Using the Add Mask icon The fastest way to create a mask is to click one of the Add Mask icons in the Layers panel or in the Masks panel, as shown in Figure 10.28.. Two different types o
Trang 1FIGURE 10.26
Making the Water Paper filter the base of the filters added is a better result than placing it on top
Layer Masks
Think of a mask as a stencil If you place a stencil over an area that you are painting, it protects the areas that are covered and creates a painted design in the bargain Masks in Photoshop work the same way, but you can do so much more with an image than just paint over it Every enhancement
or filter available in Photoshop can be applied to just a portion of your image while leaving the rest
of your image untouched using masks
Wait a minute Doesn’t this sound just like what a selection does? It’s true, a selection is actually a type of mask—a selection mask, and I’ve already shown you how to work with Quick Masks and the color overlay masks to refine your selections
Now we’re going to move one step beyond selections to Layer Masks, which are more permanent extensions of selections
A layer mask is what most people think of when thinking about masks in Photoshop Figure 10.27 shows a layer mask Just like a stencil, the black parts cover areas of the image that will be unaf-fected by any changes made to this layer It also makes those areas transparent so that any layers underneath will be visible
The white areas of the mask are areas that will be affected by any changes made to the layer These areas behave just as if they were all the image pixels contained in this layer For instance, you can see in Figure 10.22 that the Drop Shadow Layer Style that was added created a drop shadow only
of the unmasked areas of the image
Trang 2FIGURE 10.27
Placing a mask in a layer protects portions of it from edits
One of the best aspects of using digital layers over stencils is that it is incredibly easy to create semi-permeable areas of a mask with grayscale tones The lighter a grayscale area is, the more any changes you make to your image affect those areas
Creating masks
You can create layer masks in several ways All but one of these ways usually begins by creating a selection After you’ve created a selection, turning it into a mask is fairly simple After you’ve cre-ated a mask, you can move it between layers to facilitate image composites and special effects
Using the Add Mask icon
The fastest way to create a mask is to click one of the Add Mask icons in the Layers panel or in the Masks panel, as shown in Figure 10.28 If you have an area in your image selected, a mask is cre-ated from that selection You also can create a mask from a path If no selection or path is active, the mask is blank
Two different types of masks can be created using these icons: a pixel mask and a vector mask The type of mask created depends on whether you create the mask from a selection or a path
Pixel masks
Pixel masks are rasterized masks and behave just like raster images, as discussed in Chapter 3
They are built from pixels and lose quality if they are resized If you create a mask from a selection,
it is a pixel mask, whether you use the Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers panel or the Add Pixel Mask in the Masks panel If you click the Add Vector Mask icon in the Masks panel, the selection
is not used to create a vector mask on the selected layer
Trang 3FIGURE 10.28
Use the Add Mask icons to quickly add a mask to a selected layer
Vector masks
Vector masks are built mathematically and are recomputed as they are resized so they don’t lose quality You can create a vector mask from a path either by creating a path or turning a selection into a path These masks can be edited using only the vector tools, such as the pen tools or the shape tools Just as a selection can’t be used to create a vector mask, a path can’t be used to create a pixel mask
Using the Refine Edge dialog box
I showed you the ins and outs of the Refine Edge dialog box in Chapter 9 New in Photoshop CS5, you can use this dialog box to export your selection as a mask over your current layer, a mask over
a new layer, or a mask over a new layer in a new document Regardless of which option you choose, your selection is changed into a mask with properties identical to the mask shown in Figure 10.36 Using the Feather option in the Refine Edge dialog box adds an increasingly more transparent edge to your mask, which is indicated by levels of grayscale
Type masks
You can create type masks over your image by using the type mask tools found in the Toolbox, as shown in Figure 10.29 These tools work like the type tools, but rather than creating solid text on
a separate layer, the type mask tools create a selection that surrounds the type on the selected
Trang 4layer After you’ve created a selection using type, you can create a mask from that selection using the Refine Edge dialog box or the Add Mask icons
FIGURE 10.29
The type mask tools can create masks in your image using type
Clipping masks
Clipping masks are not created using a selection, nor do they look like a traditional mask in your Layers panel A clipping mask is created by taking the shape of one layer and cutting that shape out of the layer above it
Create a clipping mask by following these steps:
On the Web Site
Try it yourself by downloading Figure 10-30a and Figure 10-30b from the Web site n
1 Open an image you want to clip
This can be any image you want I’ve chosen the Halloween photo pictured first in Figure 10.30
2 Double-click the background layer to turn it into a regular layer.
You can name the layer if you would like to.
Trang 53 Create a layer with a cut-out to clip from
This can be a shape layer, a text layer, or a selection from another image I chose the lat-ter option and used the selection of a spider I copied and pasted into its own layer, as shown in the second image in Figure 10.30
FIGURE 10.30
I combine these two images with a clipping mask
4 Place the layer with the cut-out underneath the image layer
If you’ve created a new layer in your document, it was automatically placed above your image layer Click and drag it underneath your image layer
5 Select the image layer
This is the layer that you want to be visible in the end My selected layer is the one with
the jack-o-lanterns
6 Right-click the image layer, and select Create Clipping mask from the pop-up menu
This uses the bottom layer as a template to cut the top layer, as shown in Figure 10.31
The bottom layer becomes a silhouette for the top layer
On the Web Site
Look at my final product by downloading Figure 10-31 from the Web site and looking at the layers n
Creating a clipping mask changed the way the layers look in the Layers panel, but not by placing a mask thumbnail in the selected layer Instead, the layer containing the jack-o-lantern image has been turned into a Smart Object, and an arrow has been placed pointing down to indicate that this layer is being affected by the layer underneath
You can release the clipping mask by right-clicking the top layer again and choosing Release Clipping Mask from the pop-up menu
Trang 6FIGURE 10.31
The clipping mask used the spider as a template to cut out the jack-o-lantern image for spooky effect
Editing masks
After a mask thumbnail has been placed in your Layers panel, you can edit it You can edit the mask using the image, the channels, or the Masks panel
Edit a mask by painting on the image
To edit the mask using the image, you must have the mask selected in the layer Make sure the mask thumbnail has a white highlight around it, rather than the image thumbnail This is some-times hard to see, so click back and forth a couple of some-times to see the difference
After you have selected the mask, you can use the Brush and Eraser tools to add to or subtract from the masked area Using the Brush adds to the mask and using the Eraser subtracts from it
Use these tools directly on your image The only difference you see is a change in the masks effects
Depending on what those changes are, this might not be the ideal way to edit your mask, because
it is hard to be precise if the effects of the mask aren’t obvious For instance, the mask in Figure 10.32 is placed over an exposure adjustment, and changes made to this mask simply lighten or darken the image a little, a hard change to see
Note
Reducing the opacity on either the Brush or the Eraser tool paints levels of grayscale, creating a semi-permeable
area of your mask n
Edit masks using the Channels panel
A better option for editing this mask is to use the Channels panel With the mask selected in the Layers panel, open the Channels panel, as shown in Figure 10.33 The channels panel contains the color channels found in your image, but it also contains any masks placed in your image When you open the Channels panel, the mask channels are not visible If you turn the visibility icon on, a
Trang 7FIGURE 10.32
The white outline showing that the mask is selected means that I am making changes to the mask with the
brush, rather than the image
If you would like to make changes to the mask all by itself, without a view of the image, you can deselect the visibility icon in the full color channel (RGB, in this example) and only the mask is vis-ible in your document window, as shown in Figure 10.33
FIGURE 10.33
You can edit the mask by itself by turning off the visibility of the color channels in the Channels panel
Trang 8Layers and Channels are usually in the same tab group If you are working with both simultaneously, however,
it might be easier to undock one or the other and drag it out so both can be seen at the same time n
Editing masks using the Masks panel
The Masks panel is the most comprehensive way to edit masks, not only giving you the option to add to or subtract from them but also allowing you to refine the edges, choose a color range, or invert it You also can change your mask into a selection
Figure 10.34 shows the Masks panel These options are available:
FIGURE 10.34
The Masks panel
Add Pixel Mask Add Vector Mask
Load Selection from Mask
Apply Mask
Disable/Enable Mask
l Mask thumbnail: The mask thumbnail shows you the currently selected mask as well as
whether the mask is a pixel mask or a vector mask
l Add Pixel Mask: This button adds a pixel mask to the selected layer If that layer contains
an active selection, it is converted to the mask
l Add Vector Mask: This button adds a vector mask to the selected layer If that layer
con-tains an active path, the path is converted to the mask
Trang 9l Density: This slider adjusts the density or translucency of the mask
l Feather: This option adjusts the gradual translucency of the edges of the mask, creating a
feathering effect
l Refine:
l Mask Edge: This opens the Refine Edge dialog box (covered in Chapter 9) and allows
you to make these changes to your mask
l Color Range: This allows you to apply your mask to a color range, similar to the
Color Range dialog box discussed in Chapter 9
l Invert: This inverts the mask, selecting areas that were not previously selected and
dese-lecting areas that were Areas that are semitransparent also are inverted
l Load Selection from Mask: This option does not disable the mask, but allows you to
make changes to it as if it were a selection The marching ants appear on your image, and you can use selection tools to add to or subtract from the mask You also can use the Quick Mask to paint in changes to the mask
l Apply Mask: Clicking this option combines a selected mask to the image, turning all
masked areas into transparent pixels and deleting the mask
l Enable/Disable Mask: This “eye”con allows you to see the image as if no mask were
applied When the eye has a red line through it, the mask effects are not visible in the image
l The Masks panel menu: The Masks panel menu has options that allow you to add or
subtract selections to or from your mask You also can see the mask properties that allow you to change the color of the overlay and give names to your masks
Unlinking and moving masks
To unlink a mask from its layer, simply click the link icon between the layer thumbnail and the mask thumbnail in the layer When the mask is unlinked, it is no longer transformed with the image when it is resized or moved
You also can move masks from one layer to a different layer You would probably do this if you wanted to create a selection in one layer, but use the mask in an entirely different layer Let me show you what I mean
The first image in Figure 10.35 is a photo of some boys gathered around a table at the zoo The second image is a cold baby giraffe that just wants a bit of hot chocolate In order to create the photo composite you see in the last image in Figure 10.35, I had to create a mask on the layer con-taining the image of the boys and move it to the layer concon-taining the image of the giraffe
On the Web Site
Give this effect a try, or see my final results, by downloading Figure 10-35a, 10-35b, and 10-35c from the
Web site n