Digital Designer Toolbox

I love layer masks. When working with photos, I prefer not to lose any of the original photo. That means, no erasing parts. A layer mask gives you the versatility to create many cool effects without actually altering any of the pixels. I’ll use the Mama Mia photo as an example.

The background was distracting and the photo was fun so I wanted to make it a little more outrageous. I could have used the extract tool, quick mask or the eraser tool. All of these would have destroyed pixel data by removing content. If I messed up, I would be hard pressed to recover my image.

By using a layer mask, I can simply “mask” my unwanted pixels. The backgroun image is my original scan. Always make a new layer with a copy of your image. Never work on the original. To create a layer mask, click on the mask icon (the shaded rectangle with the circle cut out). You will have a blank square thumnail appear next to your image thumbnail. Select the blank thumbnail to make it active. It will have a second line around the outside. You can see in the screenshot that the background copy layer is selected, and the image itself is active, not the layer mask. Once you select the mask you can paint with black to remove the background. If you make a mistake, paint with white.

To do this quickly, use a hard round brush. Use your keyboard shortcuts with your left hand. Bracket keys quickly allow you to change brush sizes. Use x to switch between black and white (assuming your foreground and background colors are set to default black and white). A tablet comes in handy for this type of work. A mouse can be awkward.

As you can see in background copy2, layer masks are great for blends. I needed the shadow the fade in the distance. I simply added a gradient in my layer mask.

Other Fun Things You Can do with Layer Masks

I prefer layer masks to clipping paths. Make a shape in a new layer, click on the layer thumbnail to select it, click on the layer you want to “cut out” and make a new layer mask. If the mask is hiding the wrong part, simply invert it. You can click the chain between the mask and layer thumnail if you want to move the image around in the shape.

If you like this tutorial and would like to see more, or need a little clarification, please leave a comment.