We moved the cat image slightly to the left. A layer mask is a grayscale image, so areas you paint in black are hidden, areas you paint in white are visible, and areas you paint in shades of gray appear in various levels of transparency. A. Layer mask thumbnail B. Vector mask thumbnail C. Vector Mask Link icon D. Add Mask You can edit a layer mask to add or subtract from the masked region.
Contrary to our previous example, which uses a layer mask filled with white pixels, layer masks filled with black pixels create full transparency in the corresponding pixel area of the layer which is masked. Finally, if for any reason you want to permanently apply your layer mask, you can Right-Click > Apply Layer Mask on your layer mask. How to create (and work with) layer masks in Photoshop 1. The white rectangle that shows up next to the image thumbnail is the layer mask. This let’s you view the mask by itself, and also make changes to it. Once a layer mask is applied, whatever is masked out will become permanently deleted, the layer will turn back into a standard rasterized layer, and you are free to add a new layer mask. Now save the file and take a look of it. With blank layer mask visible in image area, paste the content which is copied Layer mask from the clipboard from Edit> Paste. If you don’t wrap your head around them, you’ll never be able to get much further. Once you create a layer mask, it is white. Layers are fundamental to the image editing process in Photoshop. As you can see it adds a white layer mask meaning that the entire image is visible. To mask layer in Photoshop you simply have to be on that layer and press the Add Layer Mask button found on the layers tab. Next step is to show newly created blank Layer mask in main image area by Alt + clicking on it. As soon as you start using Photoshop, you’ll probably need to use Layers and Layer Masks. Adding a layer mask on top of an image allows you to control how much of that image is visible. It can only have monochromatic colors in grayscale, i.e. And it helps designers to become more efficient and more creative. How to add Layer Mask in Photoshop. With just a few easy steps, you can use any picture or graphic to mask specific parts of a layer. Photoshop can be confusing. And then change the blending mode to “linear dodge”. Photoshop automatically creates a layer mask for each new adjustment layer. To add a layer mask to a layer, click on the layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel (it looks like a square with a circle inside). Layers are on top are visible, whereas layers underneath cannot be seen unless some parts of the layers on top are visible.
You can also use the menu, go to ‘Layer – Layer Mask – Reveal All’ to make a white layer mask. Now that you know what layer masks are, and the basics, we can get into the real fun of them, which is where you have blacks, whites, and even tones of gray in the same mask.