Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [195]
You can use or to halt the reconstruction at an intermediate stage (but do avoid applying this shortcut twice, as this will exit the Liquify dialog and you'll lose all your work). Another way to reconstruct the image is to click on the options triangle in the Reconstruct Options and select one of the options from the list. This pops a dialog control like the one shown in Figure 8.14, where you can use the slider to determine to what degree you would like to reconstruct the image, expressed as a percentage. A reconstruction can also be achieved by using the reconstruct tool to selectively restore the undistorted image.
Figure 8.14 You can control the exact amount by which an image is reconstructed to its original state by going to the Reconstruct Options menu (circled red in Figure 8.13) and selecting a desired reconstruction mode. This pops the dialog shown here where you can set a percentage amount for the degree of reconstruction you wish to take place.
Don't forget that while inside the Liquify dialog, you also have multiple undos at your disposal. Use to undo or redo the last step, to go back in history and to go forward in history.
Mask options
The mask options can utilize an existing selection, layer transparency or a layer mask as the basis of a mask to freeze and constrain the effects of any Liquify adjustments (Figure 8.15). The first option is ‘Replace Selection’( ). This replaces any existing freeze selection that has been made. The other four options allow you to modify an existing freeze selection by ‘adding to’ ( ), ‘subtracting from’ ( ), ‘intersecting’ ( ) or creating an ‘inverted’ selection ( ). You can then click on the buttons below. Choosing ‘None’ clears all freeze selections, choosing ‘Mask All’ freezes the entire area, and choosing ‘Invert All’ inverts the current frozen selection.
Figure 8.15 Freeze masks can be used to protect areas of a picture before you commence doing any liquify work. In the example shown here a freeze mask was loaded from a layer mask. When you freeze an area in this way it is protected from subsequent distortions so you can concentrate on applying the Liquify tools to just those areas you wish to distort. Frozen mask areas can be unfrozen by using the thaw mask tool.
View options
The freeze mask can be made visible or hidden using the Show Mask checkbox in the View Options, where you can also set the color of the mask (Figure 8.16).
Figure 8.16 The Liquify dialog settings, including the View Options at the bottom.
Liquify and Smart Filters
Note that the Liquify filter cannot be applied to a Smart Object or as a Smart Filter.
The mesh grid can be displayed at different sizes using different colors and this provides you with an indication of the underlying warp structure, which can readily help you pinpoint the areas where a distortion has been applied. You can use the checkboxes in this section to view the mesh on its own or have it displayed overlaying the Liquify preview image (as shown in Figure 8.17).
Figure 8.17 This shows the Liquify dialog with the mesh view switched on.
The ‘Show Backdrop’ option is normally left unchecked. If the Liquify image contents are contained on a layer, then it is possible to check the ‘Show Backdrop’ option and preview the liquified layer against the Background layer, all layers, or specific layers in the image. Here is how this option might be used. Let's imagine for example that you wished to apply a liquify distortion to a portion of an image and you started out with just a flattened image. You then make a selection of the area you wish to work on and make a copy layer via the selection contents using . Once you have done this, as you apply the Liquify filter you can check the Show Backdrop checkbox and set the mode to ‘Behind’. At 100% opacity the Liquify layer covers