What Are the Differences Between Clipping Path and Image Masking?
In Photoshop, there’s a few ways to get rid of an image’s background. Clipping path and image masking are two of those ways. Both methods do the same thing, but they do it in different ways.
Both of these ways of editing images serve the same purpose, but they are used in different ways, which we will talk about today. In this article, we’ll look at the differences between clipping path and image masking to help us understand them better.
What Is Clipping Path?
With the clipping path or deep etch technique in Photoshop, you can make a path around the edges of any object to separate it from the rest of the picture.
Clipping path is the most professional way to get rid of the background because it can do it so accurately. It lets you get rid of backgrounds you don’t want and enables you to change colors and add shadows to an image. The Photoshop pen tool is used for the clipping path technique, and it takes skill to get a good result. It works well on boxes, bottles, watches, ornaments, and other things with hard, sharp edges.
Even though the deep etch technique takes a lot of time, it is used by professionals because it is so accurate.
What Is Image Masking?
It’s another way to get rid of the background, and it’s called layer masking. Image masking lets us choose the edges that are blurry, unclear, fuzzy, or hairy. For example, we can select the fuzzy edges of pet photos or the hairy edges of model photos.
These can’t be chosen with the Photoshop clipping path method, so the only way to get rid of or change the background in these images is to use the Photoshop clipping mask method. The photoshop background eraser, magic eraser, and color separation techniques are used in the image masking technique to make the subject stand out.
Aside from making the edges less precise, the image masking service also makes removing the background from complex images with many curves, turns, and soft edges easier.
Clipping Path vs. Image Masking
What’s the difference between the clipping path and the image masking since they both do almost the same thing?
From how they are defined and how they work, we can already tell what their most important areas are, what they can do, and where they fall short. With both clipping path and image masking, there are different ways to get rid of an image’s background. Clipping path lets you make paths around an object you want to get rid of using a pen tool. For removing the background from a picture in Photoshop, you can use the background eraser tool, the magic eraser tool, or color separation.
Using Photoshop’s clipping path, you can eliminate the background of any complicated image with many curves and edges, but the result won’t be as good and accurate.
Conclusion
When it comes to getting rid of the background, neither clipping path nor masking is better than the other. Both clipping path and masking edits have a place in photo retouching, especially for ecommerce photos that need a wide range of images, and both are hard to do well without a lot of practice.
