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Parallel Track↔ Recipes II

The advanced reference to keep open beside the course. Short answers to the harder "how do I do that again?" — luminosity masks, cinematic grades, frequency separation, believable shadows, data merges. Every recipe assumes the intro's foundations and links to the module that teaches the why.

📚 How to Use This

  • Search or scan. Filter by keyword below, or browse the categories.
  • Follow the quick steps. Each recipe is the short version — enough to get it done at an intermediate level.
  • Go deeper when you want. The 🔗 Deep dive link on each card opens the full lesson.

New to a topic? The linear course path teaches these skills in order. Recipes are the reference you keep alongside it.

Categories

No recipes match that search. Try a simpler word like "mask", "grade", "shadow", or "export".

🎭 Advanced Selection & Masking

Build a luminosity mask

When you want to grade only the brightest (or darkest) tones.

  1. Ctrl/⌘-click the RGB channel thumbnail to load the highlights as a selection.
  2. To target darks instead, Select ▸ Inverse; to tighten, intersect (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+Alt-click) again.
  3. Add an adjustment layer — the luminosity selection becomes its mask.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 1.1: Luminosity Masks

Mask from the best channel

When a subject separates strongly in one color channel.

  1. In Channels, find the channel with the most subject/background contrast.
  2. Duplicate it, then push contrast hard with Curves or Levels to near black-and-white.
  3. Load it as a selection and use it as a mask.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 1.2: Channel Masking & Blend-If

Drop a tone with Blend-If

When you want to hide a bright sky or dark backdrop instantly.

  1. Double-click the layer to open Blending Options.
  2. Under Blend If, drag the This Layer white (or black) slider inward.
  3. Alt/⌥-drag to split the slider for a soft, halo-free transition.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 1.2: Channel Masking & Blend-If

Cut out fine hair cleanly

When Select Subject leaves a chopped or haloed hairline.

  1. Select ▸ Subject, then open Select and Mask.
  2. Run the Refine Edge Brush along the wispy edge only; nudge Shift Edge negative.
  3. Tick Decontaminate Colors, Output to New Layer with Layer Mask.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 1.3: The Hard Cutout

🎨 Color, Tone & Grade

Set up a safe color pipeline

When colors shift between apps, screens, or on export.

  1. Edit ▸ Color Settings: pick a working space (sRGB for web, Adobe RGB / ProPhoto for wide work).
  2. Work in 16-bit for grading headroom (Image ▸ Mode).
  3. Deliver with Convert to Profile, not Assign — Convert keeps the appearance.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 2.1: Color Management

Grade with a Gradient Map

When you want a cohesive, tone-mapped color look fast.

  1. Add a Gradient Map adjustment layer.
  2. Build a dark-to-light gradient: cool shadow color → warm highlight color.
  3. Drop the layer opacity (or set Soft Light) until it's believable.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 2.2: Grading, Gradient Maps & LUTs

Save & reuse a grade as a LUT

When you want one grade to travel across images (or into video).

  1. Build your grade with adjustment layers over a neutral base.
  2. File ▸ Export ▸ Color Lookup Tables to write a .cube.
  3. Apply anywhere with a Color Lookup adjustment layer.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 2.2: Grading, Gradient Maps & LUTs

Match two images' color

When a set must read as one shoot.

  1. Match tones first (brightness/contrast), then color.
  2. Drop a Color Sampler on a comparable point in each image.
  3. Add Curves to one and move each channel until its sampled values meet the reference.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 2.3: Match, Split-Tone & Soft-Proof

Split-tone a photo

When you want cinematic cool shadows and warm highlights.

  1. Add a Color Balance layer.
  2. On Shadows push toward cyan/blue; on Highlights toward red/yellow.
  3. Keep Midtones near neutral so skin stays believable.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 2.3: Match, Split-Tone & Soft-Proof

Soft-proof for print

When a grade must survive on paper, not just screen.

  1. View ▸ Proof Setup ▸ Custom: choose the printer profile, tick Simulate Paper Color.
  2. Toggle proof with Ctrl/⌘ + Y; the image dulls — that's the paper.
  3. Turn on Gamut Warning (⇧⌘Y) and desaturate flagged areas.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 2.3: Match, Split-Tone & Soft-Proof

🧑‍🎨 High-End Retouching

Set up frequency separation

When you must even skin tone without erasing pores.

  1. Duplicate twice → Low (Gaussian Blur until pores vanish) and High.
  2. On High: Apply Image (source Low, Subtract, Scale 2, Offset 128), blend Linear Light.
  3. Even tone on Low; heal blemishes on High — never both at once.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 3.1: Skin & Frequency Separation

Dodge & burn on a grey layer

When a portrait is clean but flat and needs form.

  1. New layer, mode Soft Light, tick Fill with 50% gray.
  2. Soft brush, Flow 5–10%: white to dodge highlights, black to burn recesses.
  3. Check in a temporary Black & White view; lower opacity to taste.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 3.2: Dodge & Burn Sculpting

Whiten teeth naturally

When teeth read yellow or dull.

  1. Add a Hue/Saturation layer; on Yellows, drop saturation first.
  2. On Master, raise Lightness slightly. (Yellow out, then brighten.)
  3. Invert the mask to black and paint the effect onto the teeth only.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 3.3: Eyes, Teeth & Hair

Make eyes pop (subtly)

When eyes need life without looking fake.

  1. Add a Curves layer, lift midtones; invert the mask and paint the iris and whites.
  2. Optionally add a High-Pass-sharpened layer masked to the iris.
  3. Never paint out the catchlight, and keep whites off-white.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 3.3: Eyes, Teeth & Hair

🖼️ Compositing

Scale an element correctly

When a pasted person or object looks the wrong size.

  1. Find the scene's horizon by extending its receding edges to a vanishing point.
  2. Set the element's ground-contact point first.
  3. Scale so the horizon crosses it at the same body height as the scene's people.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 4.1: Match Perspective, Scale & Lens

Build a believable cast shadow

When a composited element casts none and looks pasted.

  1. Duplicate the element, fill black, set Multiply, move below it.
  2. Free Transform ▸ Distort/Skew onto the ground, running away from the light.
  3. Increase Gaussian Blur toward the far end and fade its opacity with distance; tint it slightly blue.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 4.2: Light, Shadows & Reflections

Anchor with a contact shadow

When an element still floats even with a cast shadow.

  1. New layer under the element, mode Multiply.
  2. Small soft black brush at low flow: darken exactly where the base meets the ground.
  3. Keep it tight and barely blurred — this is what reads as "touching".

🔗 Deep dive: Module 4.2: Light, Shadows & Reflections

Add depth with atmosphere

When background elements feel pasted forward.

  1. On far elements, lower contrast and lift the blacks slightly.
  2. Glaze a low-opacity haze in the sky/scene color over them.
  3. Keep the nearest element crispest and most saturated.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 4.3: Atmosphere & the Unifying Grade

Unify a composite with one grade

When pieces look like separate photos side by side.

  1. Correct every element to neutral first.
  2. Put a single grade (Color Lookup, or Curves + Color Balance) at the top of the stack.
  3. It rains down on everything below, giving them one shared color.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 4.3: Atmosphere & the Unifying Grade

🔠 Design Systems & Type

Build a type scale & styles

When a layout's type sizes feel arbitrary.

  1. Pick a base size and a ratio (e.g. 16 × 1.25) → a modular scale; assign roles.
  2. Set one line per role correctly, then create a named Paragraph Style from it.
  3. Edit a style once and every instance updates.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 5.1: Type Systems, Styles & Grids

Set a baseline grid & columns

When elements don't line up across a layout.

  1. View ▸ New Guide Layout: set columns, gutters, and margins.
  2. Add a baseline at your body leading so text snaps to a shared rhythm.
  3. Align every block to the grid — invisible structure, visible polish.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 5.1: Type Systems, Styles & Grids

Make a reusable mockup

When you drop different art onto the same surface repeatedly.

  1. Put a rectangle where the art goes, Convert to Smart Object, and Warp it to the surface.
  2. Add the surface's shadows (Multiply) and highlights (Screen) above it, clipped.
  3. Swap art any time with Replace Contents — the treatment stays.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 5.2: Smart-Object Templates & Linked Assets

Spin one design into many sizes

When a campaign needs poster, square, story, and banner.

  1. Use Artboards (one per size); design the largest first.
  2. Place Linked the shared logo/art into each so one edit updates all.
  3. File ▸ Export ▸ Export As renders every artboard at once.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 5.3: Campaign from One Master

⚙️ Automation & Multi-Shot

Harmonize a composite with generative fill

When a composite is cramped or has a distraction.

  1. Generative Expand (Crop out, empty prompt) for room; audit the new edges.
  2. Generative Fill with an empty prompt to erase a distraction.
  3. Grain/sharpen-match the generated area and hand-blend; keep it on its generative layer.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 6.1: Generative for Compositing

Batch a folder with a conditional

When mixed landscape/portrait files all need the same prep.

  1. Record an Action with relative steps (long-edge resize, sharpen, save).
  2. Panel menu ▸ Insert Conditional: if landscape play one crop, else another.
  3. File ▸ Automate ▸ Batch over the folder (tick Override Save As).

🔗 Deep dive: Module 6.2: Advanced Actions & Conditionals

Mass-produce from a spreadsheet

When you need hundreds of graphics that differ only by data.

  1. Name layers to match CSV headers; Image ▸ Variables ▸ Define (Text / Pixel / Visibility).
  2. Data Sets ▸ Import the CSV and step through rows to proof.
  3. File ▸ Export ▸ Data Sets as Files to render every row.

🔗 Deep dive: Module 6.3: Data-Driven Graphics & Scripting

Merge many frames into one

When one frame can't hold the width, range, or depth you need.

  1. Panorama: File ▸ Automate ▸ Photomerge (Auto + Blend + Content-Aware edges).
  2. HDR: File ▸ Automate ▸ Merge to HDR Pro (bracket, Remove Ghosts).
  3. Focus stack: Load into Stack → Auto-Align → Auto-Blend (Stack Images).

🔗 Deep dive: Module 7.1: Panoramas, HDR & Focus Stacking

Export a looping GIF or MP4

When a design needs a few seconds of motion.

  1. Window ▸ Timeline ▸ Create Video Timeline; keyframe Position/Opacity (stopwatch).
  2. Match first and last frames for a seamless loop; add Ease.
  3. GIF: Save for Web (loop Forever). MP4: File ▸ Export ▸ Render Video (H.264).

🔗 Deep dive: Module 7.2: Timeline Animation & Export

🎓 Want the full story?

Recipes get it done; the course path teaches you why, so you can solve the problems these recipes don't cover yet.