tutorial: layer masks explained

[Andy]

there seems to be a lot of confustion on how to use layer masks, so let's try to clear it up, shall we? the main benefit of the layer mask is to be able to undo, in full or in part, the effect you are working on in a particular layer.

follow these steps exactly, and practice working with layer masks, you'll quickly see the benefits of this powerful tool!

layer>new adjustment layer>hue saturation layer



and you'll see that what happens is you get your normal hue/satuartion box and look over there in the layers pallette, there's a white rectangle next to the small version of the photo - that's the layer mask! go ahead and turn the saturation slider for master all the way to the left (desaturating)



now, go to your tools pallette, click on the brush tool, and select a fat soft edged brush from the brushes drop-down. size it big enough so that you can paint easily over the upper left hand of this pic, and that you can easily see the effect when you apply the brush on the pic. make sure that your foreground color is black.



now, use the brush, at full opacity (100% - that box is at the top of your screen)...and brush over the roses in the upper left of this pic. go ahead, don't be shy! now, notice the layer mask, in the layers pallette, now has a black area where you just brushed. and the color has returned to the roses. in effect, you are "undo-ing" the effect of this layer



okay, let's say you masked something you didn't mean to mask. how do you "undo the undo?" click on the eraser, make the brush soft edged and the size you want, and begin painting back on the roses again. you'll see that you are erasing part of the layer mask, and the color goes away again. look closely at the layer mask icon in the layers pallette.



let's try another way to get a layer mask. here, i've added a toning layer to this pic. the layer is called "experiment." notice, there's no layer mask there, so let's add one.



click on the layer mask icon (circle in the square at the bottom of the layers pallette). voila, a mask icon appears..



now use the same technique as before, to undo the effect of this red toning layer. fat soft brush, foreground color black, and paint away the red. experiment here with different opacities of the brush, you can see that you can paint away some or all of the mask.



if you right click on the layer mask icon in the layers pallette, you'll see that there are some things you can do. i often will disable the mask, too see what the overall effect is doing to my pic. then i enable it again. sort of like an "eyeball" for the mask only.



and that's it. practice with layer masks, they are indeed our friends!

[wxwax]

Andy, there's the other easy way to get a mask going.

On the Layers palette, on the bottom, there's a circle that's half light and half dark. If you put your cursor over it, it says "Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer."

If you click on it, you get the same options as if you had gone to the top of the screen and hit layer>new adjustment layer> levels (or whatever.)

The beauty of this way is that it's one click to get your options for levels, hue/staturation, curves etc. And if you have the little boxes set to black and white on the toolbar, you automatically have a mask. Just hit the paintbrush tool and swipe away.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by wxwax

Andy, there's the other easy way to get a mask going.

On the Layers palette, on the bottom, there's a circle that's half light and half dark. If you put your cursor over it, it says "Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer."

If you click on it, you get the same options as if you had gone to the top of the screen and hit layer>new adjustment layer> levels (or whatever.)

The beauty of this way is that it's one click to get your options for levels, hue/staturation, curves etc. And if you have the little boxes set to black and white on the toolbar, you automatically have a mask. Just hit the paintbrush tool and swipe away.

been meanin' to thank you for this tip, sid. i now use it all the time.

[ginger_55]

Originally Posted by andy

been meanin' to thank you for this tip, sid. i now use it all the time.

I use layers all the time. But each time I create and work on a background layer, or duplicate, or whatever, I have to flatten those before I can go to the next layer. I mean I can only have the original picture and one to work on, before the next layer will not work for me. There are locks or something stopping it.

I was too busy one day to get books to search this stuff out, so I thought, well computer, if that is what you want I will do it, just to get this stuff done. But I know the rest of the world of photography has multiple layers going. They are called layer (s).

Would, you, Andy, or anyone know what I am doing wrong.

thanks for the layers mask thing, I have that printed out already, meant to study it and also meant to study a thing you did, Andy, right after i Joined, called "sweet light", then Sid posted something, but I can't get past the layers not wanting me to go to another layer. I work around it, but......

ginger

[Andy]

Originally Posted by ginger_55

I use layers all the time. But each time I create and work on a background layer, or duplicate, or whatever, I have to flatten those before I can go to the next layer. I mean I can only have the original picture and one to work on, before the next layer will not work for me. There are locks or something stopping it.

I was too busy one day to get books to search this stuff out, so I thought, well computer, if that is what you want I will do it, just to get this stuff done. But I know the rest of the world of photography has multiple layers going. They are called layer (s).

Would, you, Andy, or anyone know what I am doing wrong.

thanks for the layers mask thing, I have that printed out already, meant to study it and also meant to study a thing you did, Andy, right after i Joined, called "sweet light", then Sid posted something, but I can't get past the layers not wanting me to go to another layer. I work around it, but......

ginger

g,

what version of photoshop do you use?

[ginger_55]

Originally Posted by andy

g,

what version of photoshop do you use?

I am using Photoshop 7. I have Elements 2 on my computer, too. I never used layers before joining here, now I use them, but I have this glitch, I am sure it is something I don't know to do.

I have only had ps 7 on my computer a few months, it was a "gift", and I accepted it, but saw no reason to use it, now I have no desire to go back to elements.

ginger

[wxwax]

Lynn, there are two posts here offering different solutions to unlocking Layers. The first is simply renaming the background layer. The second post has a series of suggestions.

[ginger_55]

Originally Posted by wxwax

Lynn, there are two posts here offering different solutions to unlocking Layers. The first is simply renaming the background layer. The second post has a series of suggestions.

who was whining about the layer lock. If there are two posts about it, then others must have the problem at some time.

Am running out the door, NOW.

will look, copy, keep, later,
thanks, Sid,

ginger

[wxwax]

Oops, sorry, I meant Ginger, not Lynn. And don't worry, the links are to other forums, not here. I hope they help. And anyway, I heard that Lynn enjoys a good chastising.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by wxwax

Oops, sorry, I meant Ginger, not Lynn. And don't worry, the links are to other forums, not here. I hope they help. And anyway, I heard that Lynn enjoys a good chastising.

i heard the same thing! word gets around, eh?

[lynnma]

Originally Posted by andy

i heard the same thing! word gets around, eh?

Huh?? me? ... nah you must be thinkin of someone else..

[ginger_55]

The beauty of this way is that it's one click to get your options for levels, hue/staturation, curves etc. And if you have the little boxes set to black and white on the toolbar, you automatically have a mask. Just hit the paintbrush tool and swipe away.[/QUOTE]___________________________

Sid, if you get a chance could you expand on what you mean by having the boxes set to black and white, then swiping away .............etc.

Or is it already somewhere else handy. I can't search for it, as I don't know what it is called.

ginger

[cletus]

Originally Posted by ginger_55

Sid, if you get a chance could you expand on what you mean by having the boxes set to black and white, then swiping away .............etc.

Or is it already somewhere else handy. I can't search for it, as I don't know what it is called.

ginger

Ginger,

The boxes sid is talking about are the foreground and background color boxes in the tool palette:

In this picture the foreground color is set to white, and the background is set to black. Typically when you start working with a mask you're going to want the foreground color set to black and the background set to white.

Here's a handy-dandy way to get black for foreground and white for background:

• Press D (this will set the foreground white and the background black)
• Press X (this will swap the foreground and background colors)

Once you have your colors set up, you can use the paintbrush and start mask away. If you need to correct something, just grab the eraser and unmask away!

[ginger_55]

Originally Posted by cletus

Ginger,





The boxes sid is talking about are the foreground and background color boxes in the tool pallette.

________________________ In this picture the foreground color is set to white, and the background is set to black. Typically when you start working with a mask you're going to want the foreground color set to black and the background set to white.

Here's a handy-dandy way to get black for foreground and white for background:

• Press D (this will set the foreground white and the background black)
• Press X (this will swap the foreground and background colors)

Once you have your colors set up, you can use the paintbrush and start mask away. If you need to correct something, just grab the eraser and unmask away!

___________________________________

Eric, I know where the boxes are, I use them all the time for another purpose, those aweful frames. I switch them, I do all sorts of things. I use them for a few other things too.

I just don't know what you mean when you say "mask away" or "colors set up", either.

Thanks, ginger

[cletus]

Originally Posted by ginger_55

I just don't know what you mean when you say "mask away" or "colors set up", either.

Thanks, ginger

I realized that "mask away" wasn't the best term to use. I had inteneded for it to mean something like "go ahead and start painting on the layer mask with the paintbrush tool and see how the masking works". The fourth image in Andy's original post really shows what I mean.

The talk about setting up the "colors" for working with a layer mask refers to setting up the foreground and background colors (those little boxes) so that you can use tools like the paintbrush and eraser to change (change meaning paint, erase, fill, etc.) the layer mask. Where a layer mask is white, the contents or effect of the layer are visible. Where the layer mask is black, the contents are hidden and the layer(s) underneath will show through. Thats why Andy is painting on the layer mask using black.

Hope this helps. If it doesn't or if you still have questions, just let us know!

[Thwack]

If you use a shade of gray instead of black, you can get a different effect.

I have a shot posted in the Flowers thread of a red rose. The red is oversaturated and by creating a hue/saturation layer, then brushing over the rose with a gray, I get a nice pink rose with petals that are easier to see.

I experimented a bit then ran low on time. So, I settled on about 65% or 70% gray for the rose itself and I think about 35% gray for the rest of the picture.

I used the magic wand while in the background layer to quickly select all of the rose, then switched to the hue/saturation layer and used Fill from the Edit menu to fill with the foreground color (which was set to 65% gray).

Then, I inverted the selection, changed the foreground color to 35%, and used Fill to flood the background to let some of the original background color show through.

It's not perfect, and this might not be the right technique for toning down the rose's overdone reds, but it was a good learning experience and is directly related to this thread.

Here are the before and after shots:





Comments, criticisms, etc are invited.