Page 478 - ProShow Producer 9 Final Manual

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Grayscale Masking

The first of the mask types we’re going to discuss is grayscale masking. This
type is most often used to blend images together on the same slide frame.
That’s because grayscale masking works very well with gradients and other
changes in value, allowing for gradual blends of masked images into the
rest of the layers on your slide.

Working with grayscale masks requires that you remember one
fundamental rule:

Light reveals, dark conceals.

Grayscale masks work by attaching to images and looking at the
differences between light and dark values of gray in the mask. This means
that lighter areas, moving up to completely white, will allow the image to
appear. Dark values of gray, moving to black, will hide the image.

What Images Work with Grayscale Masks

Any image will work as a Grayscale mask. The images that are best for this
are any images that contain high contrast between light and dark areas. For
example, a photo of a very dark room with bright light coming in through a
window would make a great grayscale mask. There’s enough difference
between dark and light to act as an effective mask.

When you select an image layer to turn into a grayscale mask, Producer will
automatically convert that image into shades of gray. This means that even
if you have a color image, you can use it as a grayscale mask.

You can use Grayscale masks with more than just images. Creating
gradient layers in Producer is a great way to create masks to use in this way.
Remember that the gradient creation window even has an entire series of
presets dedicated to masks.