This is sort of related to my last post but I thought it might be better to start a new thread because this is a bit different.

I want to mask off an elliptical area to isolate just the people in the group photo below for use in a similar layout (on the right) so the "yearbook" layout doesn't continue to look like a big pile of elephant puckey. I saw an example in this tutorial (Thanks, gwpriester!!) for creating a circle that looked like it would work. So I tried it but I can't seem to get the area symmetrical. Also, I realize it's two different group shots but the chief doesn't want the Village Board in the shot.

Is there any quick way to draw an ellipse and convert it to a mask in X9?

Should also point out that this was my first "formal" photography attempt. I usually just do "live" shots of people having a good time so this was a little nerve-wracking for me. (It didn't help much that the off-duty firefighters were already doing shots of Krupnick, a rather potent Polish honey liqueur) Therefore, I didn't realize before I took the shot that the woman on the left side should really have been on the right side to balance out the group.

Thanks so much for the help!!
Jack

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