I have not seen any masking tool in Studio comparable to ReMask for masking out the sky from foliage. I know we can call ReMask from Studio (and I just did for one photo) but I was wondering if there would be any masking tool in Studio capable of performing the kind of masks ReMask could do. That is, some new version of ReMask.
I use the main mask all the time with the erase function, in some respects, I like using it better than Remask but hair, feathers AND trees are a challenge.
I use the main mask frequently as well, but when I want to replace a sky and there are trees and/or shrubs, the masking functionality in Studio is just not up to the task, or I am using it incorrectly.
I can use ReMask, and do, but I thought the whole idea of Studio was to replace all of the Topaz functionality and that ought to include ReMask as well. The kind of masking that Studio can do is pretty much what I can do in any competent photo editor. The kind of masking that ReMask can do is almost in a class by itself.
Studio is a continual work in progress and I expect that going forward we’ll be seeing more and more improvements and new things. Initially, Remask was the only older plug-in that could not be picked up through Studio and even getting the ability to call it up within it was a very welcomed improvement. I’ve found that unless the image I’m working on has those fine details, I don’t even bother with it. Not to say that tightest extraction process possible wouldn’t be great. They have a long list of user requests, a small staff and every new innovation, while it may work fine for the majority, sets off a flurry of support requests that need to be handled.
In the work I have been doing with Studio the majority of images could be masked using the normal Studio adjustment masks, but some photos require a much more advanced masking technique. Backgrounds full of trees and/or shrubs, vistas full of cactus (I live in the desert southwest), flights of birds and the like are not subjects that can easily be masked with a masking brush and very few tools other than ReMask are really capable of tacking those kinds of photos. Gradient masks generally do not work for the backgrounds I end up with.
In those cases I end up having to still use ReMask. Since most of the photo editors I use (Affinity Photo, Dxo Optics Pro, CaptureOne) can not directly accept a ReMask adjusted image (I assume there is some alpha channel issue) I end up having to do much of the work all in Studio, That is not really a problem, as the interface is quite good, but I understood from what has been posted on this forum that the intention was to replace all of the plugin functionality with built-in Studio functionality - hence my question.
I understand the issues with new software - I am a retired software engineer/architect - but am still curious as to whether or not we will see something in Studio replacing ReMask.
