**Program Tutorials** : Photoshop : *Technique

Whiten Teeth Using Quick Mask in PSCS2

This tutorial will show you how to whiten teeth in a photo using the Quick Mask Mode of Photoshop, along with an Adjustment Layer. Screenshots are from PSCS2, but this technique should work with previous versions also.

What exactly is Quick Mask Mode, you ask. Photoshop has a number of selection tools, such as the rectangle or ellipse marquee tool, the magic wand, the lasso or polygon tool, but sometimes they just do not give you the options you want for making a selection. Selecting just the teeth in a photo is not an easy task using the normal selection tools, so we can easily solve the problem using Quick Mask Mode.

Quick Mask mode allows us to paint, with the brush tools to get a more precise selection than the other tools can offer. This painted area then becomes a selection (with our favorite marching ants) when you exit Quick Mask mode back to Standard mode.

In the screenshot below, the red arrow is pointing to the Quick Mask mode buttons. Standard mode is on the left and Quick Mask mode on the right.

You might want to set some options before you work with the Quick Mask, and you get the options window by double-clicking on the left button. This brings up a window as shown in the next screenshot. You can set the options to indicate the masked area or the selected areas, and you can set the color and opacity you want to use. For this tutorial, the color and opacity are not important to change, but the "Selected areas" should be chosen as the option you want to use. Make any necessary changes, then click OK.

Here's the sample image I worked with.

After you've checked and set the options, we'll now work on creating the mask. With your photo open in Photoshop make sure the layer is not set as a background layer. To make it a normal layer, double click on the layer to bring up the layer properties, which defaults to Layer 0, and click OK.

Now click on the Quick Mask mode button (the right one) located near the bottom of the toolbox. Notice that the foreground/background colors are now changed to black and white. You will want black as the foreground color.

Click on the brush tool in the toolbox and choose a rounded brush. The size will depend on your image, but you can mouse over the image to see if it will work for painting on the tooth area. You can also zoom in close to this area to be more precise.

With the brush, paint on the teeth to mask them. You can change the brush size as needed by using the bracket keys [ and ] to decrease and increase the size. The next screenshot shows you what the area should look like when you're done. I know it looks very strange at this point, but it will get better.

If you made any miscalculations while painting and have areas showing the mask color that shouldn't be colored, just switch the foreground color to white using the little switch icon located near the color swatches, or use the letter X on the keyboard for a quick way of switching. Paint over those "mistakes" with white and the color disappears.

Once you are satisfied with where you've painted, click on the other Quick Mask button (the left one) to return to Standard editing mode. This should now put the "marching ants" on your image where you painted.

The next step will be to add the adjustment layer. You can do this from Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation or use the Adjustment Layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette, choosing Hue/Saturation. If you use the menubar to add the adjustment layer, you'll have an extra window that opens that gives you the choice of naming your adjustment layer, or you can accept the default that Photoshop gives you. The icon on the bottom of the layers palette does that step automatically.

Once you've done the above step, the options window for the adjustments will pop up. Since our image has too much yellow in the teeth area we have selected, you don't want to just change the master level. You will want to change the dropdown on the top from Master to Yellows, as shown in the screenshot below.

Once you've chosen Yellows, you'll want to adjust the sliders for saturation and lightness. For my example, I used the settings seen in the screenshot. These settings will depend on your image, so you may want to make several tries. Uncheck and re-check the preview button so you can see the changes before you click OK.

Here's a screenshot showing my corrections, and the original for comparison.

If you feel the adjustments are not quite right, double-click on the thumbnail of the adjustment layer to bring up the dialog box again and make further changes. Once you are satisfied, you can merge the layers. Click on the image layer, then control-click on the adjustment layer so both layers are highlighted, then right-click and choose "merge layers".

Using the Quick Mask for selecting, and then using an Adjustment Layer for the alterations, gives a very natural look to the final image.

The Quick Mask mode can be used for making any type of selection and makes the selection very accurate. Experiment with it for extracting a person from an image, or even cloning out the black sheep of the family.