Very Interesting lesson.I am definitely making it in under the wire again.
So on with the images
This is the mask I created using
a white canvas
adding a circle selection with a feather of 3
flodfilling it with black
adding lines to enclose bottom
selecting and filling also with black
The result
This image created with above mask and an "eye" brush I made
and 2 more variations
Image before applying mask
The masked image made by
black canvas
elipse selection feather set to 5
clear selection
add layer
apply fan tube then moving to corner
copy fan and paste to new layer
repeating for all 4 corners
merge fan layers only
color change to greyscale
adjust color to highest contrast
magic wand selecting center offan layer
invert selection
switcjh to black layer and clear selected area
final mask image below
More variations from above mask
original image
Change image to greyscale then adjusted highlight midtone and shadows
Then after splitting RGB
After altering and combining RGB
The final result
The following is done with the same layer 1 image but with the mask inverted
The result
