childhood who’s words seemed to help define those years within my own personal story.  Little did we know those 30 years ago (seriously, that movie came out 30 years ago!), that this could be seen as a gross understatement as we moved into the 21st century.  Today, we’re seeing an unprecedented level of technological advancement with hardware and software altering the way we interact with our work, our passion and the world as a whole.  One could argue that it is more important now to stop and smell those roses, than it has ever been.  We speed through our daily existence connected to huge communities through super computers we carry in our pockets, yet I’d say I actually interact with real live humans less than I ever have, outside perhaps, the two humans I’ve had a hand in creating.  They’re at a point where they require, and get a lot of face time with us parental units.  

Enter ReMask Prime.  The power of ReMask, in an easy, affordable standalone app that really should cost a ton more money than it does.  If you read my blog, you know I love ReMask.  I really do.  I use it all the time, and it is just so much fun making an easy task out of complicated selections.  Hair? No problem.  People removed from pictures or cut out to be placed on other pictures? No problem.  I have literally spent dozens of hours if not hundreds trying to intricately select a subject for various reasons in my image making career over the years.  If you’ve ever spent time in Photoshop trying to select hair, or isolate a portion of an image for selective adjustments, I cannot express how much easier the plugin version of ReMask has made my life.

So, how does ReMask Prime differ?  Well, as a standalone desktop application, you’re not using this within a layer based image editing software, so it does simplify things in ways, and complicate them in others.

Starting off, open an image in RM Prime, it will look something like this:

This is exactly like the plugin version of ReMask, and operates identically.  Green is for keeps, Red gets thrown out, and the Blue is what you use to separate the keepers from the cut away bits, like this:

By selecting the Blue brush, I merely paint a rough line over the edge that I want to provide the separation from keep vs cut.  Then, I select the Red fill tool and click on the area outside of that blue line that I want to mask out, like this:

Easy, breezy, beautiful.  Now, simply click the light grey Compute Mask button just below those fill icons, and watch the magic happen:

Pretty crazy.  Now, here’s where the standalone starts to differ, as all the way up to this point, the plugin version is nearly identical (there are a couple refinement options that aren’t available in the standalone, but I’ve never actually used them myself).  In the Plugin version, we do have a couple more sliders to adjust the edge (edge strength, edge shift…) but nothing revolutionarily different.  Now, see the “Background” icons that popped up just below the Edge Hardness and Foreground Recovery sliders?  Here’s where we can introduce either a solid color, add a background image to place behind our selection, or you can create a transparent background, and then open your selection in a layer based image software to then do what we’d essentially do within the plugin version in Photoshop.

Transparent:

Solid Color:

Image:

From here, simply click save as, select where you want it to save, and voila!

Before and After:

Not bad for a 30 second selection.  

This software can be a huge boon for digital artists that like to composite imagery.  It can be wonderful for portrait shooters who’d like to place their subjects on a congruous, or premade background, and for someone like me, I enjoy having the ability to quickly, accurately and EASILY select a subject or subjects for a variety of other tasks like product photos for instance.

While I think there are many uses for software like ReMask, I am amazed at the power that is being offered in software at basement prices these days.   Software should provide some value.  It should do something that your other tools cannot do, or cannot do as efficiently, and there are few that I’d say fit that bill better than ReMask.  For $10, it might go down as the best deal for a specialized digital tool that I’ve yet seen.

You can see ReMask Prime on the Mac App Store HERE.  Available for $9.99 for Mac users running OS 10.9 or later with machines using a 64bit processor.  

Now on to the Giveaway!!!  I have a handful of codes to give away for a free ReMask Prime App!  (All gone!) They will go to those who to add their email to my blog subscription (up at the top of the page on standard browsers, or below on a mobile browser), OR if you’re already subscribed, comment on the TRP facebook page HERE with the hashtag #topazremaskprime, and then comment on this thread down below, signed in with your email address (so I know where to email you) and I’ll send it off to you!  First to comment here while I still have activation codes after doing one of the aforementioned two things will get ReMask Prime for free!

Thanks all and happy shooting,

Tyson