IntroductionWelcome| 00:07 | Hi! I'm Jan Kabili and I would like to
welcome you to Photoshop CS4 Layer Masks In Depth.
| | 00:13 | This course is a deep dive into the
use of layer masks in Photoshop CS4.
| | 00:18 | It covers everything you need to know
to use layer masking to enhance your
| | 00:22 | photographs and to create
professional looking image composites.
| | 00:26 | I will show you how to create layer
masks by adding grayscale pixels to a mask
| | 00:31 | to hide parts of the layer
to which the mask is attached.
| | 00:34 | We will explore practical applications
for layer masks, like using layer masks
| | 00:38 | with adjustment layers to
correct your photographs.
| | 00:41 | I will walk you through making
creative image composites using layer masks,
| | 00:45 | and I'll show you the latest features for fine-
tuning your layer masks in the new Masks panel.
| | 00:50 | Layer masks are among the most
powerful features in Photoshop.
| | 00:54 | For those of you who already have the
basics of Photoshop under your belt,
| | 00:57 | understanding layer masks will help
you take your photo editing and image
| | 01:01 | composting skills to the next exciting level.
| | 01:04 | So let's get started with this course,
Photoshop CS4 Layer Masks In Depth.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | As you watch the movies in this course,
you will notice that I'm demonstrating
| | 00:04 | techniques using some pre-prepared files.
| | 00:07 | Those are the exercise files.
| | 00:09 | If you are a Premium member of the
lynda.com Online Training Library or if you
| | 00:14 | are viewing the course on a DVD,
you have access to those exercise files.
| | 00:18 | If you don't have access to those
particular exercise files, that's okay,
| | 00:22 | because you can still follow along with me
using your own photographs or other files.
| | 00:27 | I have organized the exercise files by chapter.
| | 00:30 | The same chapters that you see in
the table of contents for this course.
| | 00:33 | Here you can see my Exercise Files
folder on my Desktop, and here in the Finder,
| | 00:38 | the Exercise Files folder open.
| | 00:41 | Inside the Exercise Files folder are
our chapter folders, and inside each
| | 00:45 | chapter folder are subfolders for each
of the movies in that chapter, and inside
| | 00:50 | that subfolder are the exercise files
that I'll use in that particular movie.
| | 00:54 | For most movies, I'll start with the
files opened and you will see a label at
| | 00:58 | the beginning of the movie that tells
you the name of the file that you can open,
| | 01:01 | if you are using the
exercise files to work along with me.
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| Making a course workspace| 00:00 |
There are lots of
different panels in Photoshop CS4.
| | 00:03 |
In this course we are going to be using
a handful of panels over and over again.
| | 00:07 |
Rather than have all of the panels
open that you see here on my screen,
| | 00:11 |
I suggest that you customize your panel
arrangement and save it as a workspace for
| | 00:15 |
this particular course.
| | 00:17 |
This will give you more space on your
screen for just the panels we'll be using most,
| | 00:21 |
and it will give you an easy way
to match your workspace to mine as we
| | 00:25 |
work through the course.
| | 00:26 |
The Workspace menu is the place to go to
setup and access a custom panel arrangement.
| | 00:31 |
The Workspace menu is located here on
the right side of the Application Bar.
| | 00:35 |
On a Mac, the Application Bar is a
separate bar, as you see it here.
| | 00:39 |
On a PC, the Application Bar and the
Workspace menu are combined with the menu bar
| | 00:44 |
at the top of the screen.
| | 00:46 |
The default workspace in
Photoshop CS4 is the one you see here,
| | 00:50 |
the Essentials workspace.
| | 00:52 |
If your Workspace menu isn't set to
Essentials now, go ahead and click on
| | 00:56 |
the Workspace menu and choose Essentials.
| | 00:59 |
The Essentials workspace displays
the panels as you see them here on the
| | 01:03 |
right side of my screen.
| | 01:05 |
I'm going to be using some of these
panels more than others during the course,
| | 01:08 |
so I would like to close the group of
panels I'm not going to use very much,
| | 01:11 |
the Color, Swatches, and Styles panels here.
| | 01:14 |
I will press the panel menu icon on the
right side of that panel group and I'm
| | 01:18 |
going to choose Close Tab Group.
| | 01:20 |
That gives more room to the Adjustments
panel and the Masks panel in its group,
| | 01:26 |
as well as to the Layers panel
and the Channels panel down here.
| | 01:29 |
I'm going to leave the Paths panel open too.
| | 01:32 |
I won't use it very much,
but it's fine to leave it there.
| | 01:35 |
So these are the panels we'll be using most.
| | 01:37 |
Let's save them as a custom workspace.
| | 01:40 |
To do that, I'm going to go up to
the Workspace menu and I'm going to
| | 01:43 |
choose Save Workspace.
| | 01:45 |
In the Save Workspace window, I want
to make sure that Panel Locations is checked,
| | 01:50 |
and I'll give the workspace a name.
| | 01:52 |
I'm going to call this Masks Layers and
click Save, and you can see that that's
| | 01:59 |
the name of the current
workspace up here in the Workspace menu.
| | 02:02 |
Now that you have got a custom panel
configuration like mine, you will be able
| | 02:06 |
to quickly get back to this
configuration at anytime, even after you have closed
| | 02:10 |
and reopened Photoshop.
| | 02:12 |
So let's say that you have
changed your panel configuration.
| | 02:14 |
For example, I'm going to go ahead and
close the entire Layers, Channels, and
| | 02:19 |
Paths layer group by clicking its panel
menu icon and choosing Close Tab Group.
| | 02:25 |
Now, let's say that sometime later you
are working with me through the movies in
| | 02:28 |
this course, and you notice that my
workspace is set to Masks and Layers.
| | 02:33 |
If you want your panels to match mine,
all you have to do at that point is go to
| | 02:38 |
your Workspace menu and choose Masks
and Layers from the top of your Workspace menu,
| | 02:43 |
and that will automatically bring
back the custom panel arrangement that
| | 02:47 |
we named Masks Layers.
| | 02:49 |
Having created and saved this custom
workspace upfront should save you time and
| | 02:53 |
effort down the road as you are
working through this course with me.
| | 02:57 |
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|
1. Layer Mask BasicsWhat is a layer mask?| 00:00 | I would like to make sure that you
have a really good idea of what a layer mask is
| | 00:03 | before I start walking you through the
steps of creating and working with layer masks.
| | 00:08 | So this is one of the few movies where
I'm going to invite you to sit back and
| | 00:12 | just listen and watch rather than work along
with me as I explain the concept of layer masking.
| | 00:17 | In a nutshell, a layer mask is like an
overlay that you add to a layer in order
| | 00:22 | to hide part of that layer from view.
| | 00:25 | To show you that, I have made an image
here that has two layers, one of which
| | 00:29 | contains a layer mask.
| | 00:30 | In the Layers panel, I'm going to click
the Eye icon to the left of the topmost layer,
| | 00:35 | the yellow layer, so that you can see
the content of the layer below, the photo layer.
| | 00:40 | Now I'll make the yellow layer visible
again by clicking in its Eye icon field.
| | 00:45 | The yellow layer is actually
completely filled with yellow pixels, but
| | 00:48 | you don't see all of those yellow pixels
here in the document window, because the
| | 00:52 | yellow layer contains a layer mask,
which is represented by this thumbnail here
| | 00:57 | on the yellow layer.
| | 00:58 | The thumbnail on the left
represents the image pixels.
| | 01:01 | The thumbnail on the right
represents the layer mask.
| | 01:04 | I'm going to make that layer mask
temporarily invisible by holding down the
| | 01:08 | Shift key and clicking on the layer
mask thumbnail, so that you can see that
| | 01:12 | without the layer mask the yellow layer
really is completely filled with yellow pixels.
| | 01:17 | That will make the layer mask visible
again by going over to the Layers panel
| | 01:22 | and just clicking on the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 01:24 | To give you a better sense of what this
layer mask is made up of, I'm going to
| | 01:28 | show you the layer mask in the document
window, and this is also something that
| | 01:32 | I'll show you how to do in
more detail in other movies.
| | 01:35 | But for now I'm just going to hold down
the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key
| | 01:39 | on a PC and click on the layer mask
thumbnail and that displays the layer mask
| | 01:44 | here in the document window.
| | 01:46 | A layer mask is an image in it's
own right and it's a grayscale image.
| | 01:50 | That means that a layer mask can
contain only black pixels, white pixels, or in
| | 01:55 | some cases pixels that are shades of gray.
| | 01:58 | Where a layer mask is black, it will
hide the content of the layer to which it's
| | 02:03 | attached and where a layer mask is white,
it will show the content of the layer
| | 02:08 | to which it's attached, and where a
layer mask is gray, as this one is between
| | 02:13 | the black and white pixels, it will
partially show the content of the layer to
| | 02:17 | which it's attached.
| | 02:18 | Now that you know that, let's go
back and look at the image again.
| | 02:21 | I'll go to the Layers panel, hold down
the Option key on the Mac, the Alt key
| | 02:25 | on the PC, and click again on the layer
mask thumbnail to see the image inside
| | 02:30 | the document window.
| | 02:31 | So this is the area where there are
black pixels on the layer mask, and in this
| | 02:36 | area we can see down through the yellow
layer to the photo on the layer below.
| | 02:41 | This is the area where there are
white pixels on the layer mask.
| | 02:44 | So in this area the yellow parts of the
yellow layer are showing, and in between
| | 02:49 | there is a soft transition that's
caused by the gray pixels on the layer mask.
| | 02:54 | So that's what a layer mask is, a grayscale
overlay that hides part of the layer from view.
| | 02:59 | But why use a layer mask at all?
| | 03:01 | You may be wondering why in this case
I didn't just take the Eraser tool and
| | 03:05 | erase this portion of the yellow layer,
or why I didn't select this portion with
| | 03:10 | the Selection tool and
then delete it from the file.
| | 03:13 | The answer is that in Photoshop it's
always good to work in a way that is
| | 03:17 | nondestructive of your image.
| | 03:19 | That way you have the flexibility
to come back in and change your mind.
| | 03:24 | When you add a layer mask like this
one to a layer, you are not erasing or
| | 03:28 | deleting pixels; you are just
covering them up temporarily.
| | 03:31 | That means you can change your mind
and come back in to reveal those pixels
| | 03:35 | again, as I'll show you
how to do in later movies.
| | 03:38 | So the power of layer masking is that
it allows you to edit nondestructively,
| | 03:43 | hiding content without permanently
deleting or erasing it, and allowing you to
| | 03:47 | come back and change your mind at any time.
| | 03:49 | Your layer mask will stay with the
file as long as you save the image in a
| | 03:53 | format that retains layers, either as
a .PSD or Photoshop document, as a TIFF,
| | 03:59 | or in some more rare cases as a
Photoshop PDF or a large document format file.
| | 04:05 | But keep in mind that if you save as
JPEG or as GIF, a layer mask will be
| | 04:09 | applied but then deleted, and the
layers in the file would be flattened.
| | 04:13 | So the next time that you feel like
erasing or deleting some content from a layer,
| | 04:16 | consider whether you are better
off adding a layer mask, which gives you
| | 04:20 | the power of nondestructive flexible re-editing.
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| What are layer masks used for?| 00:00 | Layer masks really are among the
most powerful features in Photoshop.
| | 00:04 | They really expand the range of
designs and special effects that you can
| | 00:08 | create in this program.
| | 00:10 | Before we get started learning all
about layer masks, I wanted to show you some
| | 00:13 | examples of the kinds of things that
you can accomplish using layer masks, and
| | 00:18 | you are going to learn how to do all
of these things during this course.
| | 00:21 | One area in which layer masks shine
is when you are trying to put together
| | 00:25 | multiple images to create an image composite.
| | 00:28 | Layer masks are often used to hide
content on one layer so that content on
| | 00:32 | another layer shows through.
| | 00:34 | So for example in this case, there is a
layer mask on a photograph of a geisha.
| | 00:38 | Let me show you the original
photograph my making the layer mask temporarily
| | 00:42 | inactive, by holding the Shift key as I
click on the thumbnail that represents
| | 00:46 | the layer mask in the Layers panel.
| | 00:48 | So there is the original photograph,
and with the layer mask I'm hiding part
| | 00:52 | of the original photograph, so that
part of the content on the incense layer
| | 00:56 | below is showing through.
| | 00:59 | Another use for layer masks in
compositing is to create a gradual blend between
| | 01:04 | the content of one layer and another.
| | 01:06 | So here I'll show you the original
photograph on the carnival layer by making
| | 01:10 | the layer mask that I have added to
that layer temporarily invisible by holding
| | 01:14 | the Shift key as I click
on the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 01:17 | So there is the content of the
carnival layer, and with the layer mask we can
| | 01:21 | see down through part of that content
gradually blending the carnival layer with
| | 01:26 | the photograph on the canal
layer below it in the layer stack.
| | 01:31 | Another way to use layer masks when
you are compositing images is to make the
| | 01:35 | content of one layer appear to be
inside of a pot or some other kind of
| | 01:40 | container on another layer.
| | 01:42 | So here I'm going to turn off a couple
of layers by clicking their Eye icons to
| | 01:46 | show you the photograph on the background layer.
| | 01:49 | Then I added a couple of copies of a
photograph of a garden, which I'll show you
| | 01:53 | now by making the layer mask that I
added to the garden temporarily invisible.
| | 01:57 | So there is the content
that's on the center layer.
| | 02:01 | I'll make the layer mask visible again
by clicking on the layer thumbnail to
| | 02:04 | show you how I was able to mask that content,
so it appears to be growing out of this pot.
| | 02:09 | I did the same thing again on this top
layer, using a layer mask to make the
| | 02:14 | content of a garden photograph
appear to be growing out of a pot.
| | 02:19 | Moving away from image compositing for
a second, another area in which layer
| | 02:24 | masks are really important
is enhancing photographs.
| | 02:27 | You can use a layer mask to combine two
different exposures of the same scene,
| | 02:32 | taking the best part of each photograph.
| | 02:34 | Here for example, I have two photographs,
this dark photograph on one layer, and
| | 02:39 | I'll make the layer mask invisible
to show you the light version of the
| | 02:44 | photograph on the top layer.
| | 02:45 | Then I'll make the layer mask visible
again so that you can see that I use that
| | 02:49 | mask to combine parts of the
light and the dark exposure.
| | 02:54 | Perhaps the most frequent use of layer
masking is to limit the areas of a photo
| | 03:00 | to which an adjustment layer applies.
| | 03:02 | You can use adjustment layers to fix
the exposure, the contrast, the color,
| | 03:07 | and more in your photographs, and
often, you don't want an adjustment to
| | 03:11 | affect all parts of an image.
| | 03:13 | So you can use the layer mask that
comes with every adjustment layer, like
| | 03:17 | this layer mask here on this Levels
adjustment layer, to limit the areas
| | 03:21 | affected by the adjustment.
| | 03:22 | I will show you this mask by holding the
Option key on the Mac or the Alt key on
| | 03:26 | the PC and clicking on the layer
mask thumbnail on the Levels layer.
| | 03:30 | This mask is hiding a Levels
adjustment from all areas where there are black
| | 03:34 | pixels on the mask, and it's allowing
the Levels adjustment to be revealed or
| | 03:38 | to show only where there are white and light
gray pixels on this Levels adjustment layer.
| | 03:43 | I'm going to Option or Alt click again
on that layer mask thumbnail to go back
| | 03:47 | to the original photograph.
| | 03:52 | Similarly, if you add a fill layer,
which acts much like an adjustment layer
| | 03:56 | to an image, you can use a layer mask to
limit the areas affected by that fill layer.
| | 04:01 | In this case, I have a blue fill layer
that I added above the photograph, and
| | 04:06 | then I added a layer mask to limit
the area where that blue fill appears to
| | 04:10 | adjust the tabletop around the objects.
| | 04:12 | I will show you that layer mask by
holding down the Option key on the Mac or the
| | 04:16 | Alt key on the PC, and as you can see
where there is black on this layer mask,
| | 04:20 | that blue color fill is hidden when
I go back to the original photograph.
| | 04:28 | Layer masking is also important
when you are doing portrait retouching.
| | 04:32 | Here I have applied a couple of
adjustment layers, a Levels adjustment layer,
| | 04:36 | and a Hue Saturation layer above the
background photograph to try to reduce the
| | 04:41 | amount of red and brighten
the white of this subject's eye.
| | 04:45 | If I make the layer masks inactive on
these two adjustment layers, you can see
| | 04:49 | how the image would look if these
adjustments affected the entire image.
| | 04:53 | But I have used these masks to limit
the effect of both the Levels and the Hue
| | 04:58 | Saturation adjustment to just the eye,
with no effect on the rest of the image.
| | 05:05 | Adjustment layers and fill layers
aren't the only Photoshop features that come
| | 05:09 | with their own layer masks.
| | 05:11 | If you apply filters as Smart Filters,
you also get a layer mask automatically
| | 05:16 | on the Smart Filter sublayer and you
can add pixels to that layer mask to limit
| | 05:21 | the areas to which the filter applies.
| | 05:23 | In this case, I have applied a Blur filter.
| | 05:25 | Without the layer mask, that blur
would affect the entire image like this.
| | 05:31 | But the black and gray pixels that I
have added to this Smart Filter layer
| | 05:35 | mask limit this blur to the area around the
model, simulating a shallow depth of field effect.
| | 05:42 | Also of interest to photographers is
the fact that you can use layer masks to
| | 05:47 | creatively frame your images.
| | 05:48 | For example, here I have added a layer
mask to a photograph, filled that layer
| | 05:53 | mask with black to hide most of the
photograph, and then painted in with white
| | 05:58 | paint the areas where I want the
photograph to appear, resulting in this rather
| | 06:02 | creative framing effect.
| | 06:04 | So that's just a taste of the kinds of
things that you can make using layer masks.
| | 06:08 | I hope you are looking forward to
learning how to make all of these effects and
| | 06:11 | more as you work with me
through the rest of this course.
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| Introducing the Masks panel| 00:00 |
The Masks panel is a brand new panel
in Photoshop CS4 that acts as a command
| | 00:05 |
center for working with layer masks.
| | 00:07 |
In this movie I'll give you an
introductory tour of the Masks panel, and then
| | 00:11 |
in later movies I'll show you how to use
some of its commands in context as they come up.
| | 00:16 |
The Masks panel is located in a panel
group with the Adjustments panel right here.
| | 00:21 |
To bring the Masks panel to the front
of this panel group, just click its tab.
| | 00:25 |
If the Masks panel isn't showing on
your screen, you can bring it up by
| | 00:29 |
accessing the Masks Layer workspace
that I showed you how to make in the
| | 00:33 |
introductory chapter, or you can just
go to the Window menu and choose Masks.
| | 00:39 |
One of the benefits of the Masks panel
is that it brings together in one place
| | 00:43 |
many of the features that you will
use most often when you are working with
| | 00:46 |
layer or vector masks.
| | 00:48 |
For example, the buttons up here on
the top right of the Masks panel offer
| | 00:52 |
one way to create layer and vector
masks and to switch between those masks
| | 00:57 |
and the image itself.
| | 00:59 |
So if I go to the Layers panel and I
select the photo layer, which doesn't have
| | 01:03 |
a mask on it right now, I can then use
those two buttons in the Masks panel to
| | 01:08 |
add either a layer mask like
this or a vector mask like this.
| | 01:13 |
I'll be showing you lots more about
adding layer and vector masks in other movies.
| | 01:17 |
These two icons work a little bit
differently when you already have a mask on a layer.
| | 01:21 |
So for example, on the brush
copy layer, I do have a layer mask.
| | 01:26 |
I'm going to select that layer mask
by clicking the rightmost thumbnail on
| | 01:29 |
the brush copy layer.
| | 01:31 |
The thumbnail on the left represents
the image on that layer, the thumbnail on
| | 01:35 |
the right represents the layer mask on
that layer, as I'll explain in lots more
| | 01:39 |
detail in other movies.
| | 01:40 |
So you don't have to worry too much
about that for now, but I do want to show
| | 01:43 |
you that you can toggle between those
two thumbnails by clicking the layer mask
| | 01:48 |
icon in the Masks panel,
like this, and again like this.
| | 01:52 |
There are also some useful buttons
at the bottom of the Masks panel.
| | 01:57 |
I still have that layer mask
thumbnail on the brush copy layer selected.
| | 02:01 |
If I decided I didn't want that layer
mask, I could delete it from the bottom of
| | 02:05 |
the Masks panel by
clicking the Trash icon like this.
| | 02:08 |
I'll bring it back by pressing Command+
Z on the Mac or Ctrl+Z on the PC, which
| | 02:14 |
is the shortcut for undo, so that I
can show you the other icons here.
| | 02:19 |
With the layer mask still selected on
the brush copy layer, I could make the
| | 02:23 |
layer mask temporarily invisible
without deleting it by pressing this Eye icon.
| | 02:28 |
You can see there is now a big red X on
the brush copy layer, which means that
| | 02:32 |
it's temporarily invisible, as you
can see here in the document window.
| | 02:36 |
If I click that Eye icon
again, the mask comes back.
| | 02:39 |
The button to the left of the Eye icon
is a button for applying a layer mask.
| | 02:43 |
So with that same layer mask thumbnail
selected, if I click this button, the
| | 02:48 |
layer mask thumbnail disappears, but the
mask has been permanently applied to the image.
| | 02:53 |
I'm going to undo that by pressing
Command+Z on the Mac or Ctrl+Z on the PC, and
| | 02:58 |
I'll show you the leftmost button at
the bottom of the Masks panel, which
| | 03:02 |
converts a layer mask to a selection.
| | 03:04 |
I will click that and now I have a
selection in the shape of my layer mask.
| | 03:09 |
A selection is basically just another
way to represent a layer mask in Photoshop.
| | 03:14 |
Once you have a selection, then you can
do all the things you would normally do
| | 03:17 |
to a selection, like fill the
selection or delete the selected area and more.
| | 03:22 |
I'm going to get rid of this selection
by pressing Command+D to deselect on the
| | 03:26 |
Mac or Ctrl+D to deselect on the PC.
| | 03:30 |
Another big advantage of the Masks
panel is that it contains a couple of new
| | 03:33 |
controls that come in really handy
as you are working with layer masks.
| | 03:37 |
One of those is the Density slider here.
| | 03:40 |
With the layer mask thumbnail on the
brush copy layer still selected, if I take
| | 03:44 |
that Density slider and drag it to
the left, I'm reducing the effect of the
| | 03:49 |
layer mask on the brush copy layer.
| | 03:51 |
I'll be explaining more about what that
means in a later movie, but I wanted to
| | 03:55 |
point out this Density slider, which is
so easy to access and interactive here
| | 04:00 |
in the new Masks panel.
| | 04:01 |
I am going to drag the Density slider
back over to the right to show you the
| | 04:05 |
Feather slider, which also is very useful when
you want to soften the edge of a masked area.
| | 04:11 |
So for example, keep your eye on the
edge of this area, which is the masked area
| | 04:16 |
in this image, as I drag the Feather
slider to the right, you can see that the
| | 04:20 |
edges of that area become softer.
| | 04:22 |
I will put the Feather slider back at 0,
so I can show you another new feature
| | 04:26 |
that's accessible from the new Masks
panel, and that is the Mask Edge button.
| | 04:30 |
With the brush copy layer mask
thumbnail still selected, I'm going to click the
| | 04:35 |
Mask Edge button, and that opens the Refine
Mask dialog box, a new dialog box in Photoshop CS4.
| | 04:42 |
If you are familiar with the Refine
Edge dialog box, it's been around for a few
| | 04:46 |
versions of Photoshop and is used for
working with selections, then you will
| | 04:50 |
recognize many of the controls
here in the Refine Mask dialog box.
| | 04:55 |
We will be looking at this dialog box
in detail in another movie, but for now
| | 04:59 |
I'll just let you know that you can use
the Refine Mask dialog box to soften and
| | 05:04 |
add more contrast and contract
or expand the edge of a mask.
| | 05:09 |
I'm going to cancel out
of this dialog box for now.
| | 05:12 |
I will mention these other two
buttons here on the Masks panel.
| | 05:16 |
The Color Range button is just a new
way to access the existing Color Range
| | 05:21 |
Selection feature, which is one of many
ways to make a selection in Photoshop.
| | 05:25 |
The Invert button is really handy when you
want to invert the effect of a layer mask.
| | 05:29 |
So right now the layer mask on the
brush copy layer is hiding the white
| | 05:34 |
pixels on that layer.
| | 05:35 |
So you can see through to these
color pixels on the layer below.
| | 05:39 |
But with the layer mask thumbnail
selected on the brush copy layer, if I click
| | 05:43 |
the Invert button in the Masks panel,
I get exactly the opposite effect, now
| | 05:48 |
the image on the layer below is hidden in this
area and is showing in the rest of the document.
| | 05:54 |
I'll click Invert again to go back
to the way the image originally was.
| | 05:58 |
Finally, the Masks panel has a panel
menu, just like all panels, which you can
| | 06:03 |
access by clicking the panel menu
icon at the top right of the Masks panel.
| | 06:08 |
From here you can access other
commands that come in handy when you are
| | 06:11 |
working with layer masks.
| | 06:13 |
If you have been working with
Photoshop for a while, you know that there are
| | 06:16 |
often multiple ways to get to a
feature or command, and the same it true when
| | 06:20 |
you are working with commands for layer masks.
| | 06:23 |
Sometimes I like to come to the Masks
panel to access a command, and as we work
| | 06:27 |
through the course I'll let you know
when that's my preference, and I'll also
| | 06:31 |
let you know when I prefer another method.
| | 06:33 |
But in general, I'll say that the new
Masks panel offers convenient one-stop
| | 06:37 |
shopping for many of your layer
mask and vector mask related commands.
| | 06:43 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding a layer mask| 00:00 |
The first step in creating a layer
mask is to add a layer mask to a layer.
| | 00:04 |
Here I have an image that has two layers.
| | 00:06 |
On the top layer, there is this
photograph of a brush, including the white
| | 00:10 |
pixels around the artist's
hand and around the brush.
| | 00:13 |
I'm going to make that layer
temporarily invisible by clicking the Eye icon to
| | 00:17 |
the left of the brush layer in the
Layers panel, so you can see the content of
| | 00:21 |
the layer below the photo layer, which
contains this large green and white wave.
| | 00:26 |
I'm going to turn the brush layer back
on by clicking its Eye icon again in the
| | 00:30 |
Layers panel, and now I'm going to
add a layer mask to the brush layer.
| | 00:34 |
To do that I have to select the Brush
layer by clicking on a blank area of the
| | 00:39 |
Brush layer in the Layers panel.
| | 00:41 |
There are several different ways that I
can add a layer mask to the selected layer.
| | 00:45 |
The way I normally do it, since I'm
working in the Layers panel anyway, is just
| | 00:48 |
to go to the bottom of the Layers panel
and click the Add Layer Mask icon, which
| | 00:52 |
is this icon that looks like a gray
square with a white circle in the middle.
| | 00:57 |
That adds a second thumbnail to the
brush layer, this thumbnail represents the
| | 01:01 |
layer mask, and as you can see from the
thumbnail, when the layer mask comes in
| | 01:05 |
by default, it's completely filled with
white pixels, and that's why you see no
| | 01:10 |
effect of this layer mask on the
document in the document window.
| | 01:13 |
Because as you know from earlier movies,
white pixels on a layer mask reveal or
| | 01:18 |
show all of the content on the
layer to which the mask is attached.
| | 01:22 |
So in this case all of the content on
the brush layer is being revealed through
| | 01:27 |
this white layer mask.
| | 01:28 |
In a later movie in this Chapter, I'll
show you how to add black or gray pixels
| | 01:32 |
to a white mask to hide
parts of the associated layer.
| | 01:35 |
Now that's not the only way
to add a layer mask to a layer.
| | 01:39 |
There are two other ways that I'll
show you, and you are welcome to use any
| | 01:41 |
way that you prefer.
| | 01:42 |
I'm going to press Command+Z on the
Mac or Ctrl+Z on the PC to undo the layer
| | 01:47 |
mask that I just added, and with the
brush layers still selected, I'll show you
| | 01:51 |
another way to add a layer mask, which
is to go up to the Masks panel and there
| | 01:56 |
to click on the Add Pixel Mask icon,
which is the icon here that's a red square
| | 02:00 |
with a white center.
| | 02:01 |
When I click that icon, again, I get
a second thumbnail on the brush layer
| | 02:06 |
representing a new layer mask that's
completely filled with white pixels, and
| | 02:10 |
therefore is revealing
everything on the brush layer.
| | 02:13 |
Keep in mind that you can only
add one layer mask to a layer.
| | 02:17 |
There is another icon here in the
Masks panel, but if I click that icon I'll
| | 02:21 |
get not another layer mask on the
brush layer, but a second mask that's a
| | 02:24 |
vector mask, a subject that I'll be
covering in later movies, but don't be
| | 02:28 |
fooled by that second icon.
| | 02:30 |
So far I have shown you how to add a
default layer mask that's filled with white
| | 02:33 |
pixels, but sometimes you may find it
more efficient to add a black layer mask
| | 02:38 |
that completely hides the content of a
layer, and then you can paint parts of
| | 02:42 |
that layer back in by painting
with white on the black layer mask.
| | 02:46 |
So let me show you how to add a layer
mask that's filled with black pixels.
| | 02:50 |
I'll undo this layer mask by pressing
Command+Z on the Mac or Ctrl+Z on the PC.
| | 02:56 |
I still have the Brush layer selected,
and this time I'm going to go down to the
| | 03:00 |
bottom of the Layers panel, and I'm
going to hold down the options key on the
| | 03:03 |
Mac or the Alt key on the PC, as I
click on the Add Layer Mask icon.
| | 03:08 |
As you can see, the layer mask
thumbnail that's been added to the brush layer
| | 03:11 |
is black, because the layer mask has
come in completely filled with black
| | 03:15 |
pixels, all of the content on the
Brush layer is hidden from view, as you can
| | 03:20 |
see in the document window where you can see
down to all of the photo on the photo layer below.
| | 03:26 |
In later movies, I'll show you how you
can start with a black layer mask like
| | 03:30 |
this and then paint in
areas using white or gray paint.
| | 03:34 |
There's one more way that you can add
either a white or a black layer mask to a
| | 03:38 |
photo, to show you that I'm going to
undo one more time by pressing Command+Z on
| | 03:42 |
the Mac, Ctrl+Z on the PC, and with the
Brush layer still selected, I'm going to
| | 03:47 |
go up to the Layer menu, and down to layer mask.
| | 03:51 |
Notice that there are two
commands that are available right now.
| | 03:55 |
Reveal All and Hide All.
| | 03:57 |
Reveal All adds a white layer mask.
| | 03:59 |
Hide All adds a black layer mask.
| | 04:02 |
So, if I choose Reveal All, I get the
same white layer mask that I got using
| | 04:07 |
either of the other two
methods that I have shown you.
| | 04:09 |
So as you can see, adding a
layer mask isn't very complicated.
| | 04:12 |
You simply choose the method that
you prefer, and use that method.
| | 04:16 |
There is one situation where you
may have trouble adding a layer mask,
| | 04:19 |
and that's if you happen to be
working with a special kind of a layer
| | 04:22 |
called a Background layer.
| | 04:23 |
I'm going to show you how to deal
with that situation in the next movie.
| | 04:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Converting a background layer for masking| 00:00 | You can add a layer mask to lots of
different kinds of layers, everything from
| | 00:04 | a regular image layer, to a type layer,
to a Smart Object layer and more, but
| | 00:09 | there is one kind of layer that won't take
a layer mask and that's a background layer.
| | 00:14 | And unfortunately, you are going
to run into background layers a lot,
| | 00:17 | particularly when you are brining
in an image from a digital camera.
| | 00:20 | It often comes in with a single
layer that's a special background layer.
| | 00:24 | In this movie I'll show you how you can
convert a background layer to a regular layer,
| | 00:28 | so that you can add a layer mask.
| | 00:30 | Take a look at the Layers panel. Here
you see this image has a single layer and
| | 00:34 | it is a special background layer.
| | 00:36 | The name of the layer is background,
and that name is in Italics, and notice
| | 00:41 | that there is a lock on this layer.
| | 00:43 | Those are all signs that this is a
special background layer that won't take a
| | 00:47 | layer mask, and you can tell that it
won't because if you look at the layer
| | 00:50 | mask icon here at the bottom of the
Layers panel it's grayed out, and when I
| | 00:54 | move my mouse over it, I get this
cancel sign and if I go up to the Layer menu
| | 00:59 | at the top of the screen and
try to add a layer mask that way,
| | 01:03 | that command is grayed out as well.
| | 01:06 | So what I need to do whenever I have a
background layer on which I want to put a
| | 01:09 | layer mask is to convert
that layer to a regular layer.
| | 01:13 | There are two ways to change
this layer to a regular layer.
| | 01:16 | The traditional way is a
little bit hard to remember.
| | 01:19 | It's one of the secret handshakes
you just have to know in Photoshop, and
| | 01:23 | that is to go up to the Layer menu and
choose New, and then choose Layer From Background.
| | 01:29 | That opens the New Layer dialog box
and what you are trying to do here is just
| | 01:33 | change the name of the
layer to a regular layer name.
| | 01:36 | You can leave it at the default
Layer 0, and click OK, and this is now a
| | 01:40 | regular layer with a regular layer name,
there is no lock on the layer, and
| | 01:44 | if you notice, the layer mask icon is now
available. Clicking that icon will add a layer mask.
| | 01:50 | But there is even a better way to deal
with adding a layer mask to a background
| | 01:54 | layer in Photoshop CS4 and
that's to use the Masks panel.
| | 01:58 | So I'm going to undo the layer mask I
have just added, by pressing Command+Z on
| | 02:02 | the Mac, Ctrl+Z on the PC, and I'm
going to step back one more step by holding
| | 02:07 | the Option key and pressing the Command+
Z on the Mac, or holding the Alt key and
| | 02:12 | pressing Ctrl+Z on the PC.
| | 02:14 | Now I have got a background layer
again and as before, I don't have the
| | 02:19 | option to add a layer mask using the Add
Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.
| | 02:24 | However, the new Masks panel still
allows me to add a layer mask by clicking the
| | 02:29 | Add Pixel Mask icon right here,
and notice what happens when I do that.
| | 02:33 | Photoshop not only adds a layer mask.
| | 02:36 | It also converts that background layer
into a regular layer all in one step.
| | 02:41 | So this is the most efficient way to do
it and just keep in mind that the next
| | 02:45 | time you are trying to add a layer
mask and you cant do so, odds are it's
| | 02:49 | because that layer is a
special background layer.
| | 02:51 | And now that you know how to deal
with it, it should be no problem to add
| | 02:55 | a layer mask to that layer.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Targeting a layer mask| 00:00 | When you are creating a layer mask,
after you have added the mask to a layer,
| | 00:04 | you are going to want to add black,
gray or white paint to the mask in order to
| | 00:08 | hide or reveal parts of the associated
layer, and I'm going to show you how to
| | 00:12 | do that in an upcoming movie.
| | 00:14 | But first, I want to warn you about
something, before you try to add that
| | 00:17 | black, white or gray paint, make sure
that you have the layer mask targeted and
| | 00:22 | not the image itself.
| | 00:24 | Here's what I mean.
| | 00:25 | Notice that I have two layers in this
image, I have the Photo layer here, which
| | 00:29 | I'll select by clicking on it,
and then I have a brush layer.
| | 00:33 | I have already added a white
layer mask to this Brush layer.
| | 00:36 | The white pixels on the mask are
revealing everything on the Brush layer.
| | 00:40 | Let's say that I to want to add some
black paint to this layer, in order to
| | 00:43 | hide some of pixels on the Brush layer, so I
can see it down through to the Photo layer below.
| | 00:48 | It's very easy to inadvertently target
the image, rather then the layer mask.
| | 00:53 | If I just come up and click on the
Brush layer, notice that there is a double
| | 00:57 | border around the image thumbnail on
the Brush layer, and that means that the
| | 01:01 | image is targeted, but if I don't
carefully look to make sure that I have got
| | 01:04 | the layer mask targeted rather then the
image, when I get my brush tool, and I
| | 01:09 | get some black paint as my foreground
color, and I click and drag in the image,
| | 01:13 | I'll actually be adding a stroke of
black paint directly on the photo.
| | 01:17 | And if I don't look back at the Layers
panel, I may not even realize that and I
| | 01:22 | might go along making all kinds of
changes to my image and only later realize
| | 01:26 | that I have ruined the photo
by painting on it with black.
| | 01:28 | So that's the problem, what's the solution?
| | 01:31 | The solution is before you add paint to
a layer mask, double check that you have
| | 01:36 | the layer mask thumbnail
highlighted, not the image thumbnail.
| | 01:39 | Now there are several ways that you
can highlight the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 01:43 | First, let me get rid of this black
stroke by pressing Command+Z on the Mac,
| | 01:46 | Ctrl+Z on the PC the low tech way to
select the layer mask thumbnail, and this
| | 01:52 | is actually the way that I do it,
because when I'm sure that I have done it, is
| | 01:55 | just to click once on the layer mask
thumbnail, and then it gets that double
| | 01:59 | border, which means that
the layer mask is now active.
| | 02:03 | And now, if I paint with black, my
black stroke appears here on the layers mask
| | 02:08 | thumbnail, and it has a masking
effect in the image, rather than painting a
| | 02:12 | black stroke in the image.
| | 02:14 | So that's one way to do it.
| | 02:15 | I'm going to click back on the image
thumbnail to show you another way to
| | 02:19 | highlight the layer mask thumbnail, and
that is to go up to the Masks panel and
| | 02:24 | click the add pixel mask icon right here,
and as I do that, keep your eye on the
| | 02:29 | Brush layer in the Layers panel, and
you will see that that automatically
| | 02:32 | switched me over to the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 02:35 | Another clue that I have the thumbnail
highlighted is here in the Masks panel.
| | 02:40 | If it says Pixel Mask at the top left
of the Masks panel, then I know that I
| | 02:44 | have highlighted the layer mask.
| | 02:46 | If I click that Pixel Mask icon again,
that takes me back to the Image Mask, and
| | 02:51 | now the message changes and
says, 'no masks selected'.
| | 02:54 | So that's another hint you can use to
make sure that you don't have the wrong
| | 02:58 | thumbnail selected before you
try to add paint to your mask.
| | 03:01 | Now there is one more way to switch
from the image thumbnail to the layer mask
| | 03:05 | thumbnail, and that's to
use a keyboard shortcut.
| | 03:08 | I have realized that some people don't
like keyboard shortcuts, but some people
| | 03:11 | collect them and really like to use
them, and that's particularly true as you
| | 03:14 | get better in Photoshop, and
you are trying to work faster.
| | 03:17 | So, if and when you get to that point,
you can switch to the layer mask icon by
| | 03:22 | pressing this keyboard shortcut, Command
+/ on a Mac, that's Ctrl+/ on a PC, and
| | 03:31 | that switch me over to the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 03:33 | By the way, the / key is just to the
right of the right bracket key on my keyboard.
| | 03:39 | Now if I want to go back to the image
thumbnail using a shortcut, the shortcut
| | 03:43 | is Command+2 on the Mac, Ctrl+2 on the PC.
| | 03:49 | So please do remember before you add
paint to a layer mask, do check that there
| | 03:53 | is a double border around the layer
mask icon on the selected layer, or you
| | 03:57 | will end up adding your paint directly on your
image, which is definitely something to avoid.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Painting on a layer mask| 00:00 |
The heart of layer masking is adding
black, white and sometimes gray pixels to a
| | 00:05 |
layer mask, in order to hide and show
different parts of the content of the layer
| | 00:10 |
to which the mask is attached.
| | 00:12 |
One way to add black, white, or gray to
a layer mask is to paint it on using the
| | 00:17 |
Brush tool or another Photoshop painting tool.
| | 00:20 |
In this case, I'm using the same image
that I used in the preceding movies,
| | 00:24 |
in which there are two layers.
| | 00:25 |
A photograph on the layer below, and
this entire image that you see here, the
| | 00:31 |
paintbrush, the hand, and these
white pixels around those items.
| | 00:34 |
What I would like to do is to hide some of
these white pixels in the shape of brush strokes,
| | 00:39 |
showing down through to the photo on
the layer below. I could permanently erase
| | 00:44 |
parts of the paintbrush layer by
getting the Eraser tool and drawing with that tool
| | 00:48 |
right on the image itself.
| | 00:50 |
But I don't want to do that, because I
want to give myself room to change my mind,
| | 00:54 |
and work in a way that is
non-destructive and reversible.
| | 00:57 |
So I'm going to paint on the layer mask that
I have already added to the Paint Brush layer.
| | 01:02 |
I'll click on that layer mask which
is right here, to make sure that I have
| | 01:06 |
the layer mask active.
| | 01:08 |
You can see that the layer mask is
filled with white pixels, which is the
| | 01:11 |
default state when you add a layer mask,
as I explained in earlier movies in this chapter.
| | 01:16 |
The white pixels on the layer
mask are revealing everything on the
| | 01:20 |
paintbrush layer right now.
| | 01:21 |
And I'm going to paint in the layer mask
with some black and some gray pixels.
| | 01:26 |
So I'm going to go to the Toolbox and
I'm going to select the Brush tool here.
| | 01:29 |
Then I'm going to go up to the
Options bar for the Brush tool.
| | 01:32 |
I don't want to use a plain round brush.
| | 01:35 |
I would like to use a brush with an uneven edge.
| | 01:38 |
So I'm going to click the arrow to the
left of this first Brush field here and
| | 01:42 |
that opens the Brush preset picker.
| | 01:44 |
Here I can see a thumbnail for all of
the brush tips that come with the default
| | 01:48 |
set of Photoshop brushes.
| | 01:50 |
I'll scroll down, and here I
have some uneven looking brushes.
| | 01:55 |
I'm going to select this 48 pixel brush
right here, and then I'm going to click
| | 01:59 |
in a blank area of the Options bar
to close that brush preset picker.
| | 02:03 |
Then I'm going to look at
the foreground color box here.
| | 02:06 |
I want to make sure that I
have black as my color here.
| | 02:09 |
Because I want to paint with
black pixels in order to hide parts of
| | 02:13 |
the paintbrush layer.
| | 02:15 |
If I didn't have black pixels here,
I would press D key on my keyboard to set
| | 02:19 |
the foreground color to white, and then
the X key to switch it to black, or
| | 02:24 |
you can do the same thing by clicking these
two little squares right here, and then
| | 02:28 |
the double pointed arrow.
| | 02:29 |
Now that I have paint and I have
pixilated Brush tool ready to go and I have
| | 02:35 |
my layer mask thumbnail selected, I'm going
to come in and I'm just going to drag a
| | 02:39 |
few strokes like this,
| | 02:45 |
| | 02:48 |
hiding parts of the paintbrush layer.
| | 02:50 |
You'll notice in the layer mask
thumbnail that you can see the black paint
| | 02:54 |
that's hiding the corresponding
pixels on the paintbrush layer.
| | 02:57 |
Now you'll notice that with one of my
strokes, I have actually painted over the
| | 03:01 |
tip of this paintbrush,
and I didn't mean to do that.
| | 03:04 |
But it's no problem.
| | 03:06 |
The beauty of using a layer mask is
that I can come back in and paint with white,
| | 03:10 |
to bring that part of the image back.
| | 03:12 |
To switch my foreground color to white,
I'm going to press the X key on my keyboard.
| | 03:17 |
And then I'll come in and I'm just
going to paint around the bottom of
| | 03:21 |
the paintbrush there.
| | 03:22 |
So this is one of the big benefits of
using a layer mask, which is that you can
| | 03:26 |
reverse what you have done by
painting with black and then coming back and
| | 03:30 |
painting over the same area with white.
| | 03:32 |
Now I also can also paint
with gray on this layer mask.
| | 03:35 |
Doing that will partially hide
the corresponding part of the image.
| | 03:39 |
So with the layer mask thumbnail
still selected on the paintbrush layer.
| | 03:43 |
I'm going to go to the foreground
color box here and I'm going to make sure
| | 03:46 |
that I have my foreground color set
to black. I'll press the X key on my
| | 03:50 |
keyboard to do that.
| | 03:52 |
Then I'm going to go up to the Options
bar for the selected Brush tool and
| | 03:56 |
I'm going to lower the Opacity of the brush.
| | 03:59 |
That will allow me to paint
with gray rather than black.
| | 04:01 |
I'll click-and-drag to the left and I'll
put the brush Opacity at something like 50%.
| | 04:07 |
Now I'm going to come in and make
some strokes with gray and you can see
| | 04:11 |
that what's happening here is that I'm
partially hiding some white pixels on
| | 04:15 |
the Paint Brush layer, so that you can
partially see down through the photo layer below.
| | 04:20 |
Another way to paint with gray is to
come to the foreground color box, click in
| | 04:24 |
the foreground color box, and choose
a shade of gray from the color picker.
| | 04:28 |
But I think it's faster and easier to
just reduce the Opacity of the Brush tool.
| | 04:33 |
Painting on a layer mask with black,
white or gray is something that I do all
| | 04:37 |
the time when I'm making composites of
multiple images, when I blending various
| | 04:42 |
exposures of a shot, when I'm
adjusting part of an image, or when I'm making
| | 04:46 |
other special effects that
I'll be showing in this course.
| | 04:49 |
But keep in mind that painting on a
layer mask is just one way to add black
| | 04:53 |
white or gray pixels to a layer mask.
| | 04:55 |
I'll be showing you a couple of other
ways to add those pixels to your layer
| | 04:59 |
masks in later movies in this course.
| | 05:02 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Viewing a layer mask| 00:00 |
It can be tough to see a layer mask on the
tiny layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel.
| | 00:05 |
Viewing a layer mask large in the
document window is a better way to understand
| | 00:09 |
exactly what you have masked,
and to fine-tune the mask.
| | 00:13 |
For example, here I have a
layer mask on the paintbrush layer.
| | 00:17 |
You can see in the layer mask
thumbnail on the layer in the Layers panel
| | 00:20 |
that there is some black, maybe some
gray paint on the layer mask, but you
| | 00:25 |
really can't see where.
| | 00:26 |
So when I'm making a layer mask like
this one, from time to time, I'll check it
| | 00:30 |
in the document window like this.
| | 00:32 |
I'm going to hold down the Option key
on my Mac, that's the Alt key on the PC,
| | 00:36 |
as I click right on the layer mask
thumbnail, and that reveals the layer mask
| | 00:41 |
here in the document window.
| | 00:42 |
I am going to zoom in a little, so
that you can see that there are some
| | 00:46 |
straight pixels down here at the bottom
of the mask, and those are hiding parts
| | 00:50 |
of the paintbrush layer.
| | 00:51 |
And they really aren't the way
that I would like the mask to be.
| | 00:54 |
One of the advantages of viewing the
layer mask here in the document window is
| | 00:58 |
that I can fine-tune it right here.
| | 01:00 |
Because a layer mask is basically a
gray scale pixel based document, I can
| | 01:04 |
use any of the tools or features on
it that I would normally use on a pixel
| | 01:08 |
based image in Photoshop.
| | 01:10 |
For example, I could filter this mask or
adjust it, or I could paint on the mask
| | 01:15 |
right here in the document
window, with black, white or gray.
| | 01:18 |
I would like to get rid of
these little specks down here.
| | 01:21 |
So I'm going to paint over them
with white here on the layer mask in
| | 01:24 |
the document window.
| | 01:25 |
I'll go to the Toolbox and
I'll select my Brush tool.
| | 01:28 |
I'll make sure that the foreground
color is set to white, and if isn't I'll
| | 01:32 |
press D on my keyboard, and then I'm
going to go come into the image, and I'm
| | 01:36 |
going to go paint over those little specks.
| | 01:40 |
And that's changing the shape of the layer mask.
| | 01:42 |
I might do a little bit of that over here
too with there are some square looking pixels.
| | 01:48 |
And when I'm done, I'll go back to the
regular document view, by going back to
| | 01:52 |
that same layer mask icon, and again,
holding the Option key, on the Mac or the
| | 01:56 |
Alt key on a PC, and
clicking on the layer mask icon.
| | 02:00 |
And you can see that I have modified
my layer mask, so I don't see any little
| | 02:03 |
speckles down here, around
the area that I have masked.
| | 02:06 |
I'm going to go back to 100%
view by going to the Toolbox and
| | 02:09 |
double-clicking the Zoom tool.
| | 02:11 |
That's a shortcut for 100%.
| | 02:13 |
There's another to way to view a layer
mask in the document window, and that is
| | 02:17 |
to leave the image showing, but also
view the mask as a kind of a red overlay.
| | 02:22 |
That resembles the kind of overlay you
may be used to seeing in Quick Mask mode,
| | 02:26 |
when you are working with the selection.
| | 02:28 |
To see both the red overlay of the mask,
and the document, here's what you do.
| | 02:33 |
Just make sure that you have the
paintbrush layer selected, and then press the
| | 02:37 |
Backslash key on your keyboard.
| | 02:39 |
That's the key just to the
right of the right bracket key.
| | 02:42 |
So this part is showing the mask,
and this part is showing the image on
| | 02:46 |
the paintbrush layer.
| | 02:47 |
I'm going to zoom in again to the
paintbrush, because now that I have the red
| | 02:51 |
overlay, I can see that when I created
the mask, I went too far, and I covered
| | 02:55 |
part of this green
paintbrush, hiding it from view.
| | 02:59 |
I don't want that, so I'm going to fix
that by going to the Layers panel, making
| | 03:04 |
sure that I have the layer mask
thumbnail highlighted there on the paintbrush
| | 03:08 |
layer, and then getting the
Brush tool in the Toolbox.
| | 03:11 |
Making sure that I have white paint as
my foreground color, and moving over to
| | 03:15 |
that part of the mask and drawing over
it with white, which as you know reveals
| | 03:21 |
the content of the layer to
which the mask is attached.
| | 03:24 |
In other words, I'm revealing
this green paintbrush again.
| | 03:27 |
When I'm done working in this view, I
can press the Backslash key again to go
| | 03:32 |
back to the regular view.
| | 03:33 |
And I'll double-click the Zoom
tool again to go back to 100%.
| | 03:36 |
I'd like you to take a look at the
Channels panel for just a moment.
| | 03:40 |
I'll go there by clicking the Channels
tab just to the right of the Layers panel.
| | 03:44 |
Notice that in addition to the RBG and
the Red, Green, and Blue color channels,
| | 03:48 |
there is another channel here.
| | 03:50 |
By default, it carries the same name as
the layer that contains the layer mask,
| | 03:55 |
which is the paintbrush, and the word Mask.
| | 03:58 |
What's happening here is that whenever
you have a layer selected in the Layers
| | 04:02 |
panel that has a layer mask on it,
you'll see an extra Alpha Channel here in the
| | 04:07 |
Channels panel that represents that mask.
| | 04:10 |
A layer mask is basically a channel
mask that's attached to a single layer.
| | 04:14 |
This Alpha Channel will be here only
while you have a layer that has a layer
| | 04:20 |
mask on it selected in the Layers panel.
| | 04:22 |
So if I click off this layer in the
Layers panel, and then I go back to the
| | 04:25 |
Channels panel, you won't
see that extra channel anymore.
| | 04:28 |
But I'd like to bring that channel
back for a moment, so that you can see how
| | 04:31 |
that Backslash toggle works under the hood.
| | 04:34 |
So again, I'll go to the Layers panel,
I'll select the paintbrush layer, I'll go
| | 04:38 |
back to the Channels panel, and there
is my Alpha Channel for the layer mask.
| | 04:43 |
Now, notice that when I press the
Backslash key, so that I can see both the red
| | 04:48 |
overlay and the image, the eye icon has
gone on on the paintbrush mask channel,
| | 04:53 |
and when I press that key again to go
back to regular view, the eye icon on
| | 04:57 |
that channel goes off.
| | 04:59 |
So what's making the red overlay
appear is basically making the temporary
| | 05:03 |
paintbrush mask channel
visible, and then invisible.
| | 05:07 |
But you never have to come into the
Channels panel in order to make all this work.
| | 05:11 |
So I'm going to go back to the Layers
panel, and I'll finish off this lesson by
| | 05:16 |
reminding you that when you are
working on an image, it's really useful to be
| | 05:19 |
able to view the layer mask in the
document window, either as a grayscale mask,
| | 05:24 |
or as a red overlay, so that you can
evaluate your mask, and fine-tune it to get
| | 05:29 |
it just the way you want it.
| | 05:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Disabling a layer mask| 00:00 | You can temporarily
disable or turn off a layer mask.
| | 00:03 | Why would you want to do that?
| | 00:05 | The main reason is to remind yourself of
how the image looks without the layer mask.
| | 00:10 | In other words, to compare a before and after
view of a layer with and without a layer mask.
| | 00:15 | Disabling a layer mask is done with a
keyboard shortcut, and that is to hold the
| | 00:20 | Shift key as you click
on a layer mask thumbnail.
| | 00:23 | So here, I have a layer mask on the
paintbrush layer and the dark part of
| | 00:28 | this layer mask is hiding some of the
white pixels on the paintbrush layer
| | 00:33 | allowing us to see down through to this green
and white photograph on the photo layer below.
| | 00:38 | Now, I'd like to see how my image looks
with and without this particular layer mask.
| | 00:43 | So I'm going to hold down the Shift key
and click right on the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 00:48 | That adds a big red X to the layer mask
thumbnail, and in the document window,
| | 00:52 | you no longer see that masked area.
| | 00:55 | Instead, you can see all of the white
pixels that are on the paintbrush layer.
| | 00:59 | To re-enable this mask, I'll go back to
the Layers panel, and this time I don't
| | 01:02 | have to hold the Shift key.
| | 01:04 | I can just click on this layer mask
thumbnail and back comes the layer mask with
| | 01:09 | the masking effect in the image.
| | 01:10 | Another way to accomplish the
same thing is from the Masks panel.
| | 01:14 | With the layer mask thumbnail selected
here in the paintbrush layer, I can go to
| | 01:18 | the Masks panel and click this eye
icon at the bottom of the Masks panel, and
| | 01:22 | that also temporarily disables the
layer mask showing me the before view, and
| | 01:26 | then if I click that eye icon again, it
will toggle the layer mask back on, so
| | 01:31 | that once again I can see the
masking effect in the document window.
| | 01:35 | This simple technique of temporarily
disabling your layer mask is a great way to
| | 01:39 | evaluate the effect of a layer mask on an image.
| | 01:42 | It's a quick way to decide whether
you are satisfied with your layer mask,
| | 01:46 | whether you want to modify it, or
whether you want to delete the layer
| | 01:49 | mask altogether, which is what I'm going to
show you how to do, in the very next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Deleting and applying layer masks| 00:00 |
Layer masks are so flexible that you
cannot only re-edit them, but if you wish,
| | 00:05 |
you can delete a layer mask
completely with no effect on the image.
| | 00:09 |
There are a couple of ways to do that,
which I'm going to show you in this movie.
| | 00:13 |
In this image, I do have a
layer mask on the paintbrush layer.
| | 00:16 |
This mask is hiding white pixels on
the paintbrush layer, allowing you to see
| | 00:20 |
down through to the photo on the layer below.
| | 00:22 |
I'm going to change my mind about this
mask and decide that I really don't want
| | 00:27 |
this area masked at all.
| | 00:29 |
So, I'd like to delete this
layer mask on the paintbrush layer.
| | 00:32 |
The quickest and easiest way to do that
is to highlight or target the layer mask
| | 00:37 |
thumbnail by clicking on it, and then
going up to the Masks panel, and going to
| | 00:41 |
the Trash icon at the bottom right
of the Mask panel and clicking there.
| | 00:45 |
And that deletes the layer mask
thumbnail from the paintbrush layer and removes
| | 00:49 |
the masking effect from the image.
| | 00:51 |
So that what you are seeing in the
document window is the original content of
| | 00:55 |
the paintbrush layer.
| | 00:57 |
That isn't the only way to delete a layer mask.
| | 00:59 |
You can do it from the Layers panel too.
| | 01:00 |
To show you that, I'm going to back
up by pressing Command+Z on the Mac, or
| | 01:05 |
Ctrl+Z on the PC, and that brings back
my layer mask with the masking effect in
| | 01:10 |
the document window.
| | 01:11 |
In the Layers panel, I have
that layer mask thumbnail selected.
| | 01:14 |
I'm going to hold down the Option key
on the Mac, or the Alt key on the PC
| | 01:19 |
and I'm going to go down to the Trash
icon at the bottom of the Layers panel
| | 01:22 |
and click that icon.
| | 01:24 |
Again, that removes the layer mask
thumbnail from the Layers panel, and removes
| | 01:29 |
the masking effect in the document
window with no harm to the original image.
| | 01:33 |
So those are two ways that you
can delete a layer mask altogether.
| | 01:36 |
I'd like to show you another way to delete a
layer mask, this time applying it to the image.
| | 01:42 |
Now, this isn't something I do very
often, but I want to make sure that if you
| | 01:45 |
are confronted with this choice, you
understand what the option will do.
| | 01:50 |
So I'm going to bring back the layer
mask by pressing Command+Z on the Mac,
| | 01:54 |
Ctrl+Z on the PC, and this time
with the layer mask thumbnail selected.
| | 01:59 |
I'm going to click and hold my mouse
down on that layer mask thumbnail and drag
| | 02:03 |
it down to the bottom of the Layers
panel on top of the Trash Can icon, and
| | 02:08 |
then release my mouse.
| | 02:10 |
Photoshop now gives me a choice.
| | 02:12 |
It asks whether I want to apply this
mask to the layer before removing it.
| | 02:16 |
If I press Delete, it will be just like
deleting the layer mask as I just showed
| | 02:20 |
you how to do, the layer mask
thumbnail will disappear and there will be no
| | 02:23 |
masking effect on the paintbrush layer.
| | 02:26 |
But look what happens if I click Apply.
| | 02:28 |
Now, the layer mask thumbnail has
disappeared, but the masking effect is
| | 02:34 |
still here in the image.
| | 02:35 |
I could still see down through the
paintbrush layer, to the photo layer below.
| | 02:39 |
But now I've made that change permanent.
| | 02:42 |
See, you want to be really careful
before you apply a layer mask because it
| | 02:46 |
basically negates the non-destructive
work-flow that you got when you were
| | 02:50 |
using a layer mask.
| | 02:52 |
What's happened is that by applying
that layer mask, I've permanently deleted
| | 02:56 |
white pixels from the paintbrush layer.
| | 02:58 |
I'll turn the photo layer off
temporarily by clicking the eye icon to the
| | 03:02 |
left of the photo layer.
| | 03:04 |
And now you can see the paintbrush
layer with these gray and white pixels
| | 03:08 |
indicating where there is a
permanent hole in the paintbrush layer.
| | 03:12 |
So, when you are deleting a layer mask,
in most cases use one of the first two
| | 03:16 |
methods that I showed you, and if you
do happen to drag the layer mask down to
| | 03:20 |
the Trash icon at the bottom of the
Layers panel, be careful before agreeing to
| | 03:24 |
apply that layer mask because that will
make a permanent change to your image.
| | 03:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Saving layer masks with a file| 00:00 | One of the advantages of using a layer
mask to hide content on a layer, rather
| | 00:05 | than deleting that content permanently
is that you can always come back in and
| | 00:09 | re-edit your layer mask.
| | 00:11 | You can do that even, if you've
already saved and closed the file and
| | 00:14 | you're coming back at some future date,
as long as you've saved in a format
| | 00:18 | that retains layers.
| | 00:20 | The easiest way to deal with this is
to always save a master copy of your
| | 00:24 | document in the native Photoshop
format, which is the .psd format.
| | 00:28 | So for example, here I have an image
that has a couple of layers, and it
| | 00:33 | includes a layer mask on one of those layers.
| | 00:35 | To retain that layer mask for future
editing, I'm going to go to the File menu,
| | 00:39 | and I'm going to choose Save As.
| | 00:41 | In the Save As dialog box, I'll go to
the Format menu, and I want to make sure
| | 00:45 | that it's set to Photoshop, and then I
want to make sure that there is a check
| | 00:49 | mark next to Layers.
| | 00:51 | Then if I clicked Save, although I'm not
going to do it right now, I'd be saving
| | 00:55 | a copy of this image that contained
all the layers and the layer masks.
| | 00:59 | There are a couple of other formats that
also retain layers in Photoshop, one of
| | 01:03 | those is the TIFF format, and that's
available from the same Format menu here.
| | 01:08 | So with Format set to TIFF, again I would
make sure that Layers was checked and click Save.
| | 01:13 | Now, in rare cases there are some
other formats that will retain layers.
| | 01:17 | For example, there is a large document
format that's used for documents that are
| | 01:23 | very large, and that will retain
layers and layer masks too, as will the
| | 01:27 | Photoshop PDF format.
| | 01:29 | But you're less likely to use those
than Photoshop which is the most common way
| | 01:33 | to save the file, or TIFF.
| | 01:36 | And I want to remind you that if you
save a file in the JPEG format, JPEG
| | 01:41 | does not retain layers.
| | 01:42 | And so what will happen if you save
this file as JPEG is that the layer mask
| | 01:47 | will be permanently applied to its
layer, and the layers in the file will be
| | 01:50 | permanently flattened.
| | 01:52 | So when you open the file again, you'll
see only a single layer and no layer mask.
| | 01:57 | And the same is true if you save in
other formats, like CompuServe GIF.
| | 02:02 | So if you do want to retain your layer
masks, I suggest you always save a master
| | 02:06 | copy of every image in the
Photoshop document format.
| | 02:10 | And then, if you want another copy to
send by email, or to put on the web, you
| | 02:14 | might save a photograph in the JPEG
format, or a graphic in the GIF format as a
| | 02:19 | copy, but not saving over the original file.
| | 02:22 | So I'm going to choose Photoshop,
I'll make sure Layers is checked, and I'm
| | 02:26 | going to click the Save button.
| | 02:27 | I'll click OK, and I've now
saved the image with its layer mask.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Creating Layer MasksFilling a selection on a layer mask| 00:00 | In the last chapter I showed you how
to make a layer mask by painting with
| | 00:04 | black, white, or shades
of gray on the layer mask.
| | 00:08 | But that's not the only way to add those all
important gray-scale pixels to a layer mask.
| | 00:13 | In many cases it's more efficient to
make a selection and then fill that
| | 00:17 | selection on the layer mask
with black, white, or gray.
| | 00:21 | This comes in really handy when you
need to hide a large area of an image, so
| | 00:25 | that another image on the layer
below can be seen through that area.
| | 00:29 | Before I show you how to fill a
selection on a layer mask let me show you how to
| | 00:33 | combine two images, so that each one
is on a separate layer in the same file.
| | 00:37 | It's a little bit different in Photoshop CS4
than it was in previous versions of the program.
| | 00:42 | And that's because in Photoshop CS4,
documents appear in a tabbed arrangement in
| | 00:47 | a single document window like this.
| | 00:49 | So, here I have two files.
| | 00:51 | This image of a wall and a frame, which
I have labeled picture2, and this image
| | 00:56 | of a woman in a hayfield, called hay.
| | 00:59 | I'd like to bring the woman
in the hayfield into picture2.
| | 01:03 | So, I have clicked on the tab for the
hay image and I'm going to get my Move
| | 01:07 | tool in the Toolbox.
| | 01:08 | Then I'm going to click inside of the
hay image and I'm going to drag up to the
| | 01:13 | picture2 tab, and hover over that tab,
until the document window changes to show
| | 01:19 | the image of the wall and the frame.
| | 01:21 | My mouse is still held down, and now,
I'm going to move down into that image, so
| | 01:26 | that the gray rectangle that
represents the hay image can be seen inside the
| | 01:31 | picture2 image, and only
then, will I release my mouse.
| | 01:34 | With that's done is made a second
layer in the Layers panel that contains
| | 01:38 | the hayfield image.
| | 01:40 | The wall image is on the
bottom layer in picture2.psd.
| | 01:44 | So, I no longer need the original hay image.
| | 01:47 | I'll go back and click on its tab and then
close the hay image by clicking the X on that tab.
| | 01:52 | Here in picture2.psd, I can see
that the hay image is too big.
| | 01:57 | I'd like the hay image to be just a little
bit bigger than the picture frame on the wall.
| | 02:01 | So I'm going to use the Transform
command to make the hay image smaller.
| | 02:05 | I'll go up to the Edit menu and I'll
choose Free Transform, or I could use the
| | 02:10 | keyboard shortcut Command+T on
the Mac, or Ctrl+T on the PC.
| | 02:14 | That brings up this
Bounding Box with anchor points.
| | 02:18 | Unfortunately, I can't reach all
of the anchor points, because the
| | 02:21 | hayfield image is so big.
| | 02:23 | So I'm going to use another keyboard
shortcut, which is Command+0 on the Mac, or
| | 02:29 | Ctrl+0 on the PC, and that resizes the
document window and the canvas so that I
| | 02:35 | can reach all of the anchor points.
| | 02:37 | Now, I can go down to the bottom right
of the image, move my mouse over that
| | 02:42 | bottom right anchor point, and I'll hold
the Shift key to constrain proportions,
| | 02:46 | as I drag diagonally to make
the hayfield image smaller.
| | 02:50 | When I think it's about the right
size, I'll release my mouse and I'll
| | 02:54 | release the Shift key.
| | 02:55 | I'll click inside of the hayfield image
and I'll drag moving it over the frame.
| | 03:01 | That looks just about right.
| | 03:02 | So, I'm going to leave it like that.
| | 03:04 | And then I'm going to go up to the
Options Bar, and click the check mark to
| | 03:08 | commit that transform.
| | 03:09 | Now, take a look at the Layers panel.
| | 03:12 | The hayfield layer is above the wall layer.
| | 03:14 | But what I want to do is to use a layer
mask on part of the wall layer to hide
| | 03:19 | part of the wall so that I can see
down through to the hayfield below.
| | 03:23 | So I need to change the
stacking order of the two layers.
| | 03:26 | I want to move the
hayfield beneath the wall layer.
| | 03:29 | So, I'll click on the hayfield layer in the
Layers panel and drag beneath the wall layer.
| | 03:34 | And when I see a dark border beneath
the wall layer, I'll release my mouse.
| | 03:38 | Now I can see only the wall in the
document window, and that's because the image
| | 03:43 | on the wall layer is completely
hiding the image on the hayfield layer.
| | 03:46 | Before I create my layer mask, I want
to just do a little rearranging here to
| | 03:50 | hide the desktop on the Mac.
| | 03:52 | You may not see this on your PC.
| | 03:54 | But if you do see the desktop on your
computer, go up to the Arrange Documents
| | 03:59 | menu, which is here in the Application Bar.
| | 04:02 | Click that menu and then choose Consolidate All.
| | 04:06 | And that will fill in that area
between the panels and the Toolbox.
| | 04:10 | I'd also like to make the image
100%, mine is only 84.7% right now.
| | 04:15 | To do that I'm going to go up to the
Application Bar again, there is a Zoom
| | 04:19 | tool there, I'll click that Zoom tool
to change the Options Bar, so that it
| | 04:22 | shows actual pixels, and I'll click the actual
pixels button, and that sets my view to 100%.
| | 04:29 | So that was all background showing you how
to join two images together in one document.
| | 04:34 | And now, I'm ready to work on the layer mask.
| | 04:36 | What I'm going to do is try to hide
this background of the frame so that the
| | 04:40 | hayfield shows through.
| | 04:42 | So I want to go to the Layers
panel and select the wall layer.
| | 04:46 | Then I'll add a layer mask to the wall
layer by going to the Add Layer Mask icon
| | 04:51 | at the bottom of the Layers
panel and clicking that icon.
| | 04:54 | That creates a white layer mask, which
is revealing everything on the wall layer.
| | 04:59 | In order to hide part of the wall
layer, I could get my Paintbrush and some
| | 05:04 | black paint and try to paint
in the inside of this frame.
| | 05:08 | But that would be really difficult
because the edges are so straight.
| | 05:11 | So instead, I'm going to make a selection.
| | 05:14 | There are many Selection tools in
Photoshop and if you are interested in
| | 05:17 | learning more about making selections.
| | 05:19 | I suggest that you listen to another
one of my courses in the Lynda.com Online
| | 05:23 | Training Library called
Photoshop CS4 Selections in Depth.
| | 05:28 | To make it simple in this case, I'm
going to use the Rectangular Selection tool
| | 05:31 | to make a rectangular
selection inside of this frame.
| | 05:35 | I'll go the Toolbox, and I'll get
the Rectangular Marquee tool, then I'll
| | 05:38 | come into the image.
| | 05:40 | I'll click inside the frame at the top
left corner and drag diagonally down to
| | 05:45 | the bottom right corner, and then I'll
release my mouse making a rectangular
| | 05:49 | selection identified by these marching ants.
| | 05:52 | I am going to fill this
selection with black on the layer mask.
| | 05:55 | So I'm going to double-check that the
layer mask thumbnail is highlighted or
| | 05:59 | surrounded with a double border here
on the wall layer, and then I'm going
| | 06:03 | to fill with black.
| | 06:04 | The quick way to fill with black is to
press D and then X on the keyboard to set
| | 06:09 | the foreground color to black.
| | 06:11 | And then to use the keyboard shortcut
for filling with the foreground color,
| | 06:16 | which is Option+Delete on the Mac.
| | 06:18 | That's Alt+Backspace on a PC.
| | 06:21 | So, I'll press that keyboard
shortcut and my selection on the layer mask
| | 06:25 | is filled with black.
| | 06:26 | Now, I'm going to delete the selection
by pressing Command+D on the Mac, Ctrl+D
| | 06:31 | on the PC, and my layer mask is
doing exactly what I wanted it to do.
| | 06:36 | It's hiding that backing inside of the
frame so that we can see down to part of
| | 06:42 | the hayfield image on the layer below.
| | 06:44 | I actually want to move the hayfield
image over a little bit, so that the
| | 06:48 | woman's head is inside of the frame.
| | 06:50 | So, I'll click on the hayfield layer,
I'll go to the Toolbox and I'll select the
| | 06:55 | Move tool, and then I'll come into
the image and I'll drag positioning the
| | 06:59 | hayfield layer exactly where I
wanted inside of that layer mask.
| | 07:03 | Now, let's take a look at the
layer mask in the document window.
| | 07:06 | I'm going to use the technique that
I showed you in the last chapter for
| | 07:10 | viewing a layer mask in the document
window, which is to hold down the Option
| | 07:14 | key on the Mac or the Alt key on the PC,
and click on the layer mask thumbnail
| | 07:19 | in the Layers panel.
| | 07:21 | And there you can see the black part of
the mask surrounded by the white pixels
| | 07:24 | on this mask, and the black part of the
mask is hiding part of the wall layer.
| | 07:29 | To go back and look at the document
again, I'll go over to the wall layer, I'll
| | 07:33 | hold the Option key on the Mac, the
Alt key on the PC and I'll click on the
| | 07:37 | layer mask thumbnail again.
| | 07:39 | So, that's one way to use
selections with layer masks.
| | 07:42 | In this lesson, I created layer mask,
then I made a selection, and then I filled
| | 07:47 | the selection with pixels.
| | 07:49 | But that's not the only way to use
selections to create layer masks.
| | 07:53 | In the next movie, first creating a
selection and then making a layer mask
| | 07:57 | based on that selection.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making a layer mask from a selection of the foreground| 00:00 | Another way to use selections to
create a layer mask in to first make a
| | 00:04 | selection and then make a layer mask,
and this actually saves a step over the
| | 00:09 | technique I showed in the last movie,
which was to make a layer mask, then make
| | 00:13 | selection, and fill the
selection with grayscale pixels.
| | 00:17 | To show you this technique, I
have an image that has two layers.
| | 00:20 | The top layer, the Blossom layer contains
the photograph that you see in the document.
| | 00:25 | I'll make this layer temporarily
invisible by clicking its Eye icon, and you can
| | 00:29 | see the content of the
green Background layer below.
| | 00:31 | What I would like to do is have the
flower, look as if it's floating on this
| | 00:35 | green background, with
all the foliage around it.
| | 00:38 | I'm going to turn the Blossom layer back on.
| | 00:40 | I know that I want to hide all of the
area around the blossom and the stem.
| | 00:44 | So what I'm going to do is make a
selection of the flower and the stem, and then
| | 00:48 | make a layer mask on the Blossom layer.
| | 00:51 | To make the selection, I'm going to use
one of my favorite Selection tools, the
| | 00:54 | Quick Selection tool,
located here in the Toolbox.
| | 00:58 | The Quick Selection tool
selects based on color and tone.
| | 01:01 | So as I click and drag on top of this
flower, it moves ahead of me, selecting
| | 01:06 | similar colors and tones, and finding
the edge of the flower pretty quickly.
| | 01:11 | The Quick Selection tool always adds
to a selection by default, so if I click
| | 01:15 | and drag over the stem, that area will
be added to my selection, and the whole
| | 01:19 | process goes pretty quickly.
| | 01:21 | Now that I have the selection and the
selection is active, and I know that it
| | 01:24 | is because I see the marching ants in
the image, I'm going to add a layer mask
| | 01:29 | to the Blossom layer.
| | 01:30 | With the Blossom layer selected, I'll
go to the bottom of the Layers panel, and
| | 01:34 | I'll click the Add Layer Mask icon here.
| | 01:37 | That brings in a layer mask
represented by the layer mask thumbnail on the
| | 01:41 | Blossom layer, and you can see that
that thumbnail automatically comes in with
| | 01:45 | some black pixels added to it, and as
you can see in the image, the selected
| | 01:49 | area, the flower and the stem are
still showing on the Blossom layer, but
| | 01:54 | everything else is being hidden from
view, allowing us to see down to the green
| | 01:57 | background layer below.
| | 01:58 | Let's take a look at the layer mask.
| | 02:00 | I'm going to hold down the Option key
on the Mac or the Alt key on the PC, as I
| | 02:04 | have already shown you how to do in
other movies, and I'll click right on the
| | 02:07 | layer mask thumbnail to reveal the
layer mask in the document window.
| | 02:11 | The part of a layer that I had selected,
the flower and the stem, remain white
| | 02:16 | on the layer mask, and as you know
white pixels on a layer mask reveal the
| | 02:20 | content of the layer to
which the mask it attached.
| | 02:23 | Because I have this area selected,
Photoshop automatically added black pixels to
| | 02:28 | the non-selected areas around the
flower and the stem, and these black pixels
| | 02:33 | are hiding the content of the Blossom
layer, and this is what lets us see down
| | 02:37 | through to the green background below.
| | 02:39 | If I zoom in by pressing Command+ on
the Mac or Ctrl+ on the PC, you can see
| | 02:44 | that there are some gray pixels in between
the black and the white pixels on the mask.
| | 02:48 | These were automatically created by
the soft edge of the selection that was
| | 02:52 | made with the Quick Selection tool,
and these gray pixels are partially
| | 02:56 | transparent allowing the blossom to
partially show through, and that makes the
| | 03:00 | transition between the masked area and the
unmasked area of the layer a little softer looking.
| | 03:05 | I am going to go back to 100% view,
by going down to the Zoom tool in the
| | 03:10 | Toolbox and double clicking the Zoom
tool, and then I'll go back to regular
| | 03:14 | document view by going over to the
Layers panel, holding down the Option key on
| | 03:18 | the Mac or the Alt key on the PC, and
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail, as I
| | 03:22 | have shown you how to do in other movies.
| | 03:24 | So this method working with
selections in layers masks is often the most
| | 03:29 | efficient and the fastest
way to create a layer mask.
| | 03:32 | It automatically conceals some
pixels from view while revealing others.
| | 03:36 | So the next time you are analyzing a
layer to which you want to add a layer
| | 03:40 | mask, consider whether there is a quick
way to make a selection on that layer,
| | 03:44 | and if so, try making your selection
first and then adding your layer mask.
| | 03:49 | With some images, when you make that
evaluation, you might decide that it's
| | 03:53 | easier to select everything except
the area that you want to reveal.
| | 03:56 | In other words, sometimes it's easier
to select the background of an image.
| | 04:00 | In the next movie I'll show you how
to use a technique very similar to the
| | 04:03 | one that I showed you here, in those cases
where it's easier to select the background.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making a layer mask from a selection of the background| 00:00 |
I showed in the last movie that if you
have a selection active when you make
| | 00:04 |
a layer mask, Photoshop automatically
adds black pixels to the layer mask in
| | 00:09 |
the non-selected areas.
| | 00:11 |
That technique works great when you
have an image in which the part of a layer
| | 00:14 |
that you want to show through
a layer mask is easy to select.
| | 00:18 |
But in some images, like this one, you
will find that it's easier to select the
| | 00:22 |
part of a layer that you want to
hide from view with a layer mask.
| | 00:26 |
In this movie I'm going to show you a
technique that you can use to create a
| | 00:29 |
layer mask that takes care of that
situation, and this is basically the opposite
| | 00:34 |
of what we did in the last movie.
| | 00:36 |
I'll start this technique by
selecting the red wallpaper here on the geisha
| | 00:40 |
layer, because I think that's the
part of the geisha layer that's going to
| | 00:43 |
be easiest to select.
| | 00:45 |
It's also the part of this layer that I
want to hide from view, so that we can
| | 00:49 |
see down through to the incense layer below.
| | 00:52 |
Let me show you what's on the incense
layer, by clicking the Eye icon to the
| | 00:55 |
left of the geisha layer.
| | 00:57 |
The incense layer has this bright
orange wallpaper, which is what I would like
| | 01:00 |
to have showing through the
layer mask on the geisha layer.
| | 01:03 |
I'll make the geisha layer visible again,
and I'll make sure that it is selected
| | 01:07 |
in the Layers panel.
| | 01:09 |
Then I'm going to get a Selection tool,
I'm going to use the Quick Selection tool.
| | 01:14 |
With that tool, I'll click and drag
over the red part of the wallpaper on one
| | 01:17 |
side of the geisha, and then I'll
move to the other side and add to the
| | 01:21 |
Selection by clicking and dragging there.
| | 01:23 |
That was a really easy Selection to make.
| | 01:25 |
Now it's not a perfect Selection, I
can see that I could refine it a bit over
| | 01:29 |
here, I might include it a bit for here,
but I'm going to leave it for now and
| | 01:33 |
I can always make repairs later on
the layer mask that I'm going to create
| | 01:37 |
based on this selection.
| | 01:38 |
The next step is to make that layer mask.
| | 01:41 |
So I'll go over to the Layers panel,
make sure that I have the geisha layer
| | 01:44 |
selected, and first let
me show you what not to do.
| | 01:48 |
If I just go down to the Add Layer Mask
icon at the bottom of the Layers panel,
| | 01:52 |
as I did in the last movie, and
click there, several things happen.
| | 01:56 |
First of all the Selection disappears,
and that's because the Selection has
| | 02:00 |
basically been converted into a layer mask.
| | 02:03 |
But as you can see, the layer mask is
doing the opposite of what I wanted to do.
| | 02:07 |
It's hiding the geisha and
showing the red wallpaper.
| | 02:11 |
You can see why if I make the layer mask
visible here in the document window, by
| | 02:15 |
holding the Option key on the Mac, the
Alt key on the PC, and clicking on the
| | 02:20 |
layer mask thumbnail that
Photoshop added to the geisha layer.
| | 02:24 |
The default behavior is for Photoshop
to add black pixels to the non-selected
| | 02:28 |
area, as it's done here, and those black
pixels are hiding the geisha from view.
| | 02:32 |
Now I could fix this by inverting the
layer mask, as I'll show you how to do in
| | 02:37 |
a later movie, but I'm actually going
to undo this layer mask and start again,
| | 02:41 |
to show you how you can create a layer
mask to which Photoshop automatically
| | 02:45 |
adds black pixels in the selected areas.
| | 02:47 |
So I'll press Command+Z on the Mac
that's Ctrl+Z on the PC to undo, and that
| | 02:53 |
removes the layer mask and
brings the Selection back.
| | 02:56 |
Now this time I'm going to add a layer
mask while holding down a modifier key.
| | 03:01 |
That key is the Option key on
the Mac or the Alt key on the PC.
| | 03:05 |
So I'll come into the Layers panel, and
I'll hold down Option or Alt as I click
| | 03:10 |
on the Add Layer Mask icon.
| | 03:12 |
That gives me the result that I'm after.
| | 03:14 |
Photoshop is hiding the portions of
the geisha layer in the areas of my
| | 03:18 |
Selection, here and here, and revealing the
geisha layer in the area that's not selected here.
| | 03:24 |
Let's take a look at the layer mask now,
I'll Option or Alt click on the layer
| | 03:28 |
mask thumbnail on the geisha layer, and
you can see that indeed that are black
| | 03:32 |
pixels which Photoshop
automatically added to the selected areas.
| | 03:36 |
And now I'll go back out to the Photo
view by holding the Option or Alt key
| | 03:39 |
again, and clicking on
that layer mask thumbnail.
| | 03:43 |
At this point I would come
in and refine the layer mask.
| | 03:45 |
I might bring back the geisha's ear by
painting with white with the layer mask
| | 03:50 |
thumbnail selected, and I might paint a
little bit with black along with edges
| | 03:53 |
here to remove this fringe, but I'm
going to leave this as is for now.
| | 03:57 |
I'll talk about refining a
layer mask in a later movie.
| | 04:00 |
The next time that you are working with
an image in which it's easier to select
| | 04:04 |
the parts of a layer that you want to
hide than it is to select the parts of a
| | 04:08 |
layer that you want to show, use the
technique that I have shown in this movie.
| | 04:12 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding a gradient to a layer mask| 00:00 | Adding a black to white gradient to a
layer mask is the professional way to
| | 00:04 | create a seamless blend between the
content of two layers in the same document.
| | 00:09 | If you have a different images on two
layers, as I do here, this technique will
| | 00:13 | create a smooth gradual fade between
those images that often looks better than
| | 00:18 | the result you get by painting with
black, white or gray on a layer mask, or
| | 00:22 | even by working with a
precise selection on a layer mask.
| | 00:25 | Before I get started with this technique,
let me show you the two images that I
| | 00:29 | want to blend together.
| | 00:30 | On the top layer, the carnival layer in
the Layers panel, I have this image of a
| | 00:34 | masked figure at the carnival in Venice, Italy.
| | 00:37 | I'll make that layer invisible by
clicking its eye icon, so you can see the
| | 00:41 | content of the layer below, the
canal layer, and this a canal in Venice.
| | 00:45 | And then I'll make the carnival layer
visible again, by clicking its eye icon.
| | 00:49 | The first step is to add a layer mask
to the top layer, the carnival layer.
| | 00:53 | To do that with the carnival layer
selected, I'll go down to the Add Layer Mask
| | 00:57 | icon at the bottom of the Layers
panel, and I'll click that icon.
| | 01:01 | That adds a layer mask represented by
this thumbnail, and you can see that the
| | 01:04 | layer mask is filled with white pixels.
| | 01:07 | As I have said in previous movies,
white pixels on the layer mask like this
| | 01:11 | reveal all the content on the attached layer.
| | 01:14 | So we can now see
everything on the carnival layer.
| | 01:16 | I would like to add a
grayscale gradient to this layer mask.
| | 01:19 | That's going to partially and gradually
hide the content on the carnival layer,
| | 01:24 | so we can see down to the
canal on the layer below.
| | 01:26 | To do that, I'm going to go to the
Toolbox, and I'll select the Gradient tool.
| | 01:31 | Then I'll go down to my foreground and
background colors, what I want to do is
| | 01:34 | create a gradient that runs from the
foreground color to the background color.
| | 01:38 | By default, the Gradient tool creates a
gradient that runs from the foreground
| | 01:42 | color to the background color.
| | 01:44 | I would like to make a gradient
that goes from black, which hides to
| | 01:48 | white, which reveals.
| | 01:50 | So I'm going to switch my foreground
and background colors by pressing the X
| | 01:54 | key on my keyboard.
| | 01:55 | I'll go up to the Gradient bar in the
Options bar for the Gradient tool, and it
| | 02:00 | should look just like this with
black on the left and white on the right.
| | 02:04 | If your gradient doesn't look like this,
click the arrow just on the right side
| | 02:08 | of this field, and in the palette that opens,
you should see this default set of gradients.
| | 02:14 | Click on the first icon here,
which represents the foreground to
| | 02:17 | background gradient preset.
| | 02:19 | If you don't see this particular set of
icons, go to the arrow on the right side
| | 02:23 | of this palette, click there, and
choose Reset Gradients and then click OK, and
| | 02:28 | that will bring up this default set of
gradients from which you can choose the
| | 02:32 | first one, the
foreground to background gradient.
| | 02:34 | Then click in a blank area of the
Options bar to close that palette.
| | 02:38 | Now I'm ready to draw my gradient.
| | 02:40 | I'm going to double-check in the Layers
panel that there is a border around the
| | 02:44 | layer mask thumbnail, rather than the
image thumbnail on the carnival layer.
| | 02:48 | Then I'll go into the image and I'm
going to start on the left side of this
| | 02:52 | image, and I'm just going to click and
drag across the image, stopping somewhere
| | 02:56 | in the middle of the woman's mask.
| | 02:57 | It is always a guess where to
start and stop that gradient line.
| | 03:01 | The length and direction of that line
affect the way that your gradient will look.
| | 03:05 | In this case, I have done a pretty good
job of drawing a gradient that hides the
| | 03:09 | left side of the carnival layer, and
then gradually begins to show the image on
| | 03:14 | the carnival layer, until I get over
to the right side of the carnival layer,
| | 03:17 | where I can see the content of that layer.
| | 03:20 | Let's take a look at the layer
mask that's causing this behavior.
| | 03:23 | I'm going to hold the Option key on the
Mac or the Alt key on the PC, as I click
| | 03:27 | on the layer mask on the carnival layer.
| | 03:30 | Because I dragged from the left side
to the right side with a foreground to
| | 03:34 | background gradient, I have black in
this area that's hiding the content of
| | 03:38 | the carnival layer.
| | 03:39 | White, over on the right that's showing
the content of the carnival layer, and
| | 03:43 | then a gradual progression of shades
of gray from left to right that creates
| | 03:47 | this soft blend between the content
that's showing, and the content that's
| | 03:51 | hidden on this layer.
| | 03:52 | I'll go back to the regular view by
holding the Option key on the Mac or the Alt
| | 03:56 | key on the PC, as I click on
that layer mask thumbnail again.
| | 04:00 | And now I can come in and tweak this gradient.
| | 04:03 | I could draw the gradient again, if I don't
like the way it turned out the first time.
| | 04:06 | So I could start up here for example,
and maybe stop here, and notice that each
| | 04:11 | time I draw this gradient,
I get a different look.
| | 04:15 | After I have drawn the gradient, I can
come in with the Brush tool and fine-tune it.
| | 04:19 | So in this case I might get the Brush
tool here in the Toolbox, and let's say
| | 04:23 | that I would like to hide a
little bit more of the woman's hat.
| | 04:27 | I'll leave my foreground color set to
black, which hides on the layer mask, I'll
| | 04:31 | come into the image, and I'm going to
make my brush bigger interactively, so
| | 04:34 | that I can see the brush tip, by
pressing the right bracket key on my keyboard.
| | 04:38 | I also want to use a soft brush, so
I'm going to hold down the Shift key as I
| | 04:44 | press the left bracket key on my
keyboard, and that will make the edge of
| | 04:48 | this brush tip softer.
| | 04:50 | Then I'm going to go up to the Opacity
field for the Brush tool, and I'm going
| | 04:53 | to lower the opacity of the brush
slightly, so that I'm not painting with
| | 04:57 | black paint, but rather with gray paint, as I
click and drag over this portion of the image.
| | 05:04 | Now let's take a look at the layer mask,
by holding the Option key on the Mac or
| | 05:07 | the Alt key on the PC, and you can
see the gray pixels that I have drawn in
| | 05:11 | there on top of the gradient.
| | 05:13 | So I often use a mix of painted
grayscale pixels along with a grayscale gradient
| | 05:18 | on a layer mask, like this.
| | 05:19 | I'm going to Option or Alt click again
on the layer mask thumbnail to go back to
| | 05:23 | the regular document view.
| | 05:25 | I want to show you one more
thing about the Gradient tool.
| | 05:28 | If I select the Gradient tool again in
the Toolbox, and I go up to the Options
| | 05:32 | bar, I see a series of five icons here,
which represent the shape of a gradient.
| | 05:37 | I was using the default shape, the
Linear Gradient to draw the gradient on the
| | 05:42 | layer mask that you just saw.
| | 05:43 | Let's try another kind of gradient, a
Radial Gradient by clicking the second
| | 05:47 | icon from the left in this series
of five icons in the Options bar.
| | 05:51 | Now, this gradient is going to draw a
circular gradient from the inside out.
| | 05:55 | What I would like to do is to have
the woman's face on the carnival layer
| | 06:00 | showing, but then have that
gradually fade out in a circular pattern.
| | 06:04 | So I want to start with white in
the center of the radial gradient.
| | 06:07 | To make that happen, I'll just switch
my foreground and background colors by
| | 06:12 | pressing X on my keyboard,
or clicking this double arrow.
| | 06:15 | Now I can see in this gradient field in
the Options bar that I'll be drawing a
| | 06:19 | white to black gradient.
| | 06:20 | I'll click in the middle of the woman's
face, and I'll drag out toward the edge
| | 06:25 | of the image, and this is the result that I get.
| | 06:27 | If I want to see more of the woman's
face, I'll try again, clicking in the
| | 06:31 | middle of her face, and then dragging
way out, pass the edge of my document
| | 06:36 | window, and that makes the
white part of the gradient lighter.
| | 06:39 | Again, I could come in with the Paint
Brush tool and touch this up, perhaps
| | 06:43 | eliminating a little bit of the
image on the carnival layer over here, by
| | 06:47 | switching to black paint, clicking the
double pointed arrow or pressing X on my
| | 06:51 | keyboard, getting my Brush tool, and
with a soft brush and a low brush opacity,
| | 06:58 | I'll remove a little bit of the
carnival layer here, and maybe up here as well,
| | 07:03 | and this is all subjective.
| | 07:09 | Making use of the Gradient on this layer
mask to get just the effect that I want.
| | 07:13 | A grayscale gradient on a layer mask can
be used to combine two different images
| | 07:17 | as I have done here.
| | 07:18 | But it's also useful to combine
two versions of the same image.
| | 07:22 | Like say two photographs that you have
taken with different exposures, or with
| | 07:26 | different white balance settings.
| | 07:27 | A grayscale gradient is also useful for
gradually fading the effect of a photo
| | 07:31 | adjustment between one
part of an image and another.
| | 07:34 | I'm going to show you how to use a
grayscale gradient for both of those
| | 07:38 | situations later in this course.
| | 07:40 | But now you have the basics of adding a
grayscale gradient to a layer mask, to
| | 07:45 | get some really interesting results.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Pasting into a layer mask| 00:00 |
Another way to make a layer mask
is to use another image as the mask.
| | 00:04 |
This method isn't used as often as the
other methods that I've shown you, but it
| | 00:08 |
can create some really interesting effects.
| | 00:10 |
I've two images open, this is the
source image, an image that I'm going
| | 00:14 |
to select and then use to hide or mask part of
a layer on this image, the destination image.
| | 00:20 |
Let me show you what's on each layer here,
so you understand the structure of the file.
| | 00:24 |
I'll hold down the Option or Alt key.
| | 00:26 |
As I click on the Eye icon to the
left of each one of the layers in turn.
| | 00:31 |
So, this is what's on the hand layer.
| | 00:32 |
It's just here as a sort of extra bit.
| | 00:37 |
This is the paper layer, and this
is the layer that I'm going to mask.
| | 00:40 |
I'm going to use that sketch as a mask
for this white paper, so that you can see
| | 00:47 |
down through the area of the
sketch to this maroon background below.
| | 00:51 |
So, now I have all the layers back on in
the destination image, and I'm going to
| | 00:55 |
go back to the sketch by
clicking on its document tab.
| | 00:59 |
Here I want to select just
the colored part of the sketch.
| | 01:02 |
By the way, you can use as a source
image a sketch or a photograph, a color
| | 01:06 |
image or black and white, anything that
you want, as long as you can select it.
| | 01:10 |
To select the sketch, I'm
going to get the Magic Wand tool.
| | 01:13 |
I'll go to the Options bar for the
Magic Wand tool and I'm going to reduce the
| | 01:17 |
tolerance of the tool, so that it only
selects the background when I click with
| | 01:22 |
the tool on the background.
| | 01:24 |
I'm going to do that now.
| | 01:25 |
Now, I don't want the background of this
image selected, I want the sketch selected.
| | 01:29 |
So, I'll invert this selection by going
up to the Select menu and choosing Inverse.
| | 01:35 |
Now, I have just the sketch selected,
I've managed to select the dark areas and
| | 01:40 |
the light areas too.
| | 01:41 |
I'm going to copy the selected sketch
into the memory over the clipboard of my
| | 01:46 |
computer by going to the Edit menu and
choosing Copy, or I'm more likely to just
| | 01:51 |
use this keyboard shortcut, Command
+C on the Mac or Ctrl+C on the PC.
| | 01:55 |
Now, you can't see anything that tells
you that this sketch is in the computer's
| | 02:00 |
memory, but it will stay there
until I choose the Paste command.
| | 02:04 |
Now, I'm done with the Sketch image,
I'm going to close it by clicking the X
| | 02:07 |
on the document tab.
| | 02:09 |
Now here, in the destination image,
the drawing, I'm going to create a layer
| | 02:13 |
mask and then paste this
sketch into the layer mask.
| | 02:17 |
As I've mentioned, I want to
mask a part of the paper layer.
| | 02:19 |
So, in the Layers panel, I make sure
that the paper layer is the selected layer,
| | 02:24 |
and then I'll go down to the bottom of
the Layers panel, and I'll click the Add
| | 02:27 |
Layer Mask button there.
| | 02:28 |
That adds the layer mask thumbnail,
which by default is filled with white
| | 02:32 |
pixels, and so it's having
no effect on the paper layer.
| | 02:35 |
Remember, I still have that
sketch in my computer's clipboard.
| | 02:39 |
I'm almost ready to paste
it into this layer mask.
| | 02:41 |
But there's a little catch here.
| | 02:43 |
It's logical to think that all you
have to do at this point is make sure
| | 02:46 |
the layer mask thumbnail is selected and then
choose the Paste command, but that doesn't work.
| | 02:51 |
Watch what happens when I try that.
| | 02:53 |
I have the layer mask thumbnail
selected, I'm going to go up to the Edit
| | 02:57 |
menu and choose Paste.
| | 02:59 |
Instead of pasting the sketch into the
layer mask thumbnail, Photoshop has made
| | 03:03 |
a brand-new layer and pasted the sketch there.
| | 03:06 |
Well, that isn't what I want, because I'm not
interested in having the blue and black sketch.
| | 03:11 |
I want to use the tonality of the
sketch as a mask to hide part of the paper
| | 03:15 |
layer, so I can see down to the maroon
layer that's at the bottom of the layer stack.
| | 03:20 |
So, I'm going to undo, Command+Z or Ctrl
+Z on the PC and show you the trick for
| | 03:25 |
pasting into a layer mask.
| | 03:27 |
In order to make that work, you have
to first hold down the Option key on the
| | 03:31 |
Mac or the Alt key on the PC as you
click inside the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 03:37 |
That turns the document window white
and the reason is, as you've seen me doing
| | 03:41 |
in so many movies, when you Option-
click or Alt-click in the layer mask
| | 03:44 |
thumbnail that displays the layer
mask here in the document window.
| | 03:48 |
This layer mask is still plain white
and so, the document window looks white.
| | 03:53 |
Now that I've done that step, I can
paste the contents of my clipboard here
| | 03:57 |
into the layer mask.
| | 03:59 |
Again, I'll go up to the Edit menu and
choose Paste or I'm more likely to use
| | 04:03 |
the shortcut, Command+V on
the Mac or Ctrl+V on the PC.
| | 04:08 |
That does pastes that copied
sketch into the layer mask.
| | 04:11 |
It comes in with the selections still
active, and as long as the selection is
| | 04:15 |
active, I can move the layer
mask into place with the Move tool.
| | 04:19 |
But I can't see exactly where to move
it here in the layer mask display in
| | 04:23 |
the document window.
| | 04:24 |
So, with this selection still active,
I'm going to go back to the Photo view by
| | 04:28 |
moving to the Layers panel, holding the
Option key or the Alt key on the PC and
| | 04:32 |
again, clicking on the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 04:35 |
Here in the Photo view, you can see the
selection indicating where the mask is now.
| | 04:39 |
Now, I want to be sure not to click in
the document window with the Selection
| | 04:43 |
tool active where I'll lose this selection.
| | 04:46 |
Instead, I'm going to get the Move
tool in the Toolbox and then I'll come in
| | 04:49 |
and click inside the selection and drag
and that moves the selection and its content.
| | 04:55 |
That selection is the same thing
as the layer mask at this point.
| | 04:58 |
So, I'm going to drag it down, so that
the bottom of the tree trunk is touching
| | 05:02 |
the bottom of the paper down here.
| | 05:04 |
When I'm done, I can deselect by
pressing Command+D on the Mac, Ctrl+D on the
| | 05:09 |
PC, or if you prefer commands you
can go up to the Select menu and choose
| | 05:14 |
Deselect from there.
| | 05:16 |
Now, I have just the effect that I
wanted, I've used the sketch image as a
| | 05:21 |
layer mask, masking out part of the
paper, so we can see down through to the
| | 05:25 |
maroon on the layer below.
| | 05:27 |
Notice that there are some dark areas
and some lighter areas, and those are
| | 05:31 |
caused by the black and the
gray pixels on the layer mask.
| | 05:35 |
Let's take a look at that layer mask
again by going over to the Layers panel and
| | 05:39 |
Option-clicking or Alt-
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 05:43 |
So, as you can see, the mask contains
black pixels hiding the paper layer, white
| | 05:48 |
pixels showing the paper layer and
some gray pixels from the sketch that are
| | 05:53 |
partially hiding the contents of the
paper layer, giving a convincing tonal
| | 05:56 |
appearance to the layer mask.
| | 05:58 |
I'll Option-click or Alt-click again on
the layer mask thumbnail, to go back to
| | 06:02 |
the Photo view, so you can
see the finished product.
| | 06:04 |
Keep in mind that the source image
doesn't have to be a sketch or a drawing,
| | 06:08 |
give it a try with a couple of your own images.
| | 06:11 |
You can try color photographs or
really any image that you have that you can
| | 06:15 |
select and use as a layer mask on another image.
| | 06:18 |
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|
|
3. Refining Layer MasksAdjusting mask density| 00:00 | The new Masks panel in Photoshop CS4
offers some new controls that expand the
| | 00:05 | functionality of layer masking.
| | 00:08 | One of those is the Density slider,
which you can see here in the Masks panel.
| | 00:13 | The Density slider allows you to
control the strength of the effect of the
| | 00:17 | pixels that you add to a layer mask.
| | 00:20 | To show you that, I have
an image with two layers.
| | 00:23 | The letter layer, the top layer, already
has a layer mask on it, but I have made
| | 00:27 | that layer mask inactive.
| | 00:29 | By holding the Shift key, as I
clicked on the layer mask thumbnail on the
| | 00:33 | letter layer, and that put this big
red X on top of the layer mask thumbnail,
| | 00:37 | and it allows us to see the entire content of
the letter layer here in the document window.
| | 00:43 | You can see that this layer has some
old fashioned items on it, and those are
| | 00:47 | lying on a plain white background,
which is visible in the bottom left and the
| | 00:51 | top right of the image.
| | 00:53 | I really didn't like that white background.
| | 00:55 | I wanted it to have more texture.
| | 00:57 | So, I added another layer, the
marble layer beneath the letter layer.
| | 01:01 | Let me show you the content of that
layer, by clicking the eye icon to the left
| | 01:05 | of the letter layer.
| | 01:06 | Now, you can see the orange
texture on the marble layer.
| | 01:09 | I'll make the letter layer
visible again by clicking it's eye icon.
| | 01:13 | Now, I'm going to show you the layer mask
that I had already created on the letter layer.
| | 01:18 | To do that I'll just click on the layer mask
thumbnail to make the layer mask active again.
| | 01:23 | First, notice the effect of this layer mask.
| | 01:26 | The layer mask is hiding the content
of the letter layer at the bottom left,
| | 01:31 | and the top right, allowing us to see
through to the marble texture on the layer beneath.
| | 01:37 | Let's take a look at that layer mask.
| | 01:39 | I'm going to hold down the Option key
on the Mac, the Alt key on the PC, and
| | 01:43 | click on the layer mask thumbnail to
show the layer mask in the document window.
| | 01:48 | You can see that the areas that I had
selected at the bottom left and the top
| | 01:52 | right, I had filled with black pixels.
| | 01:55 | Those black pixels are completely hiding the
content of the letter layer in those areas.
| | 02:01 | Now, I'm going to make sure that I have
that layer mask thumbnail selected, and
| | 02:05 | I'm going to go up to take a look at
the Density slider in the Masks panel.
| | 02:09 | By default, the density of a layer mask is 100%.
| | 02:13 | But I can lower the density or the
strength of this layer mask by dragging the
| | 02:19 | Density slider to the left,
as I'm going to do now.
| | 02:21 | I will take it down to about, say 60%
or so, and notice that there is a mark
| | 02:27 | defect in the image.
| | 02:29 | Now, the marble on the layer below
isn't coming through strongly as it was a
| | 02:32 | moment ago, because the layer mask is
now only partially hiding this part, and
| | 02:38 | this part of the white
background content on the letter layer.
| | 02:43 | To show you that, I'm going to Option
or Alt click on the layer mask thumbnail
| | 02:46 | again, and you can see in the document
window that the pixels that have been
| | 02:50 | black on the layer mask are now less
dense, changing them from black to gray.
| | 02:56 | As you know, gray pixels on a layer
mask only partially hide the content of the
| | 03:01 | layer to which the mask is attached.
| | 03:03 | In this case the letter layer.
| | 03:05 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click again
on the layer mask thumbnail to bring the
| | 03:08 | document back in to view.
| | 03:10 | So, it's very useful to have this Density
slider right here, on the front of the Masks panel.
| | 03:16 | Another benefit of the Density
slider is that it's interactive.
| | 03:20 | In other words you can always come back in,
and change the density of a layer mask.
| | 03:25 | So, let's say I was working on another
layer in the image, and then I decided
| | 03:28 | that I wanted the layer mask to be more dense.
| | 03:31 | I can come back at any time, click on
the layer mask thumbnail, and then go up
| | 03:36 | to the Masks panel, click on the Density
slider and drag it to the right, making
| | 03:41 | the layer mask denser, in
other words a darker gray.
| | 03:45 | So, that it's having a stronger
masking effect on the corresponding portion
| | 03:49 | of the letter layer.
| | 03:50 | So, remember that once you have
added a layer mask, you are not yet done.
| | 03:54 | You can still change the density of
the mask at any time by using the new
| | 03:58 | Density slider in the Masks panel.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Feathering masks| 00:00 | Another important feature in the
Masks panel is the new Feather slider that
| | 00:04 | you'll find right here, which you can
use to soften the transition between black
| | 00:09 | pixels and white pixels on a layer mask.
| | 00:12 | That can help you to blend the masked image
with the content of other layers in the file.
| | 00:17 | I'm going to show you how to use this
Feather slider to blend the images on the
| | 00:22 | two layers in this file.
| | 00:23 | The top layer in this file has a
photograph of a leopard against the blue sky.
| | 00:28 | I have already added a layer mask to
that layer, and the black pixels on the
| | 00:32 | layer mask are hiding the blue sky.
| | 00:35 | To show you the original photograph
that's on this layer, I'm going to make the
| | 00:38 | layer mask temporarily invisible by
holding the Shift key and clicking on the
| | 00:42 | layer mask thumbnail on the leopard layer.
| | 00:45 | So there is the original photo of
the leopard against the blue sky.
| | 00:49 | I'll make the leopard layer temporarily
invisible, by clicking the eye icon to
| | 00:53 | the left of the leopard layer, so
that you can see the photograph on the
| | 00:56 | jungle layer below.
| | 00:59 | Ultimately I want to have the
leopard against this jungle background.
| | 01:02 | I'm going to make the leopard layer
visible again by clicking in the Visibility
| | 01:06 | field of the leopard layer.
| | 01:08 | I'll activate the layer mask again,
by clicking on the layer mask icon.
| | 01:13 | Now I'm going to zoom in, so you can get
a better view of the edge of this leopard.
| | 01:17 | I have the Zoom tool selected in the
Toolbox, and I'm just going to click a
| | 01:21 | couple of times, so that you get
a really good view of that edge.
| | 01:25 | And as you can see, the edge of the
leopard looks really rough, and pixelated.
| | 01:30 | Back at 100% view, the leopard almost
looks like a cardboard cutout sitting in
| | 01:34 | front of this jungle photograph.
| | 01:37 | This rough edge is a result of the way that
I made the layer mask on the leopard layer.
| | 01:42 | I use the Quick Selection tool here to
make a quick selection of the sky on the
| | 01:46 | leopard layer, and then I targeted the
layer mask thumbnail on that layer, and
| | 01:51 | fill the selection on the layer mask with black.
| | 01:54 | All this I covered in an earlier movie.
| | 01:56 | So now the problem is how do I soften
this mask, so that the edge between the
| | 02:01 | leopard and the jungle is
softer and more blended.
| | 02:04 | I am going to switch over to show you
the layer mask in the document window, so
| | 02:07 | you can see what's
happening as I feather that mask.
| | 02:11 | I'll hold down the Option key on the Mac
or the Alt key on the PC, and I'm going
| | 02:16 | to click on the layer mask thumbnail on
the leopard layer, to display the layer
| | 02:20 | mask here in the document window.
| | 02:23 | And then I'm going to zoom out a bit by
holding the Command key, as I press the
| | 02:27 | minus key that's Ctrl+Minus on the PC.
| | 02:31 | Now to soften this layer mask, all I
have to do is go over to the Masks panel,
| | 02:36 | click on the Feather slider,
and drag it to the right.
| | 02:39 | I'm actually dragging the Feather slider
further to the right that I normally would.
| | 02:43 | Normally I only add one or two
pixels of feather, and see how that looks.
| | 02:48 | That's usually enough to get
the blended effect that I want.
| | 02:51 | Nut I have exaggerated here, so
that you can see what feathering does.
| | 02:55 | Feathering actually blurs the
transition between the black pixels and the white
| | 03:00 | pixels on a layer mask, creating gray
pixels of graduating tones in between.
| | 03:05 | And it's those gray pixels had this
blurred edge that will soften the transition
| | 03:10 | between the leopard and the jungle.
| | 03:13 | So let's go back to the Photo
view to see the result of feathering.
| | 03:17 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click again on the
layer mask thumbnail on the leopard layer.
| | 03:22 | You can see here in the photo that the
edge of the leopard is now quite soft,
| | 03:27 | and so it's blending in with
the photograph on the layer below.
| | 03:30 | However, as I mentioned, I think that I
have made the edge a little too soft by
| | 03:35 | applying too much feathering to the layer mask.
| | 03:37 | I did that on purpose, so that I could
show you that one of the advantage of
| | 03:41 | using the Feather slider in the Masks
panel is that that control is interactive.
| | 03:46 | Meaning that you can go back at any
time and change the amount of feathering on
| | 03:50 | this mask, using the Feather slider.
| | 03:53 | So with the layer mask thumbnail on the
leopard layer selected, I can just go to
| | 03:58 | the Masks panel and drag the Feather
slider over to the left, to maybe just one
| | 04:03 | pixel, and that will give me just the
amount of softness that I want at that
| | 04:07 | edge, creating a convincing
blend between the leopard and jungle.
| | 04:12 | And I'll go back to 100% view
to show you the final result by
| | 04:16 | double-clicking the Zoom tool.
| | 04:19 | In the past, to accomplish what I just
did with the Feather slider, you had to
| | 04:22 | know a kind of a secret handshake,
which involved selecting the layer mask, and
| | 04:26 | then adding a blur filter to the mask.
| | 04:29 | But now all of this can be done
directly and interactively with the Feather
| | 04:33 | slider in the Masks panel.
| | 04:35 | Another advantage of the Feather
slider is that it works not only on a layer
| | 04:39 | mask like this, but also on a vector mask.
| | 04:42 | And you'll be learning more about
vector masks in later movies in this course.
| | 04:47 | One last thing, the Feather slider in
the Masks panel isn't the only place from
| | 04:51 | which you can apply a feather to a layer mask.
| | 04:54 | Another way to do that is to click the
Mask Edge button here in the Masks panel
| | 04:59 | to open the Refine Mask dialog box.
| | 05:02 | There you'll find a lot of controls that
allow you fine-tune the edge of a layer mask.
| | 05:07 | I'll be covering those in a later movie.
| | 05:09 | But for now, I just wanted to show
you that one of those controls is this
| | 05:13 | Feather slider here, which does just
the same thing as the Feather slider up
| | 05:17 | here in the Masks panel.
| | 05:20 | For now I'm going to click the Cancel button
to cancel out of the Refine Mask dialog box.
| | 05:25 | So when you are trying to blend an
image on one layer with a image on another
| | 05:29 | layer using a layer mask, try
feathering the edge of the mask slightly, using
| | 05:34 | the Feather slider in the Mask panel, or
in the Refine Edge dialog box, in order
| | 05:39 | to slightly blur the edge of the mask,
and smooth the transition between images.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Fine-tuning mask edges| 00:00 | Before Photoshop CS4, you couldn't
really refine the edge of a layer mask,
| | 00:05 | other than to paint along the edge
with white or black, unless you were an
| | 00:09 | advanced user and knew some special
tricks to do things like softening the edge
| | 00:13 | of a mask with a blur filter.
| | 00:15 | Or contracting or expanding the mask
by running levels on the layer mask.
| | 00:20 | But now you don't have to worry
about those tricks. You can soften mask edges,
| | 00:24 | you can contract mask edges
and more, all from the new Mask Edge
| | 00:28 | dialog box, which brings all these
functions into one place and gives you
| | 00:33 | some direct control over them.
| | 00:35 | The Mask Edge dialog box is going to
look familiar to you if you have ever used
| | 00:39 | the Refine Edge dialog box that's used
to fine-tune the edge of a selection, and
| | 00:43 | that makes sense, because layer
masks and selections are really just two
| | 00:47 | different forms of the same thing.
| | 00:49 | So I'm going to start this exercise by
making a selection of the sky, and I'm
| | 00:54 | doing that because I want to mask out
the sky, so we can see down through the
| | 00:59 | sky and the cow layer to the more
interesting sky on the layer below here.
| | 01:04 | So I have the cow layer selected in the
Layers panel, and I'm going to get the
| | 01:08 | Magic Wand tool, and with that tool
I'm going to click in the blue sky on the
| | 01:12 | cow layer, and then with the Add to
Selection icon selected in the Options bar
| | 01:17 | for the Magic Wand, I'll click in a
few other places that didn't get selected
| | 01:21 | on the first click.
| | 01:24 | I'm not going to be too careful,
because I'm going to modify this selection
| | 01:27 | after I convert it into a
layer mask on the Cow layer.
| | 01:30 | To do that, with the selection active,
I'll go down to the Add Layer Mask
| | 01:35 | icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, and
click to add this layer mask on the cow layer.
| | 01:41 | As you learned in an earlier movie,
when you have a selection active and you
| | 01:44 | create a layer mask, Photoshop adds
black pixels to all the non-selected areas.
| | 01:50 | So in this case, the area of the
layer mask that corresponds to the cow is
| | 01:54 | filled with black pixels
hiding the content of the cow layer.
| | 01:57 | I need to invert that mask, so with
the layer mask thumbnail highlighted on
| | 02:03 | the cow layer, I'll go up to the Masks panel,
and I'm going to click the Invert button.
| | 02:08 | Now we can see the cow on the cow layer,
and the black pixels have shifted to
| | 02:13 | hide the sky on the cow layer.
| | 02:14 | I'll show you this layer mask by
holding down the Option key on the Mac or the
| | 02:18 | Alt key on the PC, and
clicking on this layer mask.
| | 02:22 | You can see that the
layer mask is pretty jaggedy.
| | 02:25 | There is still some work to be done
on this mask to make a convincing blend
| | 02:29 | between the masked cow and
the sky on the layer below.
| | 02:32 | I'm going to Option or Alt-click the layer mask
thumbnail again, to go back to the photo view.
| | 02:38 | And if you look closely at this
layer mask, you can see that some of the
| | 02:42 | original blue sky is even
showing around the cow's ear.
| | 02:46 | That's something else that we want to fix.
| | 02:48 | But before I get into the Mask Edge
dialog box, I want to do some painting with
| | 02:52 | black and white on this layer mask.
| | 02:54 | So for example, I see an area down here
that needs fixing, where we still have
| | 02:58 | some of the original sky, and here as well.
| | 03:02 | So I'll select the Brush tool in the
Toolbox, and then I'll go down and check
| | 03:07 | that my foreground color is set to black.
| | 03:09 | And if it isn't, I'll
press the X key on my keyboard.
| | 03:12 | Then I'll come into the image, and I'm
going to paint over this area where I see
| | 03:16 | a little bit of the original sky,
and I could try to paint in here.
| | 03:21 | It's pretty small though, so I think
instead I'm going to select that area
| | 03:24 | and fill with black.
| | 03:26 | So I'll get the Magic Wand tool
again in the Toolbox, and I'll click in
| | 03:30 | that area to select it.
| | 03:31 | And then I'm going to fill with the
foreground color black by pressing
| | 03:35 | Option+Delete on the Mac,
or Alt+Backspace on the PC.
| | 03:40 | And I'll do the same thing in this
area right here, select it with the Magic
| | 03:43 | Wand tool, and Option+Delete or Alt+Backspace.
| | 03:47 | And there is a little area up here as well,
which I'm going to select and fill the same way.
| | 03:53 | And then I'll deselect by pressing
Command+D on the Mac, Ctrl+D on the PC.
| | 03:57 | Now you can see that the layer mask
still isn't perfect, so now it's time to
| | 04:03 | refine it using the controls
in the Mask Edge dialog box.
| | 04:07 | To access that dialog box
I'll go to the Masks panel.
| | 04:10 | On the face of this panel, my only
options are to lower the Density, bringing
| | 04:14 | back some of the original sky and
to Feather the edge of the mask.
| | 04:18 | But feathering isn't really
getting me the look that I want.
| | 04:21 | It's just kind of blurring the mask.
| | 04:23 | So I'm going to put Feather back at 0,
and I'm going to click the Mask Edge
| | 04:26 | button right here, and that
opens the Refine Mask dialog box.
| | 04:31 | The first thing I normally do in this
dialog box is take all the sliders and
| | 04:35 | drag them back to 0, like this, except
for the Contract/Expand slider, which
| | 04:41 | I'll put at 0 by dragging it to the center.
| | 04:46 | Then I'll go down to the preview buttons
down here, and I'll choose the way that
| | 04:50 | I want to preview the image as I'm
interacting with it by changing the controls
| | 04:54 | here in the Refine Mask dialog box.
| | 04:57 | There are number of choices here.
| | 04:59 | I can choose to view the actual mask by
pressing the right hand thumbnail here,
| | 05:03 | or if my goal is to have the cow
against a light background, I might choose
| | 05:08 | this white preview.
| | 05:09 | But in this case the background is a
little dark so that doesn't really help.
| | 05:14 | I could use the black preview, and
this is the choice I would make if I were
| | 05:18 | ultimately going to have the cow
against a very dark background.
| | 05:21 | And you can see that here, you
really notice that blue outline that comes
| | 05:26 | from the original sky.
| | 05:27 | Another choice is Quick Mask mode,
which allows me to see the sky and the cow.
| | 05:32 | The mask area of the sky appears
as a red overlay, just like in Quick
| | 05:36 | Mask selection mode.
| | 05:38 | So that's often a good choice.
| | 05:40 | And finally, I can view the mask as a
standard selection with these marching ants.
| | 05:45 | Now normally, I don't like having the
marching ants, because they get in the way
| | 05:49 | and hide the view of what's
happening at the edge of the mask.
| | 05:52 | So what I do in this view is
press down the Command+H on a Mac.
| | 05:58 | That's Ctrl+H on the PC.
| | 06:01 | I'm still in the same view, but I have
hidden the marching ants from view, temporarily.
| | 06:06 | This is one of my favorite choices
when I already have the background of the
| | 06:10 | image in the same document on another
layer, as I do here, because I can see
| | 06:15 | everything as I interact with these sliders,
both the background and the masked foreground.
| | 06:21 | Now it's time to work with the
controls in the Refine Mask dialog box.
| | 06:25 | I usually start at the top
here with the Radius slider.
| | 06:30 | Radius is similar to Feather.
| | 06:32 | It's another way to soften the
edge of the mask by blurring it.
| | 06:35 | But Radius often provides a more
realistic result than Feathering does.
| | 06:40 | Particularly when you are working
with an image that has lots of detail
| | 06:43 | along the mask edge.
| | 06:44 | So watch what happens when I drag
the Radius slider to the right, I'm
| | 06:48 | softening the edge here.
| | 06:50 | You can really see that around the cow's ear.
| | 06:53 | But I'm still retaining the detail there.
| | 06:56 | Let me drag the Radius slider back to 0, and
show you by Contrast the effect of Feathering.
| | 07:02 | It gives you a blurrier edge,
with this kind of a halo around it.
| | 07:05 | That isn't something that I want.
| | 07:07 | So I'm going to put Feather back to 0,
and again, I'm going to increase the Radius.
| | 07:13 | And then to sharpen up that edge
within the Radius, I'll take the Contrast
| | 07:19 | slider and move it to the right, and
that sharpens the edge without losing
| | 07:22 | detail, and go back a bit to around there.
| | 07:25 | Now let's preview what we have done so
far by unchecking the preview box here,
| | 07:31 | or pressing P on the keyboard.
| | 07:34 | So that's how the mask was, and here is
how it is now, with just the changes to
| | 07:39 | Radius and Contrast.
| | 07:40 | The Smooth slider does what it sounds like.
| | 07:43 | It smooths out any jagged edges
that you may have along a mask edge.
| | 07:47 | But notice that if I smooth in
this image, I tend to lose detail.
| | 07:52 | So that's something you want to
watch out for with the Smooth slider.
| | 07:55 | I don't think I'm going to
need it for this particular image.
| | 07:57 | I'm going to skip Feather,
because I have already used Radius.
| | 08:01 | And finally, there is the
useful Contract/Expand slider.
| | 08:05 | If I want to get more of that little
halo of blue pixels that's still hanging on
| | 08:09 | around the edge of the cow, I can try
contracting the entire mask, pulling the
| | 08:15 | mask in toward the center of the cow.
| | 08:17 | I'm going to do it to an extreme
degree, so you can see what it does.
| | 08:20 | Now that's more than I want to contract
the mask, I just want to contract it a
| | 08:25 | little bit, trying to
remove a little of that halo.
| | 08:29 | And if I went the other way to the
right, I would expand the mask out from
| | 08:32 | the center of the cow.
| | 08:34 | So again, I'm going to preview by
pressing the P key on the keyboard.
| | 08:38 | That's how it was, and that's how it is.
| | 08:40 | I have improved the mask all around the
cow's head, as well as down here, around
| | 08:45 | the cows in the background.
| | 08:46 | By the way, you will notice that there
is a description field down here that
| | 08:50 | comes in very handy, if you don't
remember what a particular slider does.
| | 08:54 | Just moving my mouse over one of the
controls changes the description to explain
| | 08:59 | what the control does, and what it's useful.
| | 09:02 | And the same is true as I hover over
the various preview buttons down here at
| | 09:07 | the bottom of the Refine Mask dialog box.
| | 09:09 | I am going to click OK to accept the
changes that I have made to mask in the
| | 09:15 | Mask Edge dialog box, and if I ever
want to change those sliders, I can always
| | 09:20 | come back in and click the Mask Edge
button in the Masks panel to do further work,
| | 09:25 | refining the edge of my mask.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Working with Layer MasksMoving and copying layer masks| 00:00 | If you add a layer mask to one layer,
you can use that very same mask on other
| | 00:05 | layers in the file, either by
copying the layer mask from one layer to
| | 00:09 | another, or by moving the layer mask
between layers, as I'm going to show you
| | 00:13 | how to do in this movie.
| | 00:15 | I can create a layer mask using any of
the techniques that I have shown you in
| | 00:18 | this course, but I'm actually going
to do something new, to show you how to
| | 00:22 | create a layer mask in the shape of type.
| | 00:25 | To do that I'm going to use a special
Type tool from here in the Toolbox, the
| | 00:30 | Horizontal Type Mask tool.
| | 00:32 | The Type Mask tools are not like
regular Type tools, they don't create editable
| | 00:36 | type like those tools do.
| | 00:37 | Instead they create a
mask or an outline of type.
| | 00:41 | I am going to use the Horizontal Type
Mask tool to make a selection in the shape
| | 00:46 | of type, and then from that selection
I'll make a layer mask, just as I could
| | 00:50 | from any kind of selection.
| | 00:52 | So I'll get the Horizontal Type Mask tool,
and then I'm going to go up to the Options bar.
| | 00:57 | Here you can see that I have chosen a really
wide font, Wide Latin in the Font Family field.
| | 01:03 | And then in the Font Size
field I have chosen 72 point type.
| | 01:08 | There are other options for type in
the character and paragraph panels.
| | 01:11 | One way to open those panels is by
clicking this icon on the right side of the
| | 01:15 | Type Tool Options bar.
| | 01:17 | I'll click that icon, and then in the
Character panel, I want to show you that I
| | 01:22 | have stretched the height of the font to
250% by just typing that number in this
| | 01:27 | field, and then I also stretched the
width of the font to 130% by typing that
| | 01:32 | number in this field here.
| | 01:34 | I am going to close these panels by
clicking the panel menu icon on this panel
| | 01:38 | group, and choosing Close Tab Group.
| | 01:41 | Now I'm ready to create a
selection in the shape of type.
| | 01:44 | I'm going to go over to the left side
of the image, I'll press down the Caps
| | 01:49 | Lock key, so I'm creating capital
letters, and then I'll click, I get this
| | 01:54 | blinking cursor which
indicates that I'm ready to type.
| | 01:57 | I am going to type the word Japan in
this large font, and you can see that it
| | 02:01 | comes in as a red overlay.
| | 02:04 | That's how the Type Mask tool works.
| | 02:06 | It's much like the Quick Mask tool.
| | 02:08 | Like any type, I have to commit this
type so I'll go up to the Options bar and
| | 02:13 | I'm going to click the check mark
on the far right of the Options bar.
| | 02:17 | As soon as I do that, that
masked type converts into a selection.
| | 02:22 | This is a lot like using Quick Mask Mode.
| | 02:25 | The fact that the Mask was converted
into a selection is a function of using
| | 02:29 | the Type Mask tool.
| | 02:30 | Now this selection is just like any
selection, and I have shown you in earlier
| | 02:35 | movies that when you have a selection active,
you can make a layer mask from the selection.
| | 02:41 | That's what I'm going to do here.
| | 02:42 | First, I'm going to move this
selection where I want it, and to do that I'm
| | 02:46 | going to get not the Move tool, but
rather one of the Selection tools.
| | 02:50 | I'll use the Rectangular Marquee tool,
and then I'll click inside of the
| | 02:54 | selection, and I'll drag, and I'm going
to put that selection down here on top
| | 03:00 | of this band of colorful
images that I had added to the file.
| | 03:04 | You may be surprised that I didn't use
the Move tool, but when you are trying to
| | 03:07 | move a selection boundary, you don't
want to use the Move tool, because that
| | 03:11 | will move the actual content of the selection.
| | 03:13 | To move the boundary, you can use
any of the Type tools as I just did.
| | 03:17 | So now that I have that selection in
place, I'm going to create a layer mask
| | 03:21 | from it, and I'll do that just like I
showed you how to do with other kinds of
| | 03:25 | selections, by choosing the layer
on which you want the layer mask.
| | 03:29 | I'll click on the incense layer in the
Layers panel, and then going down to the
| | 03:33 | bottom of the Layers panel and
clicking the Add Layer Mask icon.
| | 03:37 | That creates the layer mask that you see
here in this thumbnail on the incense layer.
| | 03:41 | It's hiding everything on the incense
layer, except for the areas where there
| | 03:46 | is content under those letters, and you can
see the result here in the document window.
| | 03:51 | The reason that you only see the first
two letters right now is that the content
| | 03:55 | of that incense layer ends just about
here to the right of the A. I'll show you
| | 04:00 | the layer mask by going over to the
Layers panel, holding down the Option key on
| | 04:04 | the Mac, the Alt key on the PC,
and clicking on the Japan layer mask.
| | 04:08 | So the content of the incense layer
is showing through only where there are
| | 04:13 | white pixels, here and here, and the
black pixels are hiding all the rest of the
| | 04:18 | content of that layer.
| | 04:19 | I'm going to Option or Alt click
again on that Japan layer mask to bring
| | 04:24 | back the regular view.
| | 04:25 | So now we come to the heart of this lesson.
| | 04:28 | I want to show you how you can move
this layer mask to another layer, and then
| | 04:32 | how you can copy the layer mask,
using it on more than one layer.
| | 04:35 | So let's say that I want to use the mask
not on the incense layer, but rather on
| | 04:39 | the autumn layer, which contains the
content that you see over on the right
| | 04:43 | bottom of the document window.
| | 04:45 | I can move a layer mask by just
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail in the
| | 04:49 | Layers panel, holding down my
mouse and dragging to another layer.
| | 04:54 | So I'm going to drag down to the autumn
layer, and when I see this dark border
| | 04:57 | around the autumn layer, I'll release my mouse.
| | 05:01 | That removed the layer mask from the
incense layer and placed it on the autumn layer.
| | 05:05 | And you can see the different
result here in the document window.
| | 05:09 | I also can copy a layer mask from one
layer to another, and that's what I really
| | 05:13 | want to do in this image, because I
want to use this same mask on all three of
| | 05:17 | the color layers, the autumn layer,
the maple layer and the incense layer.
| | 05:22 | So how do you copy a layer mask?
| | 05:24 | You hold down the Option key on the Mac
or the Alt key on the PC, click on the
| | 05:28 | layer mask thumbnail, and
drag up to another layer.
| | 05:32 | I'm going to drag up to the maple layer.
| | 05:34 | When I see this dark border around the
maple layer, I'll release my mouse and
| | 05:38 | the Option or Alt key, and that copies
the layer mask, so it's affecting not
| | 05:42 | only the autumn layer, but also the
maple layer, and you can see the effect here
| | 05:47 | in the document window.
| | 05:48 | I am going to do that one more time, copying
the same layer mask up to the incense layer.
| | 05:53 | So again, I'll hold the Option or Alt
key, I'll click on the layer mask on
| | 05:58 | either of these two layers, and I'll
drag up to the incense layer releasing my
| | 06:02 | mouse when I see the dark border
around the incense layer, and that's exactly
| | 06:07 | the effect that I wanted.
| | 06:08 | In this lesson, I suggested a situation
in which you might want to copy or move
| | 06:13 | a layer mask from one image layer to another.
| | 06:16 | But that isn't the only time that moving
and copying layer masks comes in handy.
| | 06:20 | It's also an important technique to know
when you have adjustment layers on an image.
| | 06:25 | So if you have a layer mask on one
adjustment layer, limiting the area affected
| | 06:29 | by that adjustment, and then you add
another kind of adjustment layer, you can
| | 06:33 | copy the same layer mask to
that additional adjustment layer.
| | 06:37 | I will be showing you more about
adjustment layers, later in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Inverting layer masks| 00:01 |
After you have added grayscale pixels
to a layer mask, if you don't like the effect
| | 00:05 |
that they have on the image,
you can always invert them,
| | 00:09 |
so that they have the opposite effect.
| | 00:10 |
This saves me a lot of time, when I'm
first adding a layer mask to a layer,
| | 00:14 |
because I don't have to think a lot in
advance about exactly what the mask is going to do.
| | 00:19 |
I'll just add the mask, and if it's
doing the opposite of what I want,
| | 00:22 |
I'll invert it like this.
| | 00:24 |
Here, I have a photograph of a Japanese
garden gate, surrounded by sky and clouds.
| | 00:29 |
I would like to switch out the sky
and clouds for the content of the layer
| | 00:33 |
below, the blossoms layer, so that all
these lovely cherry blossoms are showing
| | 00:38 |
through around the garden gate.
| | 00:40 |
So I'm going to start by making a
selection of the sky and clouds.
| | 00:44 |
I'll use the quick selection tool here
in the Toolbox, and I'll just run that
| | 00:48 |
tool over the sky and clouds
creating a quick selection.
| | 00:52 |
With that selection active, I'm going
to make a layer mask on the gate layer.
| | 00:56 |
By making sure the gate layer is selected,
and going to the bottom of the Layers
| | 00:59 |
panel and clicking the Add Layer Mask icon.
| | 01:02 |
That creates a layer mask, and as you
can see in the document window, it's not
| | 01:07 |
exactly doing what I had in mind.
| | 01:09 |
This layer mask is hiding the non-
selected areas on the gate layer.
| | 01:14 |
In other words, it's hiding the
garden gate and it's showing the sky.
| | 01:17 |
I actually wanted to do the opposite.
| | 01:18 |
And you can see why that's happening.
| | 01:20 |
If I make the layer mask visible in the
document window, by holding the Option
| | 01:24 |
or Alt key as I click on
the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 01:28 |
When I created this layer mask,
with the selection active, Photoshop
| | 01:32 |
automatically added these Black
pixels to the non-selected area, hiding the
| | 01:37 |
garden gate on the gate layer.
| | 01:39 |
The White pixels are
revealing the sky on the gate layer.
| | 01:42 |
I'm going to go back to the photo view
by Option or Alt clicking, again on the
| | 01:46 |
layer mask thumbnail.
| | 01:48 |
Now I could fix this problem by
deleting the layer mask and starting again,
| | 01:52 |
using a technique I showed you in an
earlier movie for creating a layer mask
| | 01:57 |
with the selection active, that adds
Black Pixels to these selected areas,
| | 02:02 |
rather than the non-selected areas.
| | 02:04 |
But I don't have to bother doing that.
| | 02:06 |
Instead, I can use the layer
mask that I have and just invert it.
| | 02:10 |
There are several ways to invert a layer mask.
| | 02:13 |
I think the easiest way is to select
the layer mask thumbnail, and then, to go
| | 02:17 |
up to the Masks panel and
just click the Invert button.
| | 02:21 |
And now I have the result that I want.
| | 02:23 |
I can see through the gate layer to the
blossoms layer below, in the areas where
| | 02:28 |
there use to be sky and clouds.
| | 02:30 |
Let's take a look at the layer mask now,
by holding the Option or Alt key and
| | 02:33 |
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail again.
| | 02:36 |
And you can see that the Black and White
pixels on the layer mask are now reversed.
| | 02:42 |
Where the mask was Black, it's now, White,
where the mask was White it's now, Black.
| | 02:46 |
There are some gray pixels also on
this mask, in between the Black and White
| | 02:50 |
pixels, and those remain gray.
| | 02:52 |
So now I'll go back to the photo view
by pressing the Option or Alt key, and
| | 02:56 |
clicking on the layer mask icon one more time.
| | 03:00 |
That's not the only way to invert a mask.
| | 03:02 |
With the layer mask thumbnail selected,
I can use a keyboard shortcut, which is
| | 03:07 |
Command+I on my keyboard on a Mac.
| | 03:10 |
That's Ctrl+I on a PC.
| | 03:13 |
And there's also a command in the
Image menu, which does the same thing.
| | 03:18 |
So right now I have got the mask
the opposite way that I wanted.
| | 03:21 |
I can switch it back to the correct way
by going up to the Image menu at the top
| | 03:25 |
of the screen, choosing
Adjustments and going down to Invert.
| | 03:29 |
And that gets me back to where I wanted to be.
| | 03:32 |
Of all those choices, I think that the
Invert button right here on the new Masks
| | 03:36 |
panel is the easiest way to
invert the effect of a layer mask.
| | 03:40 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Loading selections from layer masks| 00:00 | One of the advantages of having a
layer mask on a layer is that you can use
| | 00:04 | the layer mask as a source from which
to create a selection quickly in the
| | 00:08 | shape of the layer mask.
| | 00:12 | Here for example, I have
an image with two layers.
| | 00:14 | There is a photograph of
a geisha on the top layer.
| | 00:17 | I'll turn that off so you can see that
there is a photograph of this Japanese
| | 00:21 | structure on the layer below.
| | 00:23 | And then I'll turn the geisha layer on again.
| | 00:26 | I've added a layer mask to the geisha
layer, I'll make that layer mask invisible
| | 00:30 | temporarily, so you can see how the
geisha photograph looked without the mask.
| | 00:35 | I'll select the layer mask thumbnail
and then I'll click the Eye icon at the
| | 00:38 | bottom of the Mask's panel to do that.
| | 00:41 | So as you can see the original geisha
photograph included not only the geisha
| | 00:45 | herself but also all of this background.
| | 00:47 | I'll click on the layer mask thumbnail
again to make it active, and then I'll
| | 00:52 | show you the mask by holding down the
Option key on the Mac, the Alt key on the
| | 00:56 | PC, and clicking on the layer mask.
| | 00:59 | So this is the outside shape of this mask,
and I can quickly load a selection in
| | 01:04 | this shape at any time.
| | 01:05 | I'll go back to the Photo View by Option or
Alt-clicking again on the geisha layer mask.
| | 01:12 | And now I'm going to load a
Selection in the shape of that mask.
| | 01:15 | The way to do that is to hold down the
Command key on the Mac, that's the Ctrl
| | 01:19 | key on the PC, and click directly on
the layer mask thumbnail, and that loads
| | 01:24 | the Selection that you see here
in the shape of the mask itself.
| | 01:28 | Now I could use this selection for
any purpose for which I'd normally use a
| | 01:32 | selection, to copy, move, or
manipulate the contents of the selection.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Unlinking layer masks| 00:00 |
By default a layer mask is linked to, or
attached to the image on the layer that
| | 00:05 |
contains the layer mask.
| | 00:08 |
There are times when you are going to
want to work with layer mask separately
| | 00:11 |
from the image content.
| | 00:13 |
For example, you may want to move the
layer mask, or rotate it, or change its
| | 00:17 |
scale without affecting the image.
| | 00:19 |
In order to do that you have to unlink
the layer mask from the image content.
| | 00:24 |
As I'm going to show you
how to do in this movie.
| | 00:26 |
In this image I have a layer the canvas
layer to which I have added a layer mask.
| | 00:32 |
I'll show you the content of the
canvas layer by holding the Shift key and
| | 00:35 |
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail,
to make it temporarily invisible.
| | 00:38 |
So here is a photograph of an
artist painting on a blank canvas.
| | 00:42 |
I am going to make the layer mask visible
again by clicking the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 00:47 |
And then I'll show you what the layer
mask itself looks like, by holding down
| | 00:50 |
the Option key on the Mac, or the Alt
key on the PC, and clicking right on the
| | 00:55 |
layer mask thumbnail.
| | 00:56 |
The layer mask contains the sketch.
| | 00:58 |
I made this layer mask by copying the
content of another image and pasting that
| | 01:03 |
content into the layer mask.
| | 01:05 |
I use the very same technique that I
used in an earlier movie in which I showed
| | 01:09 |
you how to paste an image into a layer mask.
| | 01:12 |
If you'd like to learn how to do that,
go back and listen to that movie, after
| | 01:15 |
you finish this one.
| | 01:16 |
But for now I'd like to concentrate on
how I can manipulate the layer mask here
| | 01:21 |
without affecting the image.
| | 01:23 |
So I'm going to press the Option key
on the Mac, or the Alt key on a PC, as I
| | 01:27 |
click again on that layer mask
to go back to this Photo View.
| | 01:31 |
Here you can see that that sketch of a
tree in the layer mask is hiding part of
| | 01:37 |
the canvas layer allowing me to
see down the blue background below.
| | 01:41 |
I'd like to make this look like a
realistic painting, and so there are several
| | 01:45 |
things that I want to do
to adjust the layer mask.
| | 01:47 |
I want to rotate it so that the
painting is facing the artist.
| | 01:51 |
I want to make the layer mask smaller,
and I also want to be able to move
| | 01:55 |
the layer mask without affecting
the image, so that I can position this
| | 01:59 |
sketch on top of the canvas.
| | 02:01 |
But if I try to do any of that now
I'll end up affecting not only the layer
| | 02:05 |
mask but also the image.
| | 02:07 |
For example, I have the layer mask
targeted here on the canvas layer.
| | 02:11 |
I'm going to get the Move tool on the
Toolbox, and I'm going to click-and-drag,
| | 02:17 |
and that moves not just the content of
the layer mask but also the image content
| | 02:21 |
of the canvas layer, and that isn't what I want.
| | 02:24 |
So I'm going to press Command+Z on
the Mac, Ctrl+Z on the PC to undo.
| | 02:29 |
The reason that I just moved the image
along with the layer mask is that there
| | 02:33 |
is a link between the two
thumbnails on the canvas layer.
| | 02:37 |
Here's the Link icon right here.
| | 02:39 |
If I want to unlink the layer mask from
the image content, all I have to do is
| | 02:44 |
click right on this Link symbol.
| | 02:46 |
The Link symbol disappears, and now the
layer mask is separate from the image content.
| | 02:52 |
So I'm going to make sure that I have the
layer mask targeted here on the canvas layer.
| | 02:56 |
And then I'm going to go up to the
Edit menu at the top of the screen and
| | 03:00 |
I'm going to choose Free Transform so that I
can scale, and rotate, and move the layer mask.
| | 03:07 |
Free Transform brings up this
bounding box around the layer mask content
| | 03:11 |
with some anchor points.
| | 03:13 |
The first thing that I want to do
is to rotate the layer mask, so that
| | 03:18 |
it's facing the artist.
| | 03:19 |
So I'm going to move my mouse
outside one of the corner anchor points.
| | 03:23 |
And when my cursor changes to this
curved double-pointed arrow, I'll
| | 03:26 |
click-and-drag to rotate just the
content of the layer mask without affecting
| | 03:32 |
the content of the layer.
| | 03:34 |
I can also make the content of the
layer mask smaller, by moving my mouse
| | 03:39 |
over one of the anchor points holding down
the Shift key and dragging toward the center.
| | 03:44 |
And now I see that I need to rotate a bit more.
| | 03:46 |
So again, I'll move over a
corner anchor point and I'll rotate.
| | 03:51 |
Until I've got the layer
mask just the way that I wanted.
| | 03:54 |
And finally, I'll move my mouse inside
the layer mask, click and I'll drag to
| | 03:59 |
position the content of the layer mask in place.
| | 04:03 |
And I've done all that without affecting
the content of the canvas layer because
| | 04:07 |
I did unlink the layer
mask from the image content.
| | 04:10 |
Finally, when I'm done doing all of
that I'll go up to the Options Bar for the
| | 04:14 |
Transform command and click this
check mark to commit all those changes.
| | 04:19 |
When I'm done working with the layer
mask separately, I think it's a good idea
| | 04:22 |
to go back to the canvas layer and
click in between the two thumbnails to
| | 04:27 |
bring the link back.
| | 04:29 |
So that the next time I'm working with
the canvas layer I won't inadvertently
| | 04:33 |
move the layer mask without
moving the image or vice versa.
| | 04:36 |
But having the flexibility to unlink
the mask from the image content gives me a
| | 04:41 |
lot more flexibility to
manipulate the content of the layer mask.
| | 04:46 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Filtering layer masks| 00:00 | Because a layer mask is made up of
pixels, you can run filters on a layer mask,
| | 00:05 | just like you can do on a pixel-based image.
| | 00:07 | In this example I have a
layer mask on the canvas layer.
| | 00:11 | Let me show you what's on that mask by
holding the Option key on the Mac,
| | 00:14 | the Alt key on the PC, and
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 00:18 | The mask is a sketch that's made up of
an image that I copied and pasted into
| | 00:23 | the layer mask, using a technique
that I showed you in an earlier movie.
| | 00:28 | I can change the look of this layer
mask by applying a filter and that's what
| | 00:32 | I'm going to do now.
| | 00:33 | So I'll go back to the Photo View by
holding down the Option key on the Mac, or
| | 00:37 | the Alt key on the PC, as I
click again on that layer mask.
| | 00:40 | The first step in adding a filter to
a layer mask is to make sure that the
| | 00:44 | layer mask is targeted, and I know that this one
is because it has this double border around it.
| | 00:49 | Next, I'll go up to the Filter menu.
| | 00:51 | Here I see lots of categories of filters.
| | 00:55 | Many of the filters are part of
something called the Filter Gallery.
| | 00:59 | I'm going to choose one of the
filters from the Filter Gallery, in the
| | 01:02 | Artistic category here.
| | 01:03 | I'll choose the Film Grain filter.
| | 01:06 | That opens the Filter Gallery dialog box.
| | 01:10 | The purpose of the Filter Gallery is to
allow you to preview the effect of one
| | 01:14 | or more filters, before they are applied.
| | 01:17 | You can see that the Film Grain icon
is selected here in the area where you
| | 01:21 | select filters, and you can see the
Film Grain filter over here in the list of
| | 01:26 | filters that are being previewed.
| | 01:28 | The preview is over here on the left.
| | 01:31 | Unfortunately, the preview only shows
the effect of the filter on the layer mask.
| | 01:35 | You can't see what the effect
would be on the image itself.
| | 01:37 | So you have to use your imagination a bit.
| | 01:40 | I like the way that this Film
Grain filter looks on the layer mask.
| | 01:44 | So I'm going to use that as one of two
filters that I'll be applying to the layer mask.
| | 01:49 | To add another filter I'll go to the
bottom right of the Filter Gallery and
| | 01:54 | click this icon, the Add Filter icon.
| | 01:57 | That adds another copy of the Film Grain filter.
| | 02:00 | I can change that second filter to a
different filter by going to another filter
| | 02:04 | in the middle column.
| | 02:06 | I'm going to choose a filter
from the Brush Strokes category.
| | 02:08 | So I'll click the arrow to the left of
Brush Strokes and from here, I'm going
| | 02:13 | to try the Sprayed Strokes filter.
| | 02:15 | I'll click on its icon, and that adds the
Sprayed Strokes filter to this list of filters.
| | 02:22 | And it changes the appearance of the layer
mask that's being previewed over here on the left.
| | 02:27 | I can change the Options for the Sprayed
Strokes filter up here on the top-right
| | 02:31 | of the Filter Gallery dialog box.
| | 02:33 | As I experiment with these sliders you can
see the preview changing over here on the left.
| | 02:39 | So I'll make a couple of changes and
when I'm satisfied, I'll click OK to
| | 02:43 | apply this combination of the Sprayed Strokes
filter and the Film Grain filter to my layer mask.
| | 02:50 | Here in the document window, you can see
the effect of having filtered the layer mask.
| | 02:56 | To see a before and after view,
I'll press Command+Z on the Mac.
| | 03:00 | That's Ctrl+Z on the PC.
| | 03:02 | To remind you of the effect of the
layer mask before I added the filter and
| | 03:06 | then Command or Ctrl+Z again to view
the document with the filtered layer mask.
| | 03:13 | You can get lots of different
special effects by filtering a layer mask.
| | 03:17 | And the best way to do it is just
to experiment with different filters.
| | 03:20 | I want to mention that there are some
filters that aren't really for decorative
| | 03:24 | effects, but rather for functional purposes.
| | 03:28 | Among those kinds of
filters are the Blur filters.
| | 03:31 | In the past the way to do that was to
apply a Blur filter directly to a layer mask.
| | 03:36 | But the good news is that you don't have
to go to that trouble in Photoshop CS4.
| | 03:41 | Instead you can get a very similar
effect by using the Feather slider in the
| | 03:46 | Masks panel on a layer mask, as I
showed how to do in an earlier movie.
| | 03:51 | So unless you prefer using the Blur
filter in Photoshop CS4, you can just rely
| | 03:57 | on Feather to soften your layer masks.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding adjustments to layer masks| 00:00 |
One of the useful consequences of the
fact that a layer mask is made up of
| | 00:04 |
pixels is that you can run an
adjustment on a layer mask just like you could on
| | 00:08 |
any pixel-based image.
| | 00:10 |
One thing you can use an adjustment
for is to make a layer mask more dense.
| | 00:14 |
For example, here I have a
layer mask on the paper layer.
| | 00:18 |
I'll show you the layer mask by
holding down the Option key on a Mac, the Alt
| | 00:22 |
key on a PC, as I click on
this layer mask thumbnail.
| | 00:26 |
You can see that the pixels on this layer
mask are either white or shades of gray.
| | 00:32 |
There really aren't any black pixels here.
| | 00:35 |
And that means that there is really
nowhere on this layer mask that's letting us
| | 00:39 |
see down completely through the
paper layer, to the maroon pixels on the
| | 00:43 |
Background layer below.
| | 00:44 |
We can only partially see through
the gray pixels on this layer mask.
| | 00:49 |
So if we wanted to see more of the
maroon pixels on the Background layer we'd
| | 00:54 |
have to make some of the
pixels on the layer mask darker.
| | 00:57 |
To do that, I'm going to apply a
Levels adjustment to this layer mask.
| | 01:02 |
I could do that either here in the layer mask
view, or I could do it back in the Photo View.
| | 01:08 |
I'd like to do it in the layer mask
View so I get a real sense of what's
| | 01:11 |
happening to the mask.
| | 01:13 |
So I'll leave the layer mask in View.
| | 01:15 |
As I go up to the Image menu at the top
of the screen, and down to Adjustments,
| | 01:20 |
from here I'm going to
choose the Levels adjustment.
| | 01:24 |
I could also increase the density of
this mask using the Brightness/Contrast
| | 01:27 |
adjustment, or the Curves adjustment.
| | 01:30 |
But I think Levels is a good
compromise, because for most people Levels are
| | 01:34 |
easier to understand than Curves.
| | 01:36 |
And the Levels adjustment
offers more control than the
| | 01:39 |
Brightness/Contrast adjustment.
| | 01:41 |
So let's select Levels here.
| | 01:43 |
In the Levels dialog box there is a chart.
| | 01:46 |
The right side of the chart
represents the brightest possible pixels in
| | 01:50 |
this gray-scale layer mask, and
the left side of chart represents the
| | 01:54 |
darkest possible pixels.
| | 01:56 |
This little mound of black here in
the middle represents the actual tones
| | 02:00 |
in this layer mask.
| | 02:02 |
This mound is made up of individual bars.
| | 02:05 |
Each bar represents a particular shade
of gray, from white on the right to black
| | 02:11 |
on the left, and shades of gray in between.
| | 02:15 |
And the height of those bars
represents the frequency of each shade of gray.
| | 02:20 |
So this chart or as it's called a
Histogram is telling us that there are more
| | 02:25 |
light pixels in this layer
mask than there are dark pixels.
| | 02:30 |
In fact, there are no dark gray
pixels, or black pixels at all.
| | 02:34 |
I am going to make an adjustment here.
| | 02:37 |
That's going to force the darkest
pixels in this mound to black, and darken the
| | 02:42 |
midtones in the layer mask.
| | 02:44 |
To do that I'm going to go to this
black slider on the left and I'm going to
| | 02:47 |
pull it over to the right.
| | 02:50 |
As I move that slider to the right,
you can see that the darkest tones in the
| | 02:54 |
layer mask are turning black.
| | 02:57 |
The darker gray tones are also getting darker.
| | 03:01 |
Next I'm going to click on this gray
slider right here which controls the midtones.
| | 03:06 |
If I move that further to the right, the
midtones in the layer mask will get even darker.
| | 03:12 |
And if I move that slider to the
left, the midtones will get lighter.
| | 03:15 |
I'll go somewhere in the middle.
| | 03:17 |
I like the way that looks.
| | 03:19 |
So I'm going to go click OK
to close the Levels dialog box.
| | 03:23 |
Now I'm going to hold down the Option
key on the Mac, or the Alt key on the PC,
| | 03:27 |
as I click again on this layer mask
thumbnail, to go back out to the view of the photo.
| | 03:34 |
So this is the result of having run
that adjustment on the layer mask.
| | 03:40 |
To remind you of how the image looked
before I ran that adjustment, I'll press
| | 03:44 |
Command+Z on the Mac, Ctrl+Z on the PC.
| | 03:48 |
So that's where I started, and then
I'll press Command or Ctrl+Z again to again
| | 03:53 |
show you the after view, after
having the run the adjustment.
| | 03:56 |
Now that I've forced some pixels in
this layer mask to be darker, we are able
| | 04:01 |
to see down through more of the
paper layer to the maroon pixels on the
| | 04:05 |
Background layer below.
| | 04:06 |
You may be wondering why I ran an
adjustment in order to control the density of
| | 04:11 |
this layer mask, because I have told
you in earlier movies that there is a
| | 04:14 |
Density slider up here in the Masks panel.
| | 04:17 |
The answer is that that Density slider
can only help you to decrease density
| | 04:22 |
from the original density of the mask.
| | 04:24 |
You can never increase the
Density pass the original state.
| | 04:27 |
So for example if I take this slider
and move to the left, all I can do is make
| | 04:32 |
the mask less dense.
| | 04:33 |
But I can never make it more
dense than it was when I started.
| | 04:37 |
So being able to run a Levels
adjustment on a layer mask, like this one, gives
| | 04:41 |
you even more control over your layer mask,
control that you wouldn't otherwise have.
| | 04:46 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding layer masks to layer groups| 00:00 | In addition to being able to add layer
masks to layers, you can add layer masks
| | 00:05 | to groups of layers.
| | 00:07 | That gives you the opportunity to affect
more than one layer with the same mask.
| | 00:12 | It also lets you do double masking.
| | 00:14 | I'm going to show you both things in this movie.
| | 00:17 | First of all, I'm going to create a layer
group from three of the layers in this image.
| | 00:21 | Those are the three layers that
make us this colorful bar down here.
| | 00:25 | The incense layer, the maple
layer and the autumn layer.
| | 00:29 | I'll select all three of those layers
by clicking on the autumn layer and then
| | 00:33 | holding the Shift key and clicking on
the incense layer to select those layers
| | 00:37 | and the layer in between.
| | 00:39 | I'll make a layer group from these
three layers by going to the panel menu on
| | 00:43 | the right side of the Layers panel group
and from there choosing New Group from Layers.
| | 00:49 | I'll click OK in the dialog
box and that creates Group 1.
| | 00:54 | I'm going to click the arrow to the
left of Group 1, so that you can see that
| | 00:59 | inside of this layer group are the
three layers, incense, maple and autumn.
| | 01:04 | I'd like to apply the same layer
mask to all three of these layers.
| | 01:08 | So, rather than add layer masks to each
individual layer, I'm going to go up to
| | 01:13 | Group 1, make sure that's targeted and
then go down to the Add Layer Mask icon
| | 01:18 | at the bottom of the
Layers panel and click there.
| | 01:21 | And that adds a white layer mask to the group.
| | 01:25 | With that layer mask targeted, I'm
going to add some grayscale pixels.
| | 01:30 | What I'd like to have happen is for
this whole bar of images to fade into the
| | 01:34 | Japanese writing that's on the layer below them.
| | 01:38 | So, I'm going to add a black to white
gradient to the layer mask on Group 1.
| | 01:43 | Just as I've shown you how to do on a
layer mask on a layer in an earlier movie.
| | 01:48 | With that layer mask on Group 1
targeted in the Layers panel, I'll go to the
| | 01:52 | Toolbox and I'm going to
select the Gradient tool.
| | 01:55 | I want to make sure that my foreground
color is black and my background color
| | 01:59 | is white and if it isn't, I can make it
that way by pressing the X key on my keyboard.
| | 02:04 | I'm going to go up to the Options Bar
for the Gradient tool and check that the
| | 02:08 | gradient in the first field is black on
the left and white on the right and that
| | 02:14 | the first icon among the
Shape icons here is highlighted.
| | 02:18 | This is the Linear Gradient icon.
| | 02:20 | Then I'll come down into the image and
I'm going to click just above this bar of
| | 02:25 | color and I'm going to drag
downward and then release my mouse.
| | 02:30 | That's made the content of all three
layers in Group 1 start to fade out at the top.
| | 02:36 | Let's take a look at the layer mask
that's on Group 1, I'm going to hold
| | 02:39 | down the Option key on the Mac, the
Alt key on the PC and click on that
| | 02:43 | layer mask thumbnail.
| | 02:44 | You can see that it's black and white
with some gray in between and the black
| | 02:49 | pixels are hiding the top part of that
colorful bar and those gray pixels are
| | 02:54 | gradually hiding that bar.
| | 02:56 | So, it looks like it's fading in.
| | 02:58 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click
on the layer mask thumbnail again.
| | 03:01 | Back in the movie on how to add a
Grayscale Gradient to a layer mask, I
| | 03:05 | explained that you can redraw that
gradient as many times as you want.
| | 03:09 | So, I can try again to see if I
can get a little bit better look.
| | 03:12 | This time I'm going to start closer to
the colorful bar and drag down from there.
| | 03:17 | I like that effect better, so,
I'm going to go with that.
| | 03:20 | So, that's how you can use a layer mask on a
group to affect more than one layer at a time.
| | 03:26 | The other thing that a layer mask on a group
allows you to do is to double mask a layer.
| | 03:32 | So for example, I already have this
layer group on Group 1 affecting the incense
| | 03:37 | layer and the maple layer and
the autumn layer in that group.
| | 03:40 | Now, I'm going to add another layer
mask to the incense layer, by selecting
| | 03:45 | that layer and then going down to the
Add Layer Mask icon and adding a layer
| | 03:49 | mask to the incense layer.
| | 03:51 | That layer mask is currently white.
| | 03:54 | I'm going to add some black pixels to it
by getting the Brush tool in the Toolbox.
| | 03:58 | I'll go up to the Options bar for the
Brush tool and click on the arrow to the
| | 04:02 | right of the Brush tool picker.
| | 04:04 | In that palette, I'm going to scroll
down until I see these pixilated brushes
| | 04:10 | and I'll choose one of those and
then I'll click in the blank area of the
| | 04:14 | Options bar to close that palette.
| | 04:16 | Now, I'm going to come into the image
and with the layer mask on the incense
| | 04:20 | layer selected, I'm going to click and
just drag a rough border along the edge
| | 04:25 | of that layer mask I'm going to do
the same thing on the maple layer.
| | 04:29 | I'll select the maple layer.
| | 04:31 | I'll go down to the Add
Layer Mask icon and click.
| | 04:33 | That adds this white layer mask on the
maple layer and with the same brush, I'm
| | 04:38 | going to come in and drag a rough
border on the right side of the maple layer.
| | 04:43 | So now, I'm double masking the maple layer
and I'm double masking the incense layer.
| | 04:48 | Each of those layers has their own
layer mask and each is affected by the layer
| | 04:53 | mask that I've added to the
group in which they reside.
| | 04:56 | Now, if I want to take this a step
further, I can even nest this group inside
| | 05:02 | another layer group and add yet another
layer mask on that second layer group.
| | 05:07 | To do that, I'm going to select the
Group 1 layer group and I'm going to drag
| | 05:12 | it down to the bottom of the Layers
panel, on top of the Folder icon that's the
| | 05:16 | Add Layer Group icon.
| | 05:18 | I'll release my mouse there and that
creates another layer group, Group 2 inside
| | 05:24 | of which is nested Group 1
and the layers that it contains.
| | 05:29 | Now, I'm going to add a layer mask to
Group 2 by making sure that it's targeted
| | 05:33 | and going down to the Add Layer Mask
icon, clicking that icon and now I have
| | 05:38 | this white layer mask on Group 2.
| | 05:41 | In this layer mask, I would like
to fill the outline of some letters.
| | 05:45 | As I've shown you how to do it in
another movie, for that I'm going to go over
| | 05:48 | to the Toolbox and I'm going to select
the Horizontal Type Mask tool rather than
| | 05:54 | one of the regular type tools.
| | 05:56 | The Type Mask tool
creates the outline of letters.
| | 05:59 | With this tool selected, I'll go up to
the Options Bar and I've chosen there a
| | 06:04 | very wide font and I've made that
font pretty big in the Font Size field.
| | 06:09 | I'll come into the image and I'll
click and when I do that, you see this red
| | 06:14 | overlay that represents a quick mask.
| | 06:18 | This is the result of using the Type Mask tool.
| | 06:20 | This is how it works.
| | 06:21 | So, here I'm going to hold down
the Caps key and type the word JAPAN.
| | 06:27 | When I'm done, I'll go up to the
Options Bar for the Type Mask tool and I'll
| | 06:31 | click the check mark and that
creates this marching ant selection in the
| | 06:36 | shape of those letters.
| | 06:39 | With the marching ants active, I'm
going to get the Move tool, click inside of
| | 06:43 | the marching ants and drag to
position the word Japan where I want it.
| | 06:49 | Now, I just have a regular selection
here that I'm going to fill with black on
| | 06:53 | the layer mask that I've added to Group 2.
| | 06:56 | I still have that layer mask targeted
here in the Layers panel and I have black
| | 07:01 | as my foreground color.
| | 07:03 | So, I'm going to use the shortcut for
filling with the foreground color, which
| | 07:06 | is Option+Delete on the Mac or Alt+
Backspace on the PC, and that will fill the
| | 07:13 | selection in the shape of the
letters on the Group 2 layer mask.
| | 07:17 | I'm going to deselect by pressing
Command+D on the Mac or Ctrl+D on the PC and
| | 07:23 | you can see the result here in the image.
| | 07:25 | It's pretty interesting, the layer
mask on Group 2 is punching a hole down
| | 07:30 | through Group 1 and all of the layers
that it contains, so that we can see the
| | 07:35 | Japanese writing on the bottom
layer here in the Layers panel.
| | 07:38 | I'll show you the layer mask for
Group 2 by holding down the Option key on
| | 07:42 | the Mac or the Alt key on the PC and
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail on Group 2.
| | 07:47 | So, here you can see where the black
pixels are allowing us to see down through
| | 07:53 | all of the nested content
of the Group 2 layer group.
| | 07:57 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click again on
that layer mask and I'll show you again
| | 08:02 | the layer mask on Group 1,
to refresh your memory.
| | 08:05 | Group 1 contains this gradient that's
affecting all of the content of Group 1,
| | 08:11 | the incense layer, the maple
layer and the autumn layer.
| | 08:14 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click again on
that layer mask and finally, I'll show
| | 08:18 | you the layer mask on the incense layer
by Option-clicking or Alt-clicking it.
| | 08:23 | There are the black pixels that are
creating that rough edge between the incense
| | 08:27 | layer and the maple layer.
| | 08:29 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click
again, so that you can see that.
| | 08:33 | So, once you feel that you've
mastered layer groups on layers, try creating
| | 08:37 | some groups of layers and adding layer
masks to your groups that will allow you
| | 08:41 | to use a layer mask that affects multiple layers
and even to double and triple mask your layers.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding layer masks to Smart Objects| 00:00 |
Smart objects offer all kinds of
benefits in Photoshop but one of the things
| | 00:04 |
that you may not have thought of as a
benefit of smart objects is that they
| | 00:08 |
offer you a way to add a layer mask to
more than one layer at a time and to do
| | 00:14 |
some double masking.
| | 00:15 |
This is an alternative to working with
layer groups and layer masks as I showed
| | 00:20 |
you how to do in the last movie.
| | 00:22 |
So here for example, I have three
layers making up this colorful bar, the
| | 00:27 |
incense layer, the maple
layer and the autumn layer.
| | 00:29 |
I would like to add a layer mask that
effects all three of these layers, rather
| | 00:35 |
than making them into a layer group,
I'm going to make them into a smart object
| | 00:38 |
and add a layer mask to this smart object.
| | 00:41 |
So the first step is to select all three
layers by clicking on the first of them
| | 00:45 |
and then holding the Shift key
and clicking on the last of them.
| | 00:48 |
And that selects all three.
| | 00:50 |
Then I'm going to go to the Layer panel
menu and from there I'm going to choose
| | 00:54 |
Convert to Smart Object.
| | 00:56 |
That takes those three layers and
combines them into one smart object layer.
| | 01:01 |
I haven't done away with my three layers.
| | 01:04 |
They are just tucked away inside of this file.
| | 01:07 |
And so now, in the Layers panel I
just have this one layer, the incense
| | 01:12 |
layer, which is a smart object layer
as you can see by this smart object icon
| | 01:16 |
on this layer's thumbnail.
| | 01:19 |
With the smart object layer selected,
I'm going to go to the bottom of the
| | 01:22 |
Layers panel and I'm going to click the
Add Layer Mask icon and that adds this
| | 01:27 |
white layer mask to the smart object layer.
| | 01:30 |
With that layer mask thumbnail
selected, I'm going to add a black to white
| | 01:33 |
gradient that will affect all three of the
layers that are now inside of this smart object.
| | 01:39 |
So, as I have done in other movies,
I'm going to get the Gradient tool in
| | 01:43 |
the Toolbox, I'll make sure that
my foreground color is black and my
| | 01:46 |
background color is white.
| | 01:48 |
I'll go up to this Gradient field in
the Options Bar and check that it's black
| | 01:52 |
on the left and white on the right.
| | 01:54 |
And then I'll come into the image and
with that layer mask still targeted, I'm
| | 01:59 |
going to click at the top of
this colorful bar and drag down.
| | 02:03 |
And if I don't like the result I can do
it again as many times as I want, until
| | 02:07 |
I like the way it looks.
| | 02:09 |
It's getting there, I'm going to go a
little bit further and that's what I had in mind.
| | 02:13 |
Now take a look at the Layers panel,
there you see that smart object layer
| | 02:18 |
with its layer mask.
| | 02:19 |
I am going to show you the layer mask
by pressing the Option key on the Mac or
| | 02:23 |
the Alt key on the PC.
| | 02:25 |
And as you have seen in other movies,
this is a gradient that is hiding the area
| | 02:29 |
here, showing the area here and
partially revealing the area underneath these
| | 02:34 |
graduating gray pixels.
| | 02:36 |
I will Option or Alt-click the layer mask
thumbnail again to go back to see the photo.
| | 02:41 |
So having made a smart object out of
these three layers has allowed me to add
| | 02:46 |
one layer mask that affects all three layers.
| | 02:49 |
Now, what if I decide that I want a layer
mask that affects just this incense layer.
| | 02:55 |
I can go inside of the smart object
and apply another layer mask there.
| | 02:59 |
To go inside the smart object, I'm
going to double-click the Smart Object
| | 03:03 |
thumbnail on the incense layer.
| | 03:05 |
I'll click OK at the prompt
and that opens a separate file.
| | 03:09 |
Here is my original file over here, and
here is the separate file that opened.
| | 03:15 |
And notice that this
document has a special format.
| | 03:18 |
It's called incense.psb.
| | 03:20 |
Basically, we are working
inside of this smart object.
| | 03:24 |
Here, I can see my incense layer and my
maple layer and my autumn layer again.
| | 03:31 |
And I can work with them
just as I normally would.
| | 03:34 |
So, I can add a layer mask to
anyone or more of these layers.
| | 03:38 |
I'll do that on the incense layer by
selecting it and clicking the Add Layer
| | 03:42 |
Mask button at the bottom of the Layers panel.
| | 03:45 |
And in that layer mask, I'm
going to add some black paint.
| | 03:48 |
I will get my Brush tool.
| | 03:50 |
Black is my foreground color.
| | 03:53 |
I'm going to use this pixilated brush
here from the default set of brushes and
| | 03:57 |
I'm going to click-and-drag between the
incense and the maple to create a rough edge there.
| | 04:05 |
I will do the same thing on the maple
layer, selecting that layer in the Layers
| | 04:08 |
panel inside of the smart object and
then going down and adding a layer mask and
| | 04:14 |
with the same brush I'll paint
between the maple and this autumn scene.
| | 04:21 |
Now when I'm all done making those
changes inside of the smart object, I need to
| | 04:26 |
save this PSB file and I need to
save it in exactly the same place.
| | 04:32 |
So I'm just going to choose File and then Save.
| | 04:36 |
Then I'll close that PSB file and
notice that back here in my original image I
| | 04:43 |
can see the results of the individual
layer masks that I added to the incense
| | 04:47 |
layer here and to the maple layer here.
| | 04:51 |
And I still have the double masking
effect of this additional layer mask on the
| | 04:56 |
incense smart object layer.
| | 04:58 |
And finally, because the incense smart
object layer is a smart object, I can
| | 05:03 |
resize, rotate it, or otherwise
transform it with no danger of degrading the
| | 05:09 |
content of any of the
layers in this smart object.
| | 05:12 |
For example, I'm going to click on the
Smart Object thumbnail and then I'm going
| | 05:17 |
to go up to the Edit menu and
I'm going to choose Free Transform.
| | 05:21 |
That brings up this
bounding box with anchor points.
| | 05:24 |
This bounding box is extending over
to the right on to the canvas because
| | 05:27 |
there is actually more of this bar
over to the right than it's currently
| | 05:31 |
showing in the image.
| | 05:32 |
In order to access the anchor point on
the right side of this bounding box, I'm
| | 05:36 |
going to press the keyboard shortcut,
Command+0 on the Mac, that's Ctrl+0 and
| | 05:43 |
that expands the document canvas so
that I can reach the anchor point here at
| | 05:48 |
the top right of this bounding box.
| | 05:50 |
I am going to hold down the Shift
key to constrain proportions, so I
| | 05:53 |
don't distort the images.
| | 05:55 |
And then, I'm going to click-and-drag
towards the center making this bar smaller.
| | 06:00 |
And when I'm done I'll go up to the
Options Bar at the top of the screen and
| | 06:04 |
I'll click the check mark
to accept that transform.
| | 06:08 |
So, I have made all of the layers in
that smart object smaller and at the
| | 06:12 |
same time, I have transformed the layer mask
that I have added to this smart object layer.
| | 06:18 |
And all that has been done without
danger of degrading the content of the layers
| | 06:23 |
inside this smart object.
| | 06:26 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using layer masks with layer styles| 00:00 |
If your working on a layer that has a
layer style applied to it, and then you
| | 00:04 |
add a layer mask to that layer, the
layer mask will reflect the layer style, and
| | 00:09 |
that's not always what you want.
| | 00:11 |
Sometimes you just want the layer
mask to be without the layer style.
| | 00:15 |
There is a way to turn off that default
behavior, but it's one of those things
| | 00:18 |
in Photoshop that's hard to find.
| | 00:20 |
It's what I call a secret handshake.
| | 00:22 |
So that's what I'm going to show you
how to find and how to do in this movie.
| | 00:27 |
I have an image that has a green
background layer, and then it has a small
| | 00:31 |
flower layer above it.
| | 00:32 |
I'll turn that layer on and off, so
you can see what's on the flower layer.
| | 00:36 |
I'm going to add a layer style to the
flower layer to make a frame around the
| | 00:41 |
photo of the flower.
| | 00:42 |
With the flower layer selected, I'm
going to go down to the bottom of the
| | 00:45 |
Layers panel, and there I'm going to click the
fx button to view this menu of layer effects.
| | 00:51 |
I'm going to choose the Inner Glow layer effect.
| | 00:54 |
That opens the big Layer Style dialog box.
| | 00:57 |
With the Inner Glow layer effect
checked, to indicate that it's being applied
| | 01:02 |
and highlighted, to make these
options for that particular layer effect
| | 01:06 |
available here in the layer style dialog box.
| | 01:08 |
I'm going to make a few changes to the
options for the inner glow layer style.
| | 01:13 |
I'm going to increase the Size of the
Inner Glow so that you can start to see
| | 01:17 |
it here in the image.
| | 01:19 |
I'll also increase the Choke,
so it's even more obvious.
| | 01:23 |
Then I'm going to add another layer
effect to the style that I'm building, by
| | 01:27 |
going over to the styles column on the
left side of the Layer Style dialog box,
| | 01:31 |
and checking stroke.
| | 01:33 |
Then I'll click on stroke to highlight
it, to make the options for the stroke
| | 01:37 |
layer effect available here in the
center of the Layer Style dialog box.
| | 01:41 |
I'd like to change the color of the
stoke, so I'll click in the color field to
| | 01:45 |
open the color picker.
| | 01:46 |
With the color picker open, I can
choose a color from inside of the image by
| | 01:51 |
just moving my mouse over the
image, and clicking on a color.
| | 01:54 |
I'll choose a little bit darker
green than that and then I'll click OK.
| | 02:01 |
You can see that changed the color of
the stroke in the layer style dialog box,
| | 02:05 |
and it added this green stroke
around the outside of the flower layer.
| | 02:09 |
Now I'm going to click OK to create
this layer style with the Inner Glow and
| | 02:14 |
the Stroke effects.
| | 02:15 |
Now let's go on to the next step and
add a layer mask to the flower layer.
| | 02:20 |
I'll do that as I normally do, by
making sure the flower layer is selected,
| | 02:24 |
and then going to the bottom of the Layers
panel, and clicking the Add Layer Mask icon there.
| | 02:29 |
That adds a white layer mask
that's currently having no effect.
| | 02:34 |
What I'd like to do with this mask is
to mask out part of the flower layer in
| | 02:38 |
the shape of some letters.
| | 02:40 |
So I'm going to use one of the Type Mask
tools, rather than a regular type tool.
| | 02:44 |
I'll go over to the Toolbox, and I'm
going to select the Vertical Type Mask tool.
| | 02:49 |
In the Options bar for that tool, I've
chosen a wide font, and I've set my font size.
| | 02:55 |
Now I'll go into the image and
I'll click with the Type Mask tool.
| | 03:00 |
When you start to the Type Mask tool,
you'll be working on a red overlay like
| | 03:05 |
this, which is basically a quick mask.
| | 03:07 |
With the Caps key held down,
I'll type the word BUD.
| | 03:12 |
Then I'll commit this type by going up to the
Options bar, and clicking the big check mark.
| | 03:16 |
That gives me this marching ants
selection in the shape of the letters.
| | 03:20 |
I'm going to get the Move tool, and
click-and-drag those letters into place.
| | 03:26 |
Now, I'm ready to fill this selection
on the layer mask with black, in order to
| | 03:30 |
hide part of the flower, so we can
see down to the background below.
| | 03:34 |
With the layer mask thumbnail selected
on the flower layer, I'll make sure that
| | 03:38 |
black is my foreground color, and if it isn't,
I'll press D, and then X {D+X} on keyboard.
| | 03:44 |
Then I'm going to fill with the
foreground color, either by going up to the Edit
| | 03:48 |
menu, and choosing Fill, and
Use, Foreground Color, and OK.
| | 03:54 |
Or I could have used the keyboard
shortcut for filling with the foreground
| | 03:59 |
color, which is Option+Delete on
the Mac, or Alt+Backspace on the PC.
| | 04:04 |
Now, I'm going to deselect by pressing
Command+D on the Mac, or Ctrl+D on the PC.
| | 04:09 |
Let's take a look at the layer mask first.
| | 04:12 |
By holding down the Option key on
the Mac, or the Alt key on the PC, and
| | 04:16 |
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 04:18 |
You can see that I have the
three letters each filled with black.
| | 04:22 |
I'll Option or Alt click again on that layer
mask thumbnail to go back to the document view.
| | 04:27 |
Here you can see that the black letters
on the layer mask are hiding part of the
| | 04:31 |
flower layer, so we can
through to the light green below.
| | 04:35 |
But that layer style that I had added
to the flower layer is also being applied
| | 04:40 |
to the edges of the letters on the
layer mask, and that isn't what I want.
| | 04:44 |
I don't want to have a glow
and a stoke around these letters.
| | 04:48 |
I just want to see the
light green on the layer below.
| | 04:51 |
So here's the crux of this
lesson, how you turn that off?
| | 04:55 |
You do that in the Layer Style dialog box.
| | 04:58 |
I'm going to reopen the Layer Style
dialog box for the flower layer, by double
| | 05:02 |
clicking on a blank portion of the flower layer.
| | 05:05 |
In the center column of the Layer Style
dialog box you see the Blending Options.
| | 05:10 |
I'm going to go down to the Advanced
Blending section there, and to the command
| | 05:14 |
Layer Mask Hides Effects,
which is unchecked, by default.
| | 05:18 |
I'm going to check this box, and
keep your eye on the image as I do this.
| | 05:22 |
Checking that box caused the layer
style on the flower layer to disappear from
| | 05:26 |
the edge of the layer mask that's on that layer.
| | 05:29 |
So the letters no longer have
a stoke and a glow around them.
| | 05:32 |
Although, those layer styles are
retained around the edge of the image that's on
| | 05:37 |
the flower layer, as you can see here.
| | 05:38 |
By the way, if you're working with a
vector mask, rather than a layer mask, you
| | 05:42 |
could do the same thing to that mask
by checking Vector Mask Hides Effects in
| | 05:47 |
the layer style dialog box.
| | 05:49 |
I'm going to click OK to accept this change.
| | 05:52 |
As you can see, I still have the
Inner Glow and the Stroke layer style on
| | 05:56 |
the flower layer, but those layer style
aren't affecting the layer mask on the layer.
| | 06:01 |
Keep in mind that the change I just
made in the Layer Style dialog box affects
| | 06:06 |
only the selected flower layer.
| | 06:08 |
If you would've make another layer to
which I applied a layer mask and a layer
| | 06:11 |
style, I'd have through the same steps
for that additional layer in order to
| | 06:15 |
turn off the default behavior, which as
you've seen is to apply a layer style to
| | 06:20 |
the edge of a layer mask.
| | 06:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Vector MasksCreating vector masks| 00:00 | So far in this course, we've been
talking about layer masks, which
| | 00:03 | are pixel-based masks.
| | 00:05 | But there's another kind of mask that
doesn't contain pixels and that's a vector mask.
| | 00:10 | A vector mask contains instructions
about drawing points and curves, and because
| | 00:15 | it's not made up of square edged pixels,
a vector mask comes in handy when
| | 00:19 | you want to mask an element,
and give it a crisp sharp edge.
| | 00:23 | So for example, let's say that I want to
add a mask to the girl layer that hides
| | 00:27 | the poppies on this layer,
| | 00:29 | but gives me a nice sharp edge
around the girl's white sweater.
| | 00:32 | One way to start is to get the Pen tool,
which is located here in the Toolbox,
| | 00:38 | and start drawing around the girl's sweater.
| | 00:40 | I'm going to click and then I'm
going to click and I'm going to drag.
| | 00:44 | When I drag, I get these handles and
by turning the handles and pulling them out,
| | 00:49 | I can change the shape of
the vector path that I'm drawing.
| | 00:53 | So I'll just go along and each
time I'm going to click-and-drag
| | 00:56 | and click-and-drag, changing shape
of the path that I'm drawing.
| | 01:02 | When I get to corner, like right here,
I'll click and then I'll hold the Option
| | 01:06 | key on the Mac, or the Alt key on the
PC, and click on the point that I just added
| | 01:11 | and that will change direction.
| | 01:12 | So that with the next point, I can
come out this way and click-and-drag.
| | 01:18 | Since this isn't a course in
learning to use the Pen tool,
| | 01:21 | I'm not going to make you watch
me go all the way around the girl.
| | 01:24 | But I do want to tell you that when I
get all the way back to the beginning,
| | 01:27 | I want to be sure to click on that first
point, when I see this little circle next
| | 01:31 | to the Pen tool icon, to close the path.
| | 01:33 | So instead of continuing to take your
time watching me draw, I have already
| | 01:37 | prepared a path around this girl.
| | 01:39 | I'm going to activate it now, by
clicking on the Paths tab, and I'll get that
| | 01:44 | work path that I just drew. Drag it to
the Trash and instead, I'll activate the
| | 01:49 | model path that I prepared for you.
| | 01:51 | Then I'm going to go back to the Layers panel.
| | 01:53 | Now you can see the path right
here as an outline around the girl.
| | 01:58 | With that path active in the Paths panel, I'm
going to add a vector mask to the girl layer.
| | 02:03 | There are several ways to do that.
| | 02:05 | I could go down to the Add Layer Mask
icon and hold down the Command key on
| | 02:09 | the Mac or the Ctrl key on the PC, as I click
on the Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers panel.
| | 02:15 | But I prefer to use the Masks panel,
because there are no modifier keys involved.
| | 02:20 | All I have to do is click the button
with the Pen tool on it right here and
| | 02:23 | that adds a layer mask, which is hiding
the content outside of the path or
| | 02:29 | the vector outline that I drew.
| | 02:32 | With that content hidden on the girl
layer, we can see down to the content on
| | 02:36 | the winter layer below.
| | 02:37 | Notice in the image that you can see
the outline around the girl's sweater.
| | 02:41 | If I click on the vector mask thumbnail,
so that the border disappears around it,
| | 02:45 | then I no longer see that vector outline.
| | 02:48 | It's there, but this allows me to view the
image without looking at the vector outline.
| | 02:53 | I am going to go click on that vector
mask again to show you another way that
| | 02:56 | you can add content to a vector mask.
| | 02:59 | And that's using the Shape
tool with the Path option.
| | 03:02 | The Shapes tools are nice,
because they come with preset shapes.
| | 03:05 | So you don't have to
bother drawing from scratch.
| | 03:08 | I'm going to select one of the
Shape tools from here in the Toolbox.
| | 03:11 | I could choose between geometric
shape tools or the Custom Shape tool and
| | 03:15 | that's the one I'm going to select now.
| | 03:17 | With the Custom Shape tool selected in
the Toolbox, I'll go up to the Options bar,
| | 03:21 | and I want to make sure that I
have the second icon selected right here,
| | 03:25 | the one that has an image of a Pen tool on it.
| | 03:27 | Otherwise, if I have the default first
icon selected, I'll be creating shapes layers
| | 03:32 | and that's not what I want to do.
| | 03:33 | Instead, I just want to create
another vector outline on this vector mask.
| | 03:38 | So with that second icon selected,
I'm going to go to the Shape field here
| | 03:42 | and click this arrow.
| | 03:43 | And here I see a selection
of shapes that I could use.
| | 03:46 | There are actually many more shapes than this.
| | 03:48 | I'm going to go click the arrow on
this palette and I'm going to choose All,
| | 03:52 | click OK, and then go to the bottom
right corner of this palette and drag down,
| | 03:57 | so you can start to see
the many shapes available.
| | 04:00 | I'll choose one of the snowflake
shapes from this area by clicking on it and
| | 04:04 | then clicking in a blank area of
the Options bar to close that palette.
| | 04:08 | I still have my vector mask targeted
here on the girl layer and I'm going
| | 04:12 | to hold down the Shift key to
constrain proportions and start to drag out
| | 04:17 | some snowflake shapes.
| | 04:19 | I can make them as big or small as I want,
and what's happening is that wherever
| | 04:24 | I make one of these shapes, I'm
punching a whole in the gray part of the vector mask,
| | 04:30 | allowing the background on the
girl layer to show through that area.
| | 04:34 | So I'll draw a few more.
| | 04:37 | If I wanted I could go back to the
shape picker and choose a different
| | 04:41 | snowflake shape, like this one,
and draw a few more shapes.
| | 04:48 | When I'm done, I'll click on the
vector thumbnail so that I can see how
| | 04:52 | the shapes look
without their vector outlines.
| | 04:55 | One of the nice things about using a
vector mask is that all the outlines on
| | 04:59 | that vector mask remain editable.
| | 05:01 | I'll show you how to edit a
vector mask in the very next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing vector masks| 00:00 | One of the advantages of using outlines
on a vector mask is that those outlines
| | 00:05 | or paths remain editable.
| | 00:07 | And you can edit any of those
outlines or paths without losing any of the
| | 00:11 | quality or crispiness of the image.
| | 00:13 | For example here, I have created a
vector mask, which I'm going to select by
| | 00:18 | clicking on the vector mask
thumbnail in the Layers panel.
| | 00:21 | One of the outlines on this vector mask is
this path that I drew around the girls sweater.
| | 00:28 | I can see that I didn't get it
exactly right, there's a little bit of the
| | 00:31 | background of the girl layer,
showing right over here.
| | 00:33 | That's no problem, because I can always
edit this path by selecting the Direct
| | 00:39 | Selection tool or the White
arrow tool from here in the Toolbox.
| | 00:43 | I'll click on the path, and that brings up
all these anchor points along with handles.
| | 00:48 | So here is a handle, this black circle
right next to this hollow anchor point.
| | 00:53 | I'm going to click and drag on that
circle, to change the curve of the nearby
| | 00:58 | path, and in this way I can
fine-tune the edge of this path.
| | 01:02 | There's another tool here, the Path
Selection tool, which is useful for
| | 01:06 | affecting an entire path
around an element on a vector mask.
| | 01:10 | For example, lets say that I want
to move this particular snowflake.
| | 01:14 | I'll click on that snowflake with the
black arrow tool, and then I'll drag, and
| | 01:19 | the entire snowflake moves.
| | 01:20 | And when I click in a blank area, I
lose those black anchor points, so I have a
| | 01:25 | better view of the snowflake.
| | 01:26 | I can also delete a snowflake.
| | 01:28 | So, again, I can click on that same
snowflake with the black arrow tool and then
| | 01:32 | press the Delete key on my keyboard,
and that eliminates that particular closed
| | 01:36 | outline on the vector mask.
| | 01:39 | If I don't want to see the paths or
outlines around the elements on that mask,
| | 01:43 | I'll click on the vector mask thumbnail
to remove the border, and to remove the
| | 01:47 | vector outlines from around the
elements that are on that mask.
| | 01:51 | I'm going to select the vector mask
thumbnail again, to show you a couple of new
| | 01:55 | features in Photoshop CS4, to give you
some capabilities you didn't use to have
| | 02:00 | with the vector mask.
| | 02:01 | In the Masks panel, the Feather slider
is available even when you are dealing
| | 02:05 | with paths on a vector mask.
| | 02:07 | So if I drag the Feather slider to the
right, all of the elements on this vector
| | 02:11 | mask become soft edged.
| | 02:13 | I'll click on the vector mask
thumbnail again, so you can see the result.
| | 02:18 | And not only that, I also can lower
the Density of this vector mask, allowing
| | 02:23 | the poppies on the girl layer to
partially show through this mask, like this,
| | 02:28 | giving it a dreamy quality.
| | 02:29 | And finally if I want to delete the
entire vector mask as a whole, I can just
| | 02:33 | click on the vector mask thumbnail
and drag down to the Trash icon, at the
| | 02:38 | bottom of the Layers panel.
| | 02:39 | I'll click OK, and that does
away with the entire vector mask.
| | 02:43 | So like a layer mask, a vector mask is
editable, and you have lots of options
| | 02:48 | for changing the content of the vector mask
without degrading the quality of the image.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using vector masks with layer masks| 00:00 | In this movie, I'd like to show you a
couple of ways in which vector masks and
| | 00:04 | layer masks inter-relate.
| | 00:06 | The first thing I want to tell you is
that you can use both a layer mask and a
| | 00:10 | vector mask on the very same layer.
| | 00:12 | Why would you want to do that?
| | 00:13 | Because there are some things you can do on a
layer mask that you cannot do on a vector mask.
| | 00:18 | For example, let's say that I want to
hide some of the snowflakes here and I'd
| | 00:23 | like to make the girl's white sweater
somewhat translucent so we can see down
| | 00:27 | through it, to the winter scene below.
| | 00:29 | You've learned in other movies that you
can do that using a layer mask to which
| | 00:34 | you've added a gray-scale
Gradient to gradually fade content.
| | 00:38 | But here on the girl layer, where I
have a vector mask, I can't do that.
| | 00:43 | If I select the vector mask and then I
get the Gradient tool and I try to draw
| | 00:47 | a Gradient, I end up drawing the Gradient on
the image itself, rather than on the vector mask.
| | 00:52 | I'm going to undo by pressing
Command+Z on the Mac, Ctrl+Z on the PC.
| | 00:57 | So, if I want to gradually fade those
parts of the image out, I'm going to have
| | 01:01 | to add a layer mask in
addition to the vector mask.
| | 01:04 | That's easy to do, all I have to do is
make sure that girl layer is selected
| | 01:09 | and then go down to the bottom of the
Layers panel and click on the Add Layer
| | 01:12 | Mask icon as usual.
| | 01:14 | Now, there are three
thumbnails on the girl layer.
| | 01:16 | The image thumbnail on the left, the
vector mask thumbnail on the right and the
| | 01:21 | new layer mask thumbnail in between,
that's filled with white pixels, so it's
| | 01:25 | currently having no effect on the image.
| | 01:27 | It doesn't matter whether the vector
mask thumbnail is highlighted or not, I'm
| | 01:31 | going to click on it, so that it's not
highlighted, so that I don't have to look
| | 01:34 | at the outline around
the sweater and snowflakes.
| | 01:38 | I still have the layer mask thumbnail
targeted in the Layers panel and I'm now
| | 01:42 | going to add a gray-scale Gradient to
that layer mask, as I've showed you how to
| | 01:45 | do earlier in other movies.
| | 01:47 | So I'll get the Gradient tool, I have
black as my foreground color and white
| | 01:51 | as my background color, and in this Options
Bar, I have the Linear Gradient shape selected.
| | 01:57 | I'll move into the image and I'm going
to start down here at the bottom and I'll
| | 02:00 | drag a Gradient line up.
| | 02:02 | As you can see, the gray-scale
Gradient on the layer mask is now hiding part
| | 02:06 | of the content of the girl layer, including
part of the content that lives on the vector mask.
| | 02:12 | Like these snowflakes down here at the bottom.
| | 02:15 | If I want to fine-tune that mask, I
could paint on the mask, or I could make a
| | 02:18 | selection and fill it with
gray, or black, or white.
| | 02:22 | So that's how a layer mask and a
vector mask can be used together.
| | 02:25 | The layer mask to create a gradual fade,
or a soft edge painted area, and the
| | 02:31 | vector mask to create hard, crisp outlines.
| | 02:34 | Now I'm going to delete that layer mask
by clicking on it and dragging down to
| | 02:38 | the Trash Can at the bottom of the
Layers panel, and I'll click Delete.
| | 02:41 | I'm doing that because I want to
work only with the layer mask for now.
| | 02:45 | Because what I'd like to show you is
that there may be times when you need to do
| | 02:48 | something to a mask that
you can't do on a vector mask.
| | 02:51 | For example, let's say that I wanted
to filter this mask, or I wanted to
| | 02:56 | paint on this mask.
| | 02:57 | I can't do it on the vector mask but I
can do it if I convert the vector mask
| | 03:01 | into a layer mask, and here's how you do that.
| | 03:04 | I'll select the vector mask on the girl
layer and then I'm going to go up to the
| | 03:08 | Layer menu at the top of the screen,
and I'm going to go down to Rasterize,
| | 03:12 | which is a fancy word for
converting to a pixel-based image.
| | 03:16 | From there I'll choose Rasterize >
Vector Mask, and that's all I have to do to
| | 03:20 | turn that vector mask into a regular layer mask.
| | 03:23 | With that layer mask
highlighted in the Layers panel.
| | 03:26 | You can tell it's a layer mask because
it tells you that right up here in the
| | 03:29 | Masks panel, where it says Pixel Mask.
| | 03:32 | Now that that's a regular layer mask, I can do
anything I normally could do with a layer mask.
| | 03:36 | So for example, I could run
a filter on this layer mask.
| | 03:40 | With the layer mask thumbnail selected,
I'll go up to the Filter menu, and I'm
| | 03:44 | going to go down to Pixelate and Color Halftone.
| | 03:47 | I'll click OK, and as you can see,
that filter is affecting the layer mask,
| | 03:53 | not the image itself, because if I
turn the layer mask off by holding the
| | 03:57 | Shift key and clicking on the layer mask
thumbnail, you don't see the effect of that filter.
| | 04:02 | And then I'll click on the layer
mask thumbnail again to make it active.
| | 04:06 | So those are a couple of ways in which
layer masks and vector masks interrelate.
| | 04:10 | You can use both the layer mask and a
vector mask on the same layer, and if
| | 04:14 | necessary, you can convert a vector
mask into a layer mask so that you can
| | 04:18 | paint on the mask, or filter the mask, or do
other things that won't fly on a vector mask.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Image Compositing with Layer MasksCombining images| 00:00 | If you've been following along with
me through this course, by now you've
| | 00:03 | covered the nuts and bolts of
creating and working with layer masks.
| | 00:07 | In the next two chapters I'm going to
shift gears a little and show you some
| | 00:11 | practical applications for using layer masks.
| | 00:13 | In this chapter I'll be concentrating on
making composites of multiple images by
| | 00:18 | applying layer masks.
| | 00:20 | I'm going to start in this movie by
covering how to combine two images by simply
| | 00:25 | adding gray-scale pixels to a layer mask.
| | 00:27 | Using a combination of a gray-scale
Gradient and painting on that layer mask.
| | 00:32 | This is the subject that I've
touched on in earlier movies.
| | 00:35 | But it's such an important use of layer
masks that I think it's worth revisiting
| | 00:40 | and emphasizing here in
this chapter on compositing.
| | 00:43 | The images that I want
to put together are these.
| | 00:45 | This image of the Matterhorn Mountain
in Switzerland, and this image of a Swiss
| | 00:50 | flag over a mountain range.
| | 00:52 | Notice that both images have some blank
space, or some empty space, or at least
| | 00:57 | space that I'm willing to sacrifice.
| | 00:58 | On the flag image, that space is on the
right and in the Switzerland image, it's
| | 01:03 | over here on the left.
| | 01:04 | When you are looking for images that
will combine well, try to find at least one
| | 01:08 | image that has blank space like this
and it will make your life a lot easier.
| | 01:11 | Then if you have two images with
lots of detail throughout the images.
| | 01:16 | Another way to go is to start with one
detailed image and one rather abstract image.
| | 01:21 | Something like fire or smoke, which is
often relatively easy to combine even
| | 01:26 | with a detailed image.
| | 01:27 | In addition to evaluating the
content of images, I like to evaluate their
| | 01:31 | lighting before I try to combine
them, and it helps to be able to see
| | 01:34 | both images at once.
| | 01:36 | Here's how you can do that in Photoshop CS4.
| | 01:39 | It's a little bit different than it
was in earlier versions of the program.
| | 01:42 | I'm going to go up to the
Application Bar, which is a separate bar on the
| | 01:45 | Mac, but is part of the menu Bar on
the PC, and I'm going to click on this
| | 01:49 | Arrange Documents menu.
| | 01:51 | In this menu, I'm going to click on the
Two-Up Layout right here, and that let's
| | 01:55 | me see both images in the document window.
| | 01:58 | With the top image active, I'm going
to zoom out by pressing Command+Minus on
| | 02:02 | the Mac, or Ctrl+Minus on the PC.
| | 02:04 | And then to set the flag image to the
same zoom percentage, I'm going to go up
| | 02:09 | to the Arrange Documents menu again
and click on it, and then choose Match
| | 02:13 | Zoom from that menu.
| | 02:15 | What I'm looking for in these
images is the same color of light.
| | 02:19 | I don't want to have one image with
warm light and another with cool light.
| | 02:22 | Or I have to correct the light in at
least one image by adding an adjustment
| | 02:26 | like a Photo filter for example.
| | 02:28 | I also look for direction of light.
| | 02:30 | If the direction of the lighting is
really different in the two images,
| | 02:33 | sometimes I flip a layer on one of
the images by selecting that layer in
| | 02:37 | the Layers panel and then going to the Edit
menu and choosing Transform and Flip Horizontal.
| | 02:43 | But I'm not going to have
to do that in this case.
| | 02:45 | These images are going to fit together
just fine from the perspective of lighting.
| | 02:49 | There are a couple of different ways to
actually join the images together in Photoshop.
| | 02:53 | In an earlier movie I showed you
that you can drag one image up to the
| | 02:56 | document tab of another and hover there until
the document window switches to the second image.
| | 03:02 | But you may prefer to do it the
way that I'm going to show you here.
| | 03:05 | With both images showing here in this
layout in the document window, I'm just
| | 03:09 | going to get my Move tool.
| | 03:10 | I'm going to click on the flag
image to make it active, and then I'll
| | 03:14 | click-and-drag the selected flag
layer in the flag.psd image into the
| | 03:20 | switzerland.psd image.
| | 03:22 | And when I see that gray rectangle in the
switzerland.psd image I release my mouse.
| | 03:27 | And now I can close the flag image, by
clicking the red button on a PC that's a gray square.
| | 03:33 | And now to get this top image to fill
the space between the Toolbox and my
| | 03:38 | panels over here, I'm going to go back
to the Arrange Document menu and click on
| | 03:41 | it again and click on the
first icon, Consolidate All.
| | 03:45 | And then I can set the zoom percentage
to 100% by double-clicking the Zoom tool
| | 03:50 | either up here in the Application Bar or
another copy of the Zoom tool, which is
| | 03:54 | down here in the Toolbox.
| | 03:56 | Either way, double-clicking that tool
sets the image magnification to 100%.
| | 04:01 | Now, take a look at the Layers
panel for this composite image.
| | 04:04 | Notice that it has a new layer now.
| | 04:06 | When I brought the flag image in, it
automatically created a new layer in the
| | 04:10 | Layers panel, and even brought in the
name of the layer from the previous image.
| | 04:14 | I have the flag layer
targeted in the Layers panel.
| | 04:17 | I'm going to move the image into place
where I wanted, by getting the Move tool
| | 04:21 | in the Toolbox and clicking-and-dragging.
| | 04:24 | Now, the flag image is
smaller than the Matterhorn image.
| | 04:27 | In this case, that doesn't matter,
because I'm going to be covering up the right
| | 04:31 | side of the flag image anyway.
| | 04:33 | But you can make your two images fit
by transforming the bigger one using the
| | 04:37 | Edit Free Transform command.
| | 04:39 | Now, it's finally time to use
a layer mask in this exercise.
| | 04:43 | In order to blend the content of
the flag layer with the content of the
| | 04:47 | Matterhorn layer below, with the flag
layer selected in the Layers panel, I'll
| | 04:51 | click the Add Layer Mask icon at the
bottom of the Layers panel and that creates
| | 04:55 | the default layer mask filled with
white pixels that are currently having no
| | 05:00 | effect on the flag layer.
| | 05:01 | Next I'm going to apply a gray-scale
Gradient to this layer mask as I have
| | 05:05 | showed you how to do in earlier movies.
| | 05:07 | I'll go over to the Toolbox, and I'll
click on the Gradient tool and then I'll
| | 05:11 | check that black is my
foreground color in the Toolbox.
| | 05:14 | If it isn't, I'll just press X on my keyboard.
| | 05:16 | I'll take a look at the Options Bar
for the Gradient tool and make sure that
| | 05:20 | the Gradient that's showing in this field
is black on the left and white on the right.
| | 05:25 | This is the default foreground
to background color Gradient.
| | 05:28 | Next, I'm going to look at the Gradient
Shape icons, right here in the Options Bar.
| | 05:33 | I could try using the Radio Gradient,
maybe starting with a white Gradient
| | 05:38 | in the middle of the flag and moving out to
black, to hide the edges of the flag layer.
| | 05:44 | Or I could use a linear Gradient.
| | 05:45 | I think that's what I'm going to do.
| | 05:47 | So I'll click on the first icon here.
| | 05:49 | Now, I have to get my directions
right before I create the gradient.
| | 05:53 | I want to hide the right side of the flag
layer and show the left side of the flag layer.
| | 05:58 | So I'm going to start my black to
white Gradient over here on the right
| | 06:01 | side just outside of the content of the
flag layer, and I'm going to drag to the left.
| | 06:08 | You never know exactly where to stop
dragging, but that's okay because you can
| | 06:12 | do this more than once.
| | 06:13 | So I'll just stop here right next
to the flag and see how that goes.
| | 06:17 | That actually doesn't look too bad,
but the length and the direction of the
| | 06:21 | line that you draw with the Gradient
tool will change the gradient and its
| | 06:24 | effect on the layer mask.
| | 06:26 | So for example, if I try that again, say doing
something like this, I'll get a different look.
| | 06:31 | And I'll just keep going until I
like the way the image looks altogether.
| | 06:35 | I'll try that one more time from
about the middle of the mountain.
| | 06:39 | So I'm pretty happy with that.
| | 06:40 | Let's take a look at the layer mask by
holding the Option key on the Mac, or the
| | 06:44 | Alt key on the PC and
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail.
| | 06:48 | So here we have black pixels, which
are hiding the far right side of the
| | 06:52 | flag layer content.
| | 06:53 | Over here are white pixels, which are
showing the content on the flag layer, and
| | 06:57 | in between is the gradient of gray pixels.
| | 07:00 | From darker gray pixels on the right,
which are hiding parts of the content,
| | 07:04 | to lighter gray pixels on the left, which are
gradually revealing the content on the flag layer.
| | 07:09 | And it's this gradient that creates
the soft blend between the flag layer
| | 07:13 | content and the Matterhorn layer content.
| | 07:15 | I'm going to Option or Alt-click on
that layer mask icon again to show you
| | 07:19 | the document again.
| | 07:20 | And if you look closely, you'll
see that our work isn't done here.
| | 07:24 | There are still some areas like these
boulders here that need to be hidden and
| | 07:28 | some trees down here.
| | 07:29 | And I might want to try to lower the
density of the Mask in the area of the
| | 07:33 | flag, because I can see through the flag a
little bit to the Matterhorn on the layer below.
| | 07:38 | I'll start by doing that by setting my
foreground color to white, pressing the X
| | 07:42 | key on my keyboard if necessary, and
then getting the Brush tool in the Toolbox.
| | 07:46 | Up in the Options Bar for the Brush
tool, I'm going to lower the Opacity.
| | 07:50 | I'd like to start at about 50%, which
causes the brush to paint with a shade of
| | 07:54 | gray, rather than pure white.
| | 07:56 | And I can always increase the Opacity
to make the brush wider or decrease the
| | 08:00 | Opacity to make it grayer.
| | 08:02 | I'll come into the image and I want
to make sure that my brush is soft.
| | 08:06 | So I'm going to hold down the Shift key as
I press the Left Bracket key a few times.
| | 08:10 | And now I'm ready to paint over the
flag with light-gray pixels, and that makes
| | 08:17 | the flag a little bit denser so
we can't see through it as much.
| | 08:20 | Each time I click and release, I'm
building up light-gray paint on the layer mask.
| | 08:26 | Now, I'm going to switch to black paint.
| | 08:28 | I can either click this double-
pointed arrow, or I can press the X key.
| | 08:32 | I'm doing that so that I can deal
with this area of the flag layer.
| | 08:36 | I want to cover up this content,
which is part of the flag layer.
| | 08:40 | So I click and stroke over this area
several times, building up darker gray
| | 08:46 | pixels in this area that hide that content.
| | 08:49 | And I'll do the same down here, and then I'm
going to reduce the Opacity of the brush further.
| | 08:54 | Remember, I have black paint, so as
I do this, I'm creating lighter and
| | 08:59 | lighter shades of gray as the paint
with which I'm working, and I'm going to
| | 09:03 | paint over this in between area here
at the bottom of the mountain to try to
| | 09:08 | get a better blend there.
| | 09:13 | So I could work on this further,
but I think this is fine for now.
| | 09:16 | Let's take another look at the layer
mask by Option or Alt-clicking on the
| | 09:20 | layer mask thumbnail.
| | 09:21 | You can see that the Gradient with
which I started has been modified by the
| | 09:25 | white or light-gray paint I added here
and the black or dark-gray paint that I
| | 09:29 | added over in these areas.
| | 09:31 | I'll Option or Alt-click again on that
layer mask to go back to the document
| | 09:35 | and there you have it.
| | 09:36 | A composite of two images nicely blended
together by adding gray-scale pixels to a layer mask.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Replacing a background | 00:00 | Another common use of layer masks in
compositing is to switch out the background
| | 00:05 | of a foreground image.
| | 00:07 | For example, here, I have this girl
against this great red field of poppies, but
| | 00:10 | I'd like to put her in a
winter scene like this one instead.
| | 00:14 | So the first thing I'm going to do is go
back to my original image and select the girl.
| | 00:19 | I'm going to use that
selection to create a layer mask.
| | 00:22 | You can save yourself time by choosing the
most efficient selection tool for the job.
| | 00:27 | In this case, I think that's
going to be the Magic Wand.
| | 00:30 | I'm not going to use the wand on the
background, because look what happens when I do that.
| | 00:33 | I get this patchwork of a
selection around red poppies.
| | 00:37 | So I'm going to press Command+D on the
Mac, Ctrl+D on the PC to deselect, and
| | 00:42 | I'm going to try selecting
on the girl's white clothing.
| | 00:45 | That does a pretty good job of making a
selection around the outside of her clothing.
| | 00:50 | Next, I'm going to include all of these
areas in here that didn't get selected.
| | 00:54 | I'm going to use another tool for that,
the Lasso tool which I'll select here in
| | 00:58 | the Toolbox, and then I'll go up to the
Options bar for the Lasso tool, and I'm
| | 01:03 | going to choose the Add to selection
button, so that the area that I select now,
| | 01:07 | will be added to the existing
selection of her white jacket.
| | 01:10 | I am going to start down here, and just
go loosely and roughly around the area
| | 01:15 | that didn't get selected.
| | 01:16 | Be a little bit careful there, as well
as at the top, and I see a little bit
| | 01:25 | there that didn't get selected either.
| | 01:27 | Then I'll come out around the outside
of the document into the canvas, and back
| | 01:31 | to the beginning and I'll release my mouse.
| | 01:34 | So there is the selection with which
I'm going to start to create a layer mask.
| | 01:38 | With the girl layer selected in the
Layers panel, I'll go down to the Add Layer
| | 01:41 | Mask button at the bottom of the Layers
panel, and click, and that adds a layer
| | 01:45 | mask with black pixels in all of the non-
selected areas, hiding the field of red poppies.
| | 01:51 | The gray and white checkerboard that
you see here represents transparency or
| | 01:54 | nothingness, beneath the
single layer in the file.
| | 01:57 | Next, I'm going to bring in that winter scene.
| | 01:59 | I'll click on the tab for the winter
scene to bring it to the foreground of
| | 02:03 | the document window, and then I'm
going to get the Move tool and I'm going to
| | 02:07 | click inside this winter scene and
drag up on top of the tab for the original
| | 02:12 | image, background.psd.
| | 02:15 | I still have my mouse held down as the
document window switches to show me background.psd.
| | 02:21 | Then I'll move my cursor down into the
image, and where I can see this great
| | 02:25 | rectangle, I'll release my mouse, and
that drops a copy of the winter scene into
| | 02:30 | the image that contains
the girl and the layer mask.
| | 02:33 | That also created a new layer in the
Layers panel, which is called Layer 1 here.
| | 02:37 | As you can see, this layer
is on top of the girl layer.
| | 02:40 | I'd like to put Layer 1, the
winter scene, beneath the girl layer.
| | 02:44 | So I'm going to click on Layer 1 and
drag down until I get a dark line under the
| | 02:48 | girl layer in the Layers panel,
and then I'll release my mouse.
| | 02:52 | I am going to name Layer 1 also.
| | 02:54 | I'll double-click the Layer 1 name, and
I'll type winter and then I'll press Return.
| | 02:59 | With the Move tool still selected and
the winter layer selected, I'll move that
| | 03:04 | layer into place by just
clicking and dragging it.
| | 03:06 | Now these two images happen to be the
exact same size, so they fit perfectly.
| | 03:11 | But you may be working with
images that aren't the same size.
| | 03:14 | In that case, I suggest you use the
Transform command to make the larger of
| | 03:18 | the two images smaller.
| | 03:20 | And then if you need to,
you can apply a crop as well.
| | 03:22 | My next step is to refine the mask on
the girl layer because I can see that it's
| | 03:27 | little bit jaggedy over here and here.
| | 03:30 | I didn't take too much time making the
selection that's the basis for this mask.
| | 03:34 | So I'm going to select the layer mask
on the girl layer, and then I'll go up to
| | 03:38 | the Masks panel to refine its edge.
| | 03:41 | I'll see how it looks with little less
density and I really don't like that.
| | 03:44 | I don't want to see the red poppies
through the snow, so I'll drag the Density
| | 03:47 | slider back to 100%.
| | 03:48 | I might try a little bit of Feather,
but that isn't really giving me the
| | 03:53 | result that I want either.
| | 03:54 | I'm just getting a kind of a
ghosting effect around the girl's sweater.
| | 03:58 | So I'll put that back at 0 too.
| | 04:01 | Instead, I'm going to go into the Refine
Edge dialog box by clicking this button
| | 04:05 | in the Masks panel, the Mask Edge button.
| | 04:07 | The first thing I'll do here is to
set everything back to its defaults, by
| | 04:11 | clicking the Default button, and then
I'm going to take the Radius slider and
| | 04:15 | drag it all the way to the left, the same
for the Smooth slider and the Feather slider.
| | 04:19 | So this is how my mask looks against the
girl's white sweater, without any refinements.
| | 04:25 | Next, I'm going to go down to the icons
at the bottom of the Refine Mask dialog
| | 04:28 | box, and I'm going to choose the first
icon here, which allows me to preview
| | 04:33 | with the standard
marching ants selection border.
| | 04:35 | Now the marching ants are in the way,
so I'm going to make those temporarily
| | 04:38 | invisible by pressing Command+
H on the Mac, Ctrl+H on the PC.
| | 04:43 | Now, as I make changes here to the
sliders in the Refine Mask dialog box, I get
| | 04:48 | a really good view of the
results here in the document window.
| | 04:50 | I'll start at the top, and I'm going
to add some softness with the Radius
| | 04:56 | slider, and then I'll make the edge a
little crisper with the Contrast slider.
| | 05:00 | I'm going to smooth the edge
out to get rid of any jaggedness.
| | 05:05 | I'm going to skip Feather, because I
did soften the edge using the Radius
| | 05:08 | control, which in most cases does a better job.
| | 05:11 | And then I'll go down to Contract/Expand,
and notice that you can see a little
| | 05:15 | bit of the red poppies along
the edge of her white sweater.
| | 05:19 | So I'm going to contract the mask
making it smaller by dragging the Contract
| | 05:23 | slider to the left, and as I go, I lose that
little halo of red poppies along her sweater.
| | 05:29 | And at this point, I might go back
and smooth out a little bit more by
| | 05:32 | increasing smoothness, maybe increase the
Radius, and I can tweak this as much as I like.
| | 05:38 | I can even come back into the Refine
Mask dialog box whenever I want, and tweak
| | 05:42 | these controls further.
| | 05:43 | But I'm going to accept what
I have for now by clicking OK.
| | 05:46 | So I have used a layer mask to
change out the background of this image.
| | 05:51 | To remind you of how I started, I'll
hold the Shift key and click on the layer
| | 05:54 | mask thumbnail to make the layer mask
temporarily invisible, and this is how the
| | 05:58 | image started, and then I'll click that
layer mask thumbnail again, this is how
| | 06:02 | it is now, with a new background.
| | 06:04 | Now there is more to making a
composite than just adding layer masks.
| | 06:08 | One of the things you need to do is
to think about the light source, its
| | 06:11 | location, its direction and its color.
| | 06:14 | So here I purposely chose an image that
had the sun back in this area, because
| | 06:20 | the photo of the girl is lighter
on this side, than it is over here.
| | 06:23 | So it kind of looks like the winter sun
is shining through the hood of her sweater.
| | 06:27 | But I think that the color of the
light is too blue in this background.
| | 06:31 | I'd like to warm up the light
to match the light on the girl.
| | 06:34 | So I'm going to add an
adjustment to the winter layer.
| | 06:37 | I'll click on the winter layer and
rather than make a direct adjustment, I'd
| | 06:40 | like to make image
adjustments with adjustment layers.
| | 06:44 | So I'll go up to the Adjustments panel
and I'm going to click on this icon, the
| | 06:47 | Photo filter icon, to add a Photo
filter adjustment layer that affects only the
| | 06:52 | winter layer, because that adjustment
layer is here above the winter layer.
| | 06:57 | In the Photo filter Adjustments panel,
I'm going to choose the first filter,
| | 07:01 | the Warming Filter (85), and I can
adjust the strength of that filter by moving
| | 07:05 | its Density slider.
| | 07:06 | So I might increase its strength a bit.
| | 07:09 | I'll leave Preserve Luminosity
checked, so that the tonal values in the
| | 07:13 | underline image remain the same.
| | 07:15 | I'll show you a before and after by
going to the eye icon at the bottom in the
| | 07:19 | Adjustments panel and clicking there to
remind you of the color of the light and
| | 07:23 | the image before I added this
adjustment, and the way that it looks now.
| | 07:26 | So that's how you can use a layer mask
to replace the background of a photo and
| | 07:30 | the beauty of using the layer mask as
opposed to deleting or raising pixels on
| | 07:35 | the original photo is that you can
always change your mind, and go back to your
| | 07:39 | original by just deleting that layer mask,
as I'm going to do now by clicking on
| | 07:43 | the layer mask thumbnail and dragging
to the trash and then clicking Delete.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Putting an object inside another| 00:00 | Another composite effect that you
can get with layer masks is to make the
| | 00:04 | content of one layer look like
it's inside of part of another layer.
| | 00:08 | This works particularly well, if one of
your layers has a container of some sort in it.
| | 00:12 | Anything from a flowerpot like you see
here, to a vase, to a pail or a cup or
| | 00:18 | glass or maybe even half an eggshell.
| | 00:20 | I've already started to fill some of
the flowerpots in this image, by adding a
| | 00:24 | couple of layers that
contain a photograph of a garden.
| | 00:27 | I'll show you what's on the center layer
by making the center layer visible, and
| | 00:30 | then making the layer mask on that layer,
temporarily invisible by holding the
| | 00:34 | Shift key as I click on the
layer mask on the center layer.
| | 00:38 | So this is the photograph that I
added to the center layer, by dragging it
| | 00:42 | into the pots.psd image.
| | 00:44 | Then I added a layer mask to the center layer.
| | 00:48 | I'll make the layer mask visible again
by clicking on it, and then I'll show you
| | 00:52 | the layer mask by holding the Option key
on the Mac or the Alt key on the PC, as
| | 00:56 | I click on that layer mask.
| | 00:58 | As you can see everything on this mask
is black, which means that most of that
| | 01:02 | blooming garden on the center layer is
hidden from view, with the exception of
| | 01:07 | just the area that's in the shape of
one of those open containers on the
| | 01:11 | background layer below.
| | 01:12 | And it's these white pixels on this
layer mask that make the flowers appear to
| | 01:16 | be growing out of this center pot.
| | 01:19 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click on the
layer mask, so you can see what I mean
| | 01:22 | here in the photo view.
| | 01:23 | I did the same thing on this layer.
| | 01:26 | I actually made a copy of the center
layer, added a different layer mask that
| | 01:30 | has white paint only in this area up here.
| | 01:32 | So on the right layer, everything has
been hidden by this layer mask, except for
| | 01:37 | just the flowers that appear to be
growing out of the pot on the right.
| | 01:41 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click again
on that layer mask thumbnail to take you
| | 01:44 | back to the photo view.
| | 01:45 | I'd like to walk through this
technique with you, using this pot on the left.
| | 01:50 | So I'll start by making a
copy of the center layer.
| | 01:52 | I'll click on the center layer in the
Layers panel, and I'll drag that layer
| | 01:56 | down to the Add Layer icon at
the bottom of the Layers panel.
| | 01:59 | That makes this center copy layer here.
| | 02:01 | I am going to drag the center copy layer
beneath the center layer, and then I'll
| | 02:05 | rename the center copy layer by double-
clicking the layer name and typing left
| | 02:10 | and pressing Return.
| | 02:11 | Next, I'm going to click on the layer
mask for the left layer, I'll press D and
| | 02:15 | then X on my keyboard to set
the foreground color to black.
| | 02:19 | Then I'm going to fill that layer mask,
so that the white paint on the mask is
| | 02:23 | filled completely with black by
pressing Option+Delete on the Mac or
| | 02:28 | Alt+Backspace on the PC, the shortcut
for filling with the foreground color.
| | 02:32 | Next, I'm going to create a
selection in the shape of the opening in this
| | 02:36 | flowerpot over here on the left.
| | 02:38 | I'll get the Elliptical Marquee tool
and I'll click and drag an oval, and I'm
| | 02:42 | not going to be very careful
about exactly where that oval goes.
| | 02:45 | I just need to get an oval in
approximately the shape of that opening.
| | 02:49 | To fit the oval to the opening, I'm
going to go up to the Select menu at the top
| | 02:53 | of the screen, and from there,
I'll choose Transform Selection.
| | 02:56 | This is a command that's only
available when you have a selection active, in
| | 03:00 | other words, when you can see the
marching ants around the selection.
| | 03:04 | So I'll choose Transform Selection
and that adds this bounding box around
| | 03:08 | the oval selection.
| | 03:09 | I'm going to hold down the Command key
on the Mac, the Ctrl key on the PC and
| | 03:14 | click on one of the corner anchor
points on this bounding box and drag.
| | 03:18 | This allows me to distort that oval
selection, and I'm just going to drag until
| | 03:23 | I get it approximately into place.
| | 03:24 | I'll do the same over on this side, and
I'll play with this selection until it
| | 03:31 | just fits the space.
| | 03:33 | If I need to make the selection
narrower, I'll click in the center there, and
| | 03:36 | drag and with that bounding box active,
I can even click in the middle and move
| | 03:41 | the entire selection.
| | 03:43 | If I use the Arrow keys on my
keyboard, I can move the selection in
| | 03:46 | smaller increments.
| | 03:48 | So now I've managed to fit the bottom
curve of this selection approximately to
| | 03:53 | the bottom curve of the flowerpot.
| | 03:55 | I'm not that concerned about the top.
| | 03:57 | I just want the top of the oval to
overlap the top of the flowerpot.
| | 04:01 | When I'm all done, I'll go up to the
Options bar for the Transform command and
| | 04:05 | I'll click the check mark.
| | 04:06 | Now I'm going to make sure that I have that
black layer mask on the left layer targeted.
| | 04:11 | In other words, I want there to be a
border around it, and then I'm going to
| | 04:14 | fill this selection with white.
| | 04:16 | I'll make sure that my foreground
color is set to white by pressing X on my
| | 04:20 | keyboard and then I'll use the shortcut
for filling with the foreground color,
| | 04:24 | which is Option+Delete on the
Mac, or Alt+Backspace on the PC.
| | 04:29 | Then I'll deselect by pressing
Command+D on the Mac, Ctrl+D on the PC.
| | 04:34 | Now, that looks a little too manicured for me.
| | 04:36 | I'm going to do a couple of things here.
| | 04:38 | First, I'm going to unlink the layer
mask on the left layer from the image of
| | 04:43 | the garden on the left layer, by
clicking the Link icon between those two
| | 04:47 | thumbnails, as I've shown you
how to do it in an earlier movie.
| | 04:50 | Then I'm going to get the Move tool,
and I'm going to make sure that I have the
| | 04:54 | image thumbnail selected, not the
layer mask thumbnail on the left layer,
| | 04:58 | because I want to move the image.
| | 05:00 | So I'm going to click and drag and that
moves only the image, but not the mask.
| | 05:05 | I am going to move the image until I
can just see some of those purple flowers,
| | 05:09 | and then I'll click in between the
image thumbnail and the layer mask thumbnail
| | 05:12 | on the left layer to link
those two elements together again.
| | 05:16 | Next, I'm going to use the Brush tool
on the layer mask on the left layer in
| | 05:21 | order to make the top of these
plants look a little less even.
| | 05:25 | So I'll click on the layer mask on the
left layer and then I'll go up to the
| | 05:29 | Toolbox and select the Brush tool.
| | 05:30 | I could try using the default brush to do this.
| | 05:34 | With white as my foreground color, I'll
make the brush a little smaller and I'll
| | 05:38 | just drag a little bit.
| | 05:39 | I'm actually growing some plants
out of the top of this planter.
| | 05:45 | Another way to do this would
be to select another brush tip.
| | 05:49 | I'll try that by going up to the Options
bar for the Brush tool, clicking on the
| | 05:53 | Brush Picker, and from the Preset
Brushes down here, I'm going to scroll down
| | 05:58 | and choose one of the splatter brushes.
| | 06:00 | Then I'll click in a blank area of
the Options bar, and I'll come into
| | 06:04 | the image, and I'm going to paint a little
with one of these uneven splatter brushes.
| | 06:09 | I'm using white paint, so I'm bringing
back some of the content of the garden by
| | 06:15 | painting with white on the layer mask.
| | 06:17 | Now, you're welcome to take more time
fine-tuning this and if you go too far and
| | 06:24 | you happen to get a little bit of
flower over here on the flowerpot, you can
| | 06:28 | always go back, get a plain round brush,
and come in and switch to black paint
| | 06:35 | by pressing the X key on the keyboard,
and then add some black pixels to the
| | 06:39 | layer mask to paint those
little purple spots away.
| | 06:42 | The big thing to look out for, as you
do this is to make sure that you have the
| | 06:46 | layer mask thumbnail selected and not
the image thumbnail, so that you are not
| | 06:49 | painting directly on your image but
rather modifying the layer mask to make
| | 06:54 | these plants appear to be inside of the pots.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Pasting into a selection| 00:00 | Another way to make content look
like it's inside of other content is to
| | 00:04 | paste into a selection.
| | 00:06 | When you do that, Photoshop
automatically makes a layer mask for you.
| | 00:10 | Here I'd like to paste some content
into this computer monitor, on which these
| | 00:14 | cats are so intently focused.
| | 00:16 | I'd like to give them something
really interesting to look at.
| | 00:19 | So I'm going to use this image here, a
mouse trying to get some cheese out of a trap.
| | 00:23 | I'm going to start in the cat's image,
so I click on its document tab, and
| | 00:27 | I'm going to make a selection of the
area in which I want to put the mouse.
| | 00:31 | I'll go to the Toolbox and from there
I'll select the Rectangular Marquee tool,
| | 00:36 | and I'll click in the top-left inner
corner of the screen on the monitor and
| | 00:40 | drag to the bottom-right
corner, selecting just the screen.
| | 00:44 | Now I want to leave that selection active as
I move over to the other image of the mouse.
| | 00:48 | I want to select this entire image.
| | 00:51 | So I go up to the Select menu and I'll
choose All, or I'd be more likely to use
| | 00:55 | the keyboard shortcut, Command+A on the
Mac or Ctrl+A on the PC, and that adds a
| | 01:00 | marching ants selection
around the entire mouse image.
| | 01:03 | Now I'm going to copy this entire image.
| | 01:06 | I go to the Edit menu and I'll
choose Copy, or I could use the keyboard
| | 01:11 | shortcut, Command+C on
the Mac or Ctrl+C on the PC.
| | 01:15 | That copies the entire mouse image into
my clipboard and now I go back to the
| | 01:19 | cats image again and this time
I'm going to paste into the selection.
| | 01:23 | To do that, I'll go up to the Edit menu
at the top of the screen and I'm going
| | 01:26 | to choose not Paste, but rather
Paste Into, and this command will only be
| | 01:31 | available if a selection
is active in this image.
| | 01:34 | So I'll choose Paste Into and there is
my mouse up on the computer screen, but
| | 01:38 | more interesting for our purposes when
we are talking about layer masks is what
| | 01:42 | just happened in the Layers panel.
| | 01:44 | Photoshop made a brand new layer,
Layer 1, that contains the mouse image and
| | 01:49 | that also contains a layer mask.
| | 01:51 | So Photoshop made this layer mask for me.
| | 01:53 | This layer mask is filled with black
outside of the selected computer monitor
| | 01:58 | and with white inside of that selection.
| | 02:01 | Let's take a look at the layer mask by
holding the Option key on the Mac,
| | 02:05 | the Alt key on the PC,
and clicking on the layer mask.
| | 02:08 | So the white pixels on the mask are
revealing the content of Layer 1, the mouse,
| | 02:13 | and the black pixels on the mask are
hiding the mouse and allowing us to see
| | 02:17 | through that surrounding area to the
audience of cats and the chrome on the
| | 02:21 | monitor on the audience layer below.
| | 02:23 | I'm going to Option-click or Alt-
click on that layer mask again to show you
| | 02:26 | something else about the layer mask
that Photoshop made for me when I use
| | 02:30 | the Paste Into command.
| | 02:32 | Notice that this layer mask does not
have a link icon between the layer mask
| | 02:37 | thumbnail and the image thumbnail on Layer 1.
| | 02:40 | The fact that those two thumbnails are
not linked allows me to move the mouse
| | 02:44 | around inside of the visible portion of
this mask, until I get just the part of
| | 02:49 | the mouse showing that I want.
| | 02:50 | To do that, I'll get the Move tool and
then I'll go to the Layers panel and
| | 02:54 | I have to be sure to select the image
thumbnail on Layer 1, not the layer mask
| | 02:59 | thumbnail, because I want to move
the image independently of the mask.
| | 03:03 | Then I'll click-and-drag in the image
and I'll move the image around until just
| | 03:08 | the part of the mouse is showing
that I want to have in the monitor.
| | 03:12 | Now, if I wanted to I could click
between these two thumbnails to add a link
| | 03:16 | between the image and the layer mask,
but the beauty of the Paste Into command
| | 03:20 | is that it creates a layer mask that's
unlinked to the image thumbnail, so that
| | 03:24 | you do have that opportunity to move
your image around, without having to click
| | 03:29 | to unlink these two elements.
| | 03:31 | I've used the same technique with other
images, like a photo of an open window,
| | 03:35 | into which I pasted a
photograph of an outdoor scene.
| | 03:38 | I even did the same thing with the
photograph of a sardine can, into which I
| | 03:42 | pasted a photograph of the ocean.
| | 03:44 | So your challenge is to use your
imagination to come up with some images of your
| | 03:48 | own on which to try this technique.
| | 03:51 | In the meantime, I'm going to leave this
composite just the way it is because it
| | 03:54 | looks like these cats really love it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Intersecting objects| 00:00 |
One of the interesting things that
you can do with a layer mask when you're
| | 00:03 |
making composites is to make the content of
layers appear to be intersecting or interwoven.
| | 00:09 |
Normally, the way that layers are
stacked in the Layers panel determines the way
| | 00:13 |
that the content appears
to be stacked in an image.
| | 00:16 |
So for example, in this image, it
looks like there are these lightly tinted
| | 00:20 |
pieces of climbing gear on the bottom,
and then above those, this yellow piece
| | 00:24 |
of climbing gear, and above that,
this red piece of climbing gear.
| | 00:27 |
That's because that's the way that the
layers are stacked here in the Layers panel.
| | 00:32 |
I'll show you what's on each one of the
layers by holding the Option or Alt key
| | 00:36 |
as I click on the Eye icon to
the left of each layer in turn.
| | 00:39 |
So that's what's on the Background layer.
| | 00:41 |
This white surrounding area and then
some lightly tinted pieces of climbing gear.
| | 00:46 |
Above that, there is a piece of gold
gear on a transparent background, and above
| | 00:51 |
that a piece of red gear
on a transparent background.
| | 00:53 |
I'm going to start by making the red and
gold pieces of gear appear to be intersecting.
| | 01:00 |
I'll do that by adding a
layer mask to the red gear layer.
| | 01:03 |
I'll target the red gear layer in the
Layers panel and then I'm going to click
| | 01:06 |
the Add Layer Mask button at the
bottom of the Layers panel to add a white
| | 01:10 |
layer mask to that layer.
| | 01:11 |
Next I'll go to the Toolbox
and I'll select the Brush tool.
| | 01:15 |
I'll make sure that my foreground color
is set to black, and if it isn't, I'll
| | 01:18 |
press D and then X on my keyboard.
| | 01:21 |
Then I'm going to come into the image,
and what I want to do is paint with
| | 01:24 |
black over this little bit of the red
gear, hiding just that piece of the red
| | 01:29 |
gear, to give the illusion that the red gear is
intersecting with the gold gear at this point.
| | 01:35 |
So I'll just click-and-drag, painting black
on the layer mask, hiding part of the red gear.
| | 01:40 |
Now, if I'm a little bit sloppy, as I
was here, and I go over the edge, I can
| | 01:45 |
just switch to white paint by pressing
the X key on my keyboard, and then I can
| | 01:49 |
come and carefully bring that part
of the red gear layer back into view.
| | 01:54 |
Then I'll switch to black by pressing
the X key again, and I'll continue to
| | 01:58 |
paint with black on this layer mask, hiding
part of the content of the red gear layer.
| | 02:05 |
Here is one trick that you can use
when you're trying to draw a straight line
| | 02:08 |
using the Brush tool.
| | 02:10 |
Rather than try to do it freehand, which
is kind of difficult, I'm going to come
| | 02:13 |
to the top part of the line I want to
draw, right here, and I'm going to click
| | 02:17 |
and release my mouse.
| | 02:18 |
Then I'm going to hold down the Shift key,
and I'll go to the bottom of the line
| | 02:22 |
that I want to draw, being careful to
stay in a straight line, and I'll click
| | 02:26 |
and release my mouse.
| | 02:27 |
That added a straight stroke of
black paint to the red gear layer mask.
| | 02:32 |
Now take a look at the image and you can
see that it looks like these two pieces
| | 02:36 |
of gear are intersecting.
| | 02:38 |
They're really not.
| | 02:39 |
It's just the layer mask
that's providing that illusion.
| | 02:42 |
Let's take a look at that layer mask by
holding down the Option key on the Mac
| | 02:46 |
or the Alt key on the PC, and clicking.
| | 02:48 |
You can see where I've added that little
bit of paint, hiding part of the red gear.
| | 02:53 |
I'll Option-click or Alt-click
again to go back to the photo view.
| | 02:57 |
Now I want to do the same thing to this
area of the red gear, hiding it, so that
| | 03:01 |
the gold gear looks like it's
in front of the red gear here.
| | 03:04 |
Now this time I want to show you another
trick, rather than just trying to paint
| | 03:08 |
here, which would be difficult, I'm
going to use a selection and then just paint
| | 03:12 |
inside the selection, and the
selection will limit where I'm able to paint.
| | 03:16 |
So I can be a little more sloppy as I
paint on the layer mask in this area.
| | 03:21 |
To load the selection that I'm going to use,
I'm going to go to the gold gear layer.
| | 03:25 |
Remember that the gold gear layer
contains the gold gear against a
| | 03:29 |
transparent background.
| | 03:31 |
When you have a layer with transparency,
you can always load a selection in the
| | 03:35 |
shape of the transparency, by holding
down the Command key on the Mac or the
| | 03:39 |
Ctrl key on the PC, and clicking right
on the layer thumbnail, not on the layer
| | 03:44 |
itself, but on the layer thumbnail.
| | 03:46 |
So now there is a marching ant
selection in the shape of the gold gear.
| | 03:51 |
If I try to paint on any layer or on the
layer mask, I'd be limited by that selection.
| | 03:56 |
I won't be able to lay down
any paint outside its lines.
| | 04:00 |
So this will help me to paint just
where I want to on the layer mask.
| | 04:04 |
I still have the layer mask
thumbnail selected on the red gear layer.
| | 04:08 |
I still have black paint, and I'm
going to click-and-drag in this area of the
| | 04:12 |
image, and this time I can be rather
sloppy because that selection is limiting
| | 04:16 |
where I can lay down my
black paint on the layer mask.
| | 04:20 |
Then I'll deselect by
pressing Command+D, Ctrl+D on the PC.
| | 04:25 |
Let's take a look at the layer mask
again by holding down the Option or Alt key
| | 04:28 |
and clicking on the layer mask thumbnail,
and you can see this additional bit of
| | 04:32 |
black paint, which is hiding
another part of the red gear layer.
| | 04:36 |
I'll Option-click or Alt-click one more time.
| | 04:38 |
Notice that both the red gear content
and the gold gear content are on layers
| | 04:42 |
that have transparent pixels on them.
| | 04:44 |
But you don't have to use layers with
transparent pixels with the layer masking
| | 04:48 |
technique that I've showed you in this movie.
| | 04:51 |
So for example, I can make this gold
gear look like it's intersecting with the
| | 04:54 |
background layer, even though the
background layer has no transparent pixels on it.
| | 04:59 |
To do that, I'm going to add
another layer mask to the gold gear layer.
| | 05:02 |
Clicking on that layer and going to
the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom
| | 05:05 |
of the Layers panel.
| | 05:07 |
Now I have the layer mask on
the gold gear layer targeted.
| | 05:10 |
I still have black as my foreground
color and a paintbrush, and I'm going to
| | 05:14 |
come into the image, and I'm going to
click-and-drag with black on top of the
| | 05:19 |
gold gear, just where it lies above this
light blue piece of gear, which is part
| | 05:27 |
of the background layer.
| | 05:28 |
Now this time I have to be careful
about where I paint, but if I make a mistake
| | 05:32 |
I can always go back in with white
paint to bring back part of the gold layer.
| | 05:37 |
So with just a few bits of black paint
on a couple of layer masks, I've changed
| | 05:42 |
this image from its original look, which
was like this, to the way it looks now,
| | 05:48 |
with all these pieces of
climbing gear appearing to intersect.
| | 05:52 |
So this is a rather abstract example.
| | 05:54 |
What are some other examples
where you might use this technique?
| | 05:57 |
I find this comes in really
handy in wedding photography.
| | 06:00 |
If I have pictures of two rings, for
example, I can make those rings appear to
| | 06:04 |
intersect, and if I have some pieces of
ribbon, I can make the pieces of ribbon
| | 06:09 |
appear to weave in and out of the rings.
| | 06:12 |
So that's a more literal example of an
image in which you might use this technique.
| | 06:16 |
Take a look at your own photographs and
see if you can find some images on which
| | 06:20 |
you can use layer masks to give the illusion that
the content of your images is interwoven like this.
| | 06:26 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Limiting a fill layer| 00:00 | A fill layer is a special kind of
layer that comes with its own layer mask.
| | 00:05 | You can use a fill layer to add a
solid color, a gradient, or a pattern to an
| | 00:09 | image, and use the layer mask that
comes with the fill layer, to limit the area
| | 00:13 | to which that fill applies.
| | 00:15 | To show you that, I have a single layer
with a photograph on it, and I'm going
| | 00:19 | to add a fill layer on top of that
background layer, by going down to the bottom
| | 00:23 | of the Layers panel, and clicking
the black and white circle icon there.
| | 00:27 | That opens this menu of
adjustment layers and Fill layers.
| | 00:31 | I'll be covering the
adjustment layers in the next chapter.
| | 00:33 | So I'm going to skip over them for now.
| | 00:35 | But I'll say that fill layers
work just like adjustment layers.
| | 00:39 | So whatever you learn here, will also
be applicable when I cover adjustment
| | 00:43 | layers in the next chapter.
| | 00:44 | In this menu the fill layers
are these three menu items here.
| | 00:48 | Solid Color, Gradient and Pattern.
| | 00:50 | I'm going to apply a Solid Color
fill layer by clicking Solid Color.
| | 00:54 | That opens the color picker, and here
in the color picker, I'm going to choose
| | 00:57 | a color for my fill.
| | 00:59 | I'll make sure that the Hue radio
button is selected here, and then in
| | 01:03 | this slider in the middle of this dialog box,
I'll click-and-drag up to the blue area.
| | 01:08 | Then I'll move to the larger color
field and I'm going to click on a light
| | 01:12 | gray blue and click OK.
| | 01:15 | In the Layers panel, there is
now a brand new Color Fill layer.
| | 01:18 | It has two thumbnails on it.
| | 01:20 | The thumbnail on the left represents the
solid color fill, which you see here in
| | 01:24 | the document window,
filling the entire document.
| | 01:27 | The thumbnail on the right represents a
layer mask that comes with every fill layer.
| | 01:32 | By default this layer mask is white,
and so it's not limiting where the
| | 01:36 | color fill is applied.
| | 01:38 | So right now, the entire height and width of
the image is filled with this light gray blue.
| | 01:43 | The first thing that I want to do with
this Color Fill layer is to make is more
| | 01:46 | translucent, so that I can
partially see the photography below.
| | 01:50 | One way to do that is to
change the layer blend mode.
| | 01:53 | Layer blend modes are formulas that
affect the way the colors and tones on the
| | 01:57 | targeted layer interact with
colors and tones on the layers below.
| | 02:01 | So with the Color Fill layer targeted,
I'm going to go to the Layer Blend Mode
| | 02:05 | menu here, on the top left of the
Layers panel, which currently says Normal.
| | 02:10 | I'll click there and I'm going to
choose a different layer blend mode.
| | 02:14 | The Color layer blend mode.
| | 02:15 | Now there's lots to learn
about layer Blend modes.
| | 02:19 | If you would like to learn more,
I'll invite you to listen to the chapter
| | 02:22 | on layer blending, in my course
Photoshop CS4 Essential Training in the
| | 02:26 | Online Training Library.
| | 02:28 | But for now, it's enough to know that
changing of solid Color Fill layer to the
| | 02:32 | Color Blend mode is a useful way to
color or tint an image. As you see here.
| | 02:37 | Now, it's time to put the layer mask
that came with this Color Fill layer to use.
| | 02:41 | I don't want the entire image to be
tinted blue, only the table over here and up
| | 02:46 | here on the top left.
| | 02:47 | So I'm going to add some black pixels
on top of the rest of the image, to hide
| | 02:52 | the blue tint from those parts of the image.
| | 02:54 | Adding black, gray of white pixels to
a layer mask thumbnail and a fill layer
| | 02:59 | is just the same as adding those pixels to
a layer mask on a regular pixel base layer.
| | 03:04 | You can do it by painting, you
can do it by filling a selection.
| | 03:07 | You can do it by making a selection and
then creating the fill layer, or you can
| | 03:11 | do it with a grayscale gradient.
| | 03:13 | In this case, I'm going to fill a
selection, so that you don't have to spent
| | 03:17 | time making that selection, I have saved
a selection with this file for you to use.
| | 03:21 | I'll load that selection by going up to
the Select menu and choosing Load Selection.
| | 03:26 | Here in the Load Selection dialog box,
I'll go to the Channel menu and I'm going
| | 03:30 | to use the selection that I
named objects. And I'll click OK.
| | 03:34 | And that loads the marching ants
selection that I previously made around the
| | 03:39 | objects in this photo.
| | 03:40 | Now I'm going to fill that
selection with black on the layer mask.
| | 03:44 | So first, I have to click on the layer
mask thumbnail on the Color Fill layer,
| | 03:49 | with that thumbnail targeted, I'll make
sure that my foreground color is black
| | 03:53 | and if it isn't, I'll press
the X key on the keyboard.
| | 03:56 | And then I'll fill with the foreground
color by using the keyboard shortcut,
| | 04:00 | Option+Delete on the Mac
or Alt+Backspace on the PC.
| | 04:04 | And then I'll deselect by pressing
Command+D on the Mac or Ctrl+D on the PC.
| | 04:09 | So what's happening here?
| | 04:10 | In all those areas that were inside of
the selection, you can no longer see the
| | 04:15 | light blue gray on the Color Fill layer.
| | 04:17 | That's being hidden from view by the
black pixels that I added to the layer mask.
| | 04:22 | So that in that area you can see down
to the objects in their original color on
| | 04:26 | the Background layer.
| | 04:28 | Let's take a look at the layer mask, by
Option or Alt clicking on the layer mask
| | 04:32 | thumbnail on the Color Fill layer.
| | 04:34 | And as I said, you can see that the
area inside of the selection is now
| | 04:38 | filled with black, hiding the content
of the Color Fill layer, and the area
| | 04:42 | outside that selection contains white
pixels, which show the light blue tint
| | 04:47 | on the Color Fill layer.
| | 04:48 | I'll Option or Alt-click again on the
layer mask thumbnail on the Color Fill
| | 04:51 | layer, to go back to the regular photo view.
| | 04:54 | Now I mentioned that there are other
ways to add grayscale pixels to a layer
| | 04:58 | mask on a fill layer, just like they
are on a regular layer mask, and one of
| | 05:02 | those ways is to paint on the layer mask.
| | 05:04 | So if I wanted the cameo here to be
tinted blue, I could get the Brush tool in
| | 05:09 | the Toolbox, then I'm going to switch
my foreground color to white, by pressing
| | 05:13 | the X key on the keyboard.
| | 05:14 | Now, I'll come into the image and I'll
start painting with white on top of the cameo.
| | 05:19 | And what that's doing is adding white
paint to the layer mask, which you can see
| | 05:23 | here on the layer mask thumbnail
allowing the blue Color Fill to be revealed in
| | 05:28 | just the areas where I'm painting.
| | 05:30 | If I want to, I can paint with gray, and
that will reveal less of the color fill.
| | 05:35 | To paint with gray, with white as my
foreground color, I'll go back up to the
| | 05:39 | Opacity field in the Options
bar, and I'll lower the Opacity.
| | 05:42 | I'll choose maybe 50%.
| | 05:45 | And then I'll paint on top of that
cameo, and the gray paint that I have
| | 05:50 | added to the layer mask on the Color
Fill layer is partially hiding the blue
| | 05:54 | tint on that layer, allowing some of the
orange color from the layer below to show through.
| | 05:59 | Now, let's take a look at the layer
mask again by holding the Option or Alt key
| | 06:03 | and clicking on the layer mask on the
Color Fill layer, and there you can see
| | 06:07 | the white pixels I added, which
revealed the Color Fill layer, and the gray
| | 06:11 | pixels which partially reveal the
color fill layer, and then I'll Option or
| | 06:14 | Alt-click again on that layer mask
thumbnail, to go back to the photo view.
| | 06:19 | Now keep in mind that there is
more than one flavor of fill layer.
| | 06:23 | In some cases you may not want a Color
Fill, like the one we've used here, but
| | 06:27 | perhaps you want to add a pattern, or
a gradient, and then blend those items
| | 06:32 | in with your photo.
| | 06:33 | Those kinds of fill layers work just
the same way as the solid color fill layer
| | 06:37 | that I have shown you here, and you can
access those fill layers from the black
| | 06:41 | and white icon at the bottom of the
Layers panel, choosing either gradient or
| | 06:45 | pattern, instead of solid color.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Enhancing Photographs with Layer MasksLimiting adjustment layers| 00:00 |
The best way to correct the exposure,
contrast, or color of the photograph is
| | 00:05 |
with an adjustment layer, which doesn't
directly change the pixels of the photo.
| | 00:09 |
But instead, it floats above the photo
layer that it impacts in the Layers panel.
| | 00:14 |
One of the bonuses of using an
adjustment layer over a direct adjustment is that
| | 00:19 |
when you create an adjustment layer, it
comes with its own layer mask, which you
| | 00:23 |
can use to limit the areas that
are affected by the adjustment.
| | 00:26 |
For example, I would like to adjust the
brightness in parts of this photograph.
| | 00:30 |
I am going to do that by adding a
Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and then
| | 00:35 |
limiting the areas that adjustment
impacts by adding black and gray pixels to
| | 00:40 |
the layer mask on the adjustment layer.
| | 00:43 |
To create an adjustment layer, I'm
going to Adjustments panel, which is here in
| | 00:47 |
the same panel group with the Masks panel.
| | 00:49 |
In the Adjustments panel, there are
icons here that represent all of the
| | 00:53 |
available adjustments.
| | 00:54 |
I'm going to click on the first icon
the Brightness/Contrast adjustment icon,
| | 00:59 |
and that switches the Adjustments
panel to this view of the controls for a
| | 01:04 |
Brightness/Contrast adjustment.
| | 01:05 |
I am going to use only the Brightness
control here dragging it to the right, to
| | 01:10 |
brighten the entire image.
| | 01:12 |
Now take a look at the Layers panel,
clicking that Brightness/Contrast
| | 01:16 |
adjustment icon in the Adjustments
panel created the Brightness/Contrast
| | 01:21 |
adjustment layer that you see here.
| | 01:23 |
This adjustment layer contains
instructions that affect the image on the layer
| | 01:27 |
beneath, the Background layer.
| | 01:30 |
If there were more than one image
layer here, by default the adjustment layer
| | 01:34 |
would affect the visible
parts of all layers beneath it.
| | 01:38 |
If there were more than one layer
beneath this adjustment layer, by default the
| | 01:42 |
adjustment layer would affect the
visible parts of all of the layers beneath it.
| | 01:46 |
Notice that this adjustment
layer has two thumbnails on it.
| | 01:49 |
The thumbnail on the left
represents the adjustment.
| | 01:52 |
The thumbnail on the right
represents a layer mask that comes with
| | 01:56 |
every adjustment layer.
| | 01:58 |
This layer mask starts off white as
you can see here, which means that it
| | 02:02 |
currently has no limiting impact on the
Brightness adjustment that I just made.
| | 02:06 |
Because this mask is white, the
Brightness adjustment is being applied equally
| | 02:11 |
to the entire photo on the Background layer.
| | 02:14 |
But if I add black or gray pixels
to this layer mask, those pixels will
| | 02:19 |
protect the corresponding areas of the
photograph from the Brightness/Contrast adjustment.
| | 02:24 |
In other words those parts of
the photograph won't be brightened.
| | 02:28 |
The thing to remember about layer masks
on adjustment layers is that they were
| | 02:32 |
just like layer masks on image layers.
| | 02:34 |
Dark pixels on an image layer mask hide
corresponding parts of the image on the
| | 02:40 |
layer to which the mask is attached.
| | 02:42 |
As we have seen in so many
other movies in this course.
| | 02:44 |
In the same way dark pixels on an
adjustment layer, hide the corresponding parts
| | 02:49 |
of the adjustment layer to
which the mask is attached.
| | 02:52 |
So how do you add grayscale
pixels to an adjustment layer mask?
| | 02:56 |
The same way that you add
them to an image layer mask.
| | 02:59 |
You can use any of the methods that I
have already shown you to add black or
| | 03:03 |
gray pixels to an
adjustment layer mask like this one.
| | 03:06 |
You could paint on the mask with
black, white or shades of gray.
| | 03:10 |
You could draw a black to
white gradient on the layer mask.
| | 03:13 |
You could fill a selection on the
mask or you could create a selection,
| | 03:17 |
before you make the mask.
| | 03:18 |
All methods that I have shown you in
other movies in this course, in the context
| | 03:22 |
of regular image layers apply here now,
in the context of adjustment layers.
| | 03:28 |
I'm going to start by adding a
grayscale gradient to this layer mask.
| | 03:31 |
Using it like a neutral density filter
on a camera, to even out the lighting in
| | 03:36 |
the sky, so that it's more similar to
the lighting in the rest of the scene.
| | 03:40 |
As you can see, the brightness
adjustment that I made has caused the highlights
| | 03:44 |
in the sky to be blown out losing detail.
| | 03:47 |
So, although I like most of the
brightness adjustment here in the water, I
| | 03:51 |
would like to eliminate the brightness
adjustment or at least reduce it from up here in the sky.
| | 03:57 |
So to do that first I'll make sure that
I have the layer mask thumbnail on the
| | 04:01 |
Brightness/Contrast layer targeted,
and I know that I do because it has this
| | 04:05 |
double border around it.
| | 04:07 |
If I don't see that double border, I'll
just click on this layer mask thumbnail.
| | 04:11 |
Next, I'll go to the Toolbox, and
I'm going to look at my foreground
| | 04:14 |
and background colors.
| | 04:16 |
I want the foreground color to be black,
and the background color to be white,
| | 04:19 |
so that I can draw a black to white gradient.
| | 04:22 |
Because I have that layer mask
thumbnail selected, the only colors I can
| | 04:26 |
possibly see here are black,
white, or shades of gray.
| | 04:30 |
If I don't have the arrangement that
you see here, black is the foreground and
| | 04:33 |
white is the background, I'll press the
D key on my keyboard to set the default
| | 04:37 |
colors, and then the X
key to switch those colors.
| | 04:41 |
Next I'm going to select the Gradient
tool in the Toolbox, and I'm going to
| | 04:45 |
check the Gradient Field up here in the
Options Bar, to make sure that it runs
| | 04:49 |
from black on the left to white on the
right, indicating that the gradient is
| | 04:54 |
set to its default preset of
foreground to background color.
| | 04:58 |
Next I'm going to check the Gradient
Shape icons, and I'm going to click on the
| | 05:01 |
first one, the Linear Gradient.
| | 05:04 |
This is all the same, as I have
shown you in earlier movies on applying a
| | 05:08 |
grayscale gradient to a layer mask.
| | 05:13 |
I want the dark part of the
gradient over the sky hiding the
| | 05:16 |
brightness adjustment there.
| | 05:17 |
So I'm going to start in the sky,
clicking and then dragging down, and
| | 05:21 |
I'll release my mouse.
| | 05:23 |
As I told you before the direction
and the length of the gradient line
| | 05:26 |
determines the effect that I'll get.
| | 05:29 |
To view the resulting layer mask I'm
going to hold down the Option key, that's
| | 05:32 |
the Alt key on the PC and click on the
layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel.
| | 05:38 |
The dark part of the gradient up
here is hiding the Brightness/Contrast
| | 05:41 |
adjustment on the corresponding part
of the sky, so that that part of the sky
| | 05:45 |
doesn't look as dark as it did a second ago.
| | 05:48 |
The gray pixels here are partially and
gradually revealing the adjustment with a
| | 05:53 |
stronger adjustment, as the pixels get lighter.
| | 05:56 |
And then the white parts down here
are completely revealing the brightness
| | 06:00 |
effect that I got by
adding this adjustment layer.
| | 06:02 |
I am going to Option-click or Alt-click
again on that layer mask thumbnail to go
| | 06:06 |
back to the Photo view.
| | 06:09 |
I can change this gradient if I
want, redrawing it at anytime.
| | 06:13 |
So maybe I'll start closer to the
horizon line, before I drag down, to get some
| | 06:19 |
of the darker parts of the gradient
up here in this light part of the sky.
| | 06:24 |
I can even change the shape of the gradient.
| | 06:26 |
So I might go up to the Options Bar
for the Gradient tool, and click on the
| | 06:30 |
second Shape icon to create a Radial Gradient.
| | 06:33 |
This time in order to particularly
hide the brightening effect from this
| | 06:37 |
area here, I'll start right in the middle of
the highlights, and I'll drag out diagonally.
| | 06:44 |
Take a look at this layer mask, I'll
hold the Option or Alt key and click on it.
| | 06:48 |
You can see that the darkest part right
here is hiding the brightness adjustment
| | 06:52 |
the most, and then that effect is
fading out, until I get to the white pixels
| | 06:57 |
where the brightness
adjustment is having a full effect.
| | 07:00 |
I'll Option-click or Alt-
click on this layer mask.
| | 07:03 |
Adding a grayscale gradient, as I did
here to an adjustment layer mask isn't the
| | 07:07 |
only way to limit the area to
which an adjustment layer applies.
| | 07:11 |
In the next movie, I'll show you some
other ways to add pixels to an adjustment
| | 07:16 |
layer mask, using a Brush
tool and using a selection.
| | 07:20 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding grayscale pixels to an adjustment layer mask| 00:00 | Another method for adding grayscale
pixels to an adjustment layer mask, just
| | 00:04 | like on an image layer mask, is to
paint on the mask with any of the tools
| | 00:08 | from the Brush family.
| | 00:10 | I'm going to select the
Brush tool here in the Toolbox.
| | 00:12 | I'm going to make sure that my
foreground color is set to black.
| | 00:16 | I'll move over the image and I'm
going to make my brush a little larger by
| | 00:21 | pressing the Right Bracket key a few times.
| | 00:24 | I want to make sure the brush is soft,
so I'm going to hold the Shift key and
| | 00:27 | press the Left bracket key a few times.
| | 00:29 | What I would like to do here is reduce
the brightening effect on the white foam
| | 00:33 | from the splash in the water.
| | 00:35 | So that I get a little more detail over here.
| | 00:37 | So with the layer mask thumbnail
still highlighted in the Layers panel, I'm
| | 00:41 | going to paint with black
on the layer mask over here.
| | 00:44 | You can see that I'm darkening this
area by hiding the brightening effect of
| | 00:49 | the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and
that brings back some detail in the water there.
| | 00:53 | On the other side of this girl, I
would also like to reduce the brightening
| | 00:57 | effect, but not as much.
| | 00:58 | So I'm going to go up to the Opacity
field in the Options bar for the Brush
| | 01:02 | tool, and drag to the left, reducing
the opacity with which I'm going to paint.
| | 01:08 | That allows me to paint with gray
pixels rather than with black pixels, which
| | 01:13 | partially reveals the brightening
effect, rather than completely hiding it.
| | 01:17 | Now let's take a look at the layer
mask by Option-clicking or Alt-clicking on
| | 01:20 | the mask, and you can see the black
pixels and the gray pixels that I have
| | 01:24 | painted on this mask.
| | 01:26 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click again on that
layer mask thumbnail to go back to the Photo view.
| | 01:31 | Yet another method for adding
grayscale pixels to an adjustment layer mask
| | 01:34 | is with the selection.
| | 01:36 | Just as with a layer mask on a pixel
layer, I could make a selection and fill it
| | 01:41 | on an existing adjustment layer mask, or
I could make a selection first and then
| | 01:46 | create an adjustment layer.
| | 01:48 | I am going to do that to show you what happens.
| | 01:50 | The part of the photo that I
would like to adjust now is the girl.
| | 01:54 | So I'm going to get the Quick
Selection tool here, and I'm going to make a
| | 01:57 | rough selection of the girl by clicking and
dragging down her arm, and up her other arm.
| | 02:04 | If I get some parts in here that I
don't want, I'll hold down the Option key
| | 02:09 | that's the Alt key on the PC and brush over
those to remove those areas from the selection.
| | 02:14 | I am not going to spend too much time
trying to get this selection perfect.
| | 02:18 | Instead I'm going to add
another adjustment layer.
| | 02:21 | While this selection is active.
| | 02:23 | To do that I'll go back to the
Adjustments panel, and I'm going to click this
| | 02:26 | green arrow to see the
list of adjustment layers.
| | 02:29 | This time I'll add a different kind of
adjustment layer, so you can see how that works.
| | 02:34 | I'm going to add a Levels adjustment layer.
| | 02:36 | When I did that the marching ants
disappeared, because that selection was
| | 02:40 | converted into a layer mask.
| | 02:42 | You can see that layer mask right here
on the new Levels 1 adjustment layer that
| | 02:47 | was added to the Layers panel.
| | 02:48 | Let's take a look at that layer mask.
| | 02:50 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click on
the layer mask thumbnail on the Levels
| | 02:54 | adjustment, and you can see that
when I added this layer mask, Photoshop
| | 02:58 | automatically filled the non-
selected area out here with black pixels.
| | 03:03 | Those black pixels will hide
whatever levels adjustment that I make here.
| | 03:07 | The white pixels on this mask will
reveal the Levels adjustment I'm about to
| | 03:10 | make, and in between there are some gray pixels,
which will partially reveal the adjustment.
| | 03:16 | So they will soften the transition
between the adjusted area, which would be in
| | 03:20 | here, and the non-adjusted area out here.
| | 03:22 | I'll Option-click or Alt-click that Levels
layer mask again to go back to the Document view.
| | 03:27 | And then I'm going to tweak the Levels
adjustment here in the Adjustments panel.
| | 03:30 | I'm going to take this black arrow and
drag it over to the right until it's just
| | 03:35 | under the mound of pixels that
represent the tones in this image, and that
| | 03:39 | pushes more pixels to appear black.
| | 03:41 | Then I'll take the white slider and I'm
going to move that over very slightly to
| | 03:45 | push some pixels to appear white.
| | 03:47 | I am only affecting the area inside of
the girl, and then the main adjustment
| | 03:52 | I'm going to make here is to take the
gray slider, and I'm going to move it to
| | 03:55 | the left to lighten the midtones,
again affecting just the girl.
| | 04:00 | For before and after view of this
adjustment, I'll go to the bottom of the
| | 04:04 | Adjustments panel, and I'm going to click
-and-hold this icon that has an eye and
| | 04:09 | a curved arrow on it, to see
the before and then the after.
| | 04:12 | So you can see that the layer mask has
hid this Levels adjustment from all of
| | 04:17 | the area around the girl, all the area
that was not selected at the time that I
| | 04:21 | created this levels adjustment layer.
| | 04:23 | Just as with a layer mask on an
image layer, I can use any feature on an
| | 04:27 | adjustment layer mask that I
could apply to a grayscale image.
| | 04:31 | So I could apply a filter to either one of
the layer masks on these adjustment layers.
| | 04:36 | I could apply a Transform
command to either of these layer masks.
| | 04:40 | I could copy one of these layer masks
to another adjustment layer and more.
| | 04:44 | In this movie, I have been focusing on
the use of the layer mask that comes with
| | 04:47 | an adjustment layer.
| | 04:48 | But there is lots more to
learn about adjustment layers.
| | 04:51 | If you are interested in the topic of
adjustment layers in general, I suggest
| | 04:55 | that you take a look at another course
that I have done in the lynda.com Online
| | 04:59 | Training Library, Photoshop CS4,
Image Adjustments in Depth.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Copying adjustment layer masks| 00:00 |
It's common to want to add more than one kind
of an adjustment to the same area of a photo.
| | 00:06 |
You can do that by copying an adjustment
layer mask from one adjustment layer to another.
| | 00:11 |
In this photo, I've already applied one
adjustment, a levels adjustment in order
| | 00:15 |
to increase the contrast and the
brightness in just the woman in this photo,
| | 00:19 |
without affecting the rest of the photo.
| | 00:21 |
I'll show you the layer mask on this
layer by holding down the Option key on the
| | 00:25 |
Mac, the Alt key on the PC, and
clicking on the layer mask thumbnail on the
| | 00:29 |
Levels adjustment layer.
| | 00:31 |
I created this mask by making a
selection of the woman, and then making the
| | 00:36 |
Levels adjustment layer.
| | 00:37 |
That automatically filled the area
outside the selection with these black pixels
| | 00:41 |
which are hiding the adjustment
from everywhere around the woman.
| | 00:45 |
The white pixels on this layer mask are
revealing the adjustment only on the woman.
| | 00:50 |
I'll Option or Alt click again on the layer
mask thumbnail to go back to the Photo view.
| | 00:55 |
So, I like the lightning effect on
the woman's arms, but I'd also like to
| | 00:59 |
increase the saturation of the woman.
| | 01:01 |
At the same time I don't want
to affect the rest of the image.
| | 01:04 |
So I'm going to reuse this very
same layer mask, copying it from one
| | 01:08 |
adjustment layer to another.
| | 01:10 |
First, with the Levels adjustment
layer selected, I'll add another adjustment
| | 01:14 |
layer above it by clicking this large
green arrow at the bottom left of the
| | 01:18 |
Adjustment panel to go back to the
List view of the Adjustment panel and from
| | 01:23 |
there, choosing the Vibrance adjustment.
| | 01:25 |
I'll click that icon to switch the
Adjustments panel to the controls for the
| | 01:30 |
Vibrance adjustment.
| | 01:31 |
The Vibrance adjustment is a good
choice for making human skin more saturated
| | 01:36 |
because it does that without making
skin look too red, as the Hue/Saturation
| | 01:40 |
adjustment sometimes does.
| | 01:42 |
In the Vibrance adjustments panel, I'll
drag the Vibrance slider to the right.
| | 01:48 |
That adjustment is affecting the entire image.
| | 01:51 |
If you take a look at the
Layers panel you can see why.
| | 01:54 |
The new Vibrance adjustment layer that
was added to the Layers panel comes with
| | 01:57 |
its own layer mask like
every adjustment layer does.
| | 02:00 |
By default, that layer mask is
filled with white pixels and therefore is
| | 02:04 |
allowing the Vibrance
adjustment to affect the entire image.
| | 02:07 |
Now, I want to hide this
adjustment from everywhere except the woman.
| | 02:11 |
To do that, I'm going to go back to
the Levels adjustment layer, I'm going to
| | 02:15 |
click on the layer mask thumbnail there.
| | 02:17 |
Then I'm going to hold down the Option
key on the Mac or the Alt key on the PC,
| | 02:21 |
and I'm going to click, hold-and-drag.
| | 02:24 |
That layer mask thumbnail from the
Levels adjustment layer up to the
| | 02:27 |
Vibrance adjustment layer.
| | 02:29 |
When the Vibrance adjustment layer gets
this dark border around it, I'll release
| | 02:33 |
my mouse and the Option or Alt key.
| | 02:35 |
Photoshop asks if I want to replace
the layer mask, and it means do I want to
| | 02:39 |
replace this white layer
mask on the Vibrance layer.
| | 02:42 |
I'll click the Yes button, and you can
see that that very same layer mask has
| | 02:47 |
been copied from the Levels
adjustment to the Vibrance adjustment layer.
| | 02:51 |
That has limited the increased
saturation from the Vibrance adjustment to just
| | 02:56 |
the woman, hiding it from all of the
area around the woman so that the sky and
| | 03:00 |
the sea look more natural.
| | 03:02 |
I'm going to do that one more time,
clicking the big green arrow at the bottom
| | 03:06 |
of the Adjustments panel and
adding yet another adjustment layer.
| | 03:09 |
This time a Hue/Saturation adjustment by
clicking this icon in the Adjustment panel.
| | 03:14 |
I'm going to use this adjustment layer to
change the hue of everything except the woman.
| | 03:20 |
I'll start by making that
adjustment clicking on the Hue slider in the
| | 03:24 |
Adjustments panel, and dragging to
the left, making the water and the sky a
| | 03:28 |
little more aqua, with a little bit of
pink at the horizon there, but that makes
| | 03:32 |
the woman's skin look really
unnatural. That's no problem.
| | 03:35 |
I'm going to copy that same layer mask
thumbnail, and then I'm going to invert
| | 03:39 |
that layer mask on the Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer.
| | 03:42 |
So, I'll go back to the
Vibrance adjustment layer.
| | 03:45 |
I'll click on its layer mask thumbnail,
I'll hold the Option or Alt key, and
| | 03:49 |
I'll drag up to the Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer, releasing my mouse when the
| | 03:54 |
Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
gets this dark border around it.
| | 03:57 |
Again, I'll click Yes.
| | 03:58 |
I do want to replace the layer mask, this
time on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
| | 04:03 |
So, I still don't have the result that I want.
| | 04:05 |
The mask is actually
giving me the opposite result.
| | 04:09 |
It's changed the hue on the woman,
and hidden that hue change from
| | 04:13 |
everything else in the image.
| | 04:15 |
So now, I'm going to invert the layer mask.
| | 04:18 |
To do that with the layer mask
thumbnail on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
| | 04:21 |
selected, I'm going to up to the Image
menu at the top of the screen, down to
| | 04:26 |
Adjustments, and I'm going to chose Invert.
| | 04:29 |
Well, I could have used the keyboard
shortcut Command+I on the Mac, Ctrl+I on the PC.
| | 04:34 |
That inverts the layer mask on the Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer giving me
| | 04:38 |
just the result that I wanted here in the photo.
| | 04:41 |
If you take a look at the layer mask on
the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer by
| | 04:45 |
Option or Alt clicking on its thumbnail,
you can see that there are now black
| | 04:49 |
pixels on top of the woman's figure
hiding the Hue/Saturation, Hue adjustment
| | 04:54 |
from that area, but white pixels
revealing that particular adjustment
| | 04:58 |
everywhere else in the image.
| | 05:00 |
I'll Option or Alt-click back on that layer
mask thumbnail to go back to the Photo view.
| | 05:05 |
So, that's how you can use the same
layer mask on multiple adjustment layers.
| | 05:09 |
Either using it straight up or
inverting it for an opposite effect.
| | 05:14 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying blend modes selectively| 00:00 | A quick way to lighten, darken, or
change the contrast in a photo is to change
| | 00:05 | the blend mode of a blank adjustment
layer, and because an adjustment layer
| | 00:09 | comes with its own layer mask, you can
use that layer mask to limit the area
| | 00:13 | affected by the blend mode change.
| | 00:16 | I'd like to lighten this image, so I'm
going to add an adjustment layer but I'm
| | 00:19 | not going to change the
controls in the adjustment layer.
| | 00:22 | I'm going to choose the Levels
adjustment layer, clicking its icon here in the
| | 00:26 | Adjustments panel to add a Levels
adjustment layer to the Layers panel.
| | 00:30 | I'm going to leave all of the controls
for this Levels adjustment layer at their
| | 00:33 | defaults, so that basically this
layer is having no effect on the image.
| | 00:37 | Now, I'm going to go down to the Layers
panel and I'm going to change the blend
| | 00:41 | mode for this blank Levels
adjustment layer from Normal, to one of the
| | 00:46 | lightening blend modes, the Screen blend mode.
| | 00:49 | That immediately makes the
entire image look brighter.
| | 00:52 | Now, I actually think it's too bright.
| | 00:54 | I'm losing a lot of detail on the highlights.
| | 00:57 | So, with that Levels adjustment layer
selected, I'm going to go to the Opacity
| | 01:01 | control at the top right of the Layers
panel and drag to the left, to lower the
| | 01:05 | opacity or the strength of the
effect of this layer on the image.
| | 01:09 | So, I like that better but there are
still some parts up here in the sky that
| | 01:14 | are too bright, causing me
to lose detail in these areas.
| | 01:17 | So, I want to hide this
brightening effect from the sky.
| | 01:21 | To do that I'll make use of the layer
mask that comes with every adjustment layer.
| | 01:25 | With that layer mask targeted, I'll
select the Brush tool in the Toolbox, and
| | 01:29 | I'll make sure that my foreground color at
the bottom of the Toolbox is set to black.
| | 01:33 | If it isn't, I'll press
the D and then the X key.
| | 01:36 | Now, I'm going to come into the image.
| | 01:37 | I'll make my brush really big by
pressing the Right Bracket key a few times
| | 01:42 | and then I'll make the brush soft by holding
the Shift key as I press the Left Bracket key.
| | 01:47 | Then I'm just going to paint over the
sky hiding the effect of the blending mode
| | 01:53 | that I've added to this blank
adjustment layer, from the image in those areas
| | 01:57 | where I painted with black
pixels on the layer mask.
| | 01:59 | I'll show you the layer mask by holding
the Option key on the Mac or the Alt key
| | 02:03 | on the PC, and clicking on the layer
mask thumbnail on that adjustment layer.
| | 02:08 | Here where there are now black
pixels on the adjustment layer mask, the
| | 02:11 | lightening effect of the
Screen blend mode is being hidden.
| | 02:14 | Here where there are white pixels on
this layer mask that lightening effect is
| | 02:18 | revealed, and in between there's a soft
transition caused by these gray pixels,
| | 02:23 | which are here because I had softened
my brush before painting with black.
| | 02:27 | I'm going to Option-click or Alt-
click on the layer mask thumbnail again to
| | 02:30 | bring back the Photo view, and to
remind you of how the image looked with the
| | 02:34 | Screen blend mode, before I apply these
pixels to the layer mask, I'll hold down
| | 02:38 | the Shift key and click on the layer
mask thumbnail, to make the layer mask
| | 02:42 | temporarily inactive.
| | 02:43 | So that's how it was with the Screen
blend mode and that's how it is after I've
| | 02:48 | limited the area affected by that blend mode.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Retouching portraits selectively| 00:00 | The layer mask on an adjustment layer
can come in really handy, when you're
| | 00:04 | retouching a portrait.
| | 00:05 | If you are working on a small area in
a portrait, like the subject's eyes or
| | 00:09 | teeth, it often makes sense to make an
adjustment and then hide the adjustment
| | 00:14 | by filling the adjustment layer with
black and then painting the adjustment back
| | 00:18 | in only in that small
area that you want adjusted.
| | 00:21 | For example here, I would like to
remove the red from this subject's eyes.
| | 00:25 | I'm going to start out by adding a Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer by going up
| | 00:30 | to the Adjustments panels and
clicking the Hue/Saturation icon there.
| | 00:34 | That adds this Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer and like every adjustment layer,
| | 00:38 | it comes in with its own layer
mask filled with white pixels.
| | 00:41 | I'm going to make an adjustment
keeping my eye only on the subject's eye.
| | 00:45 | I'll go up to this menu and I'll choose
Reds because I only want to affect the
| | 00:50 | reds in the image, and then to nearer
that even further, I'm going to get the
| | 00:54 | Eyedropper tool here and with that
Eyedropper tool, I'm going to click right on
| | 00:58 | the red area that I want to change.
| | 01:01 | With that red targeted, I'll go back to
the Hue/Saturation adjustment controls
| | 01:05 | in the Adjustments panel and I'll click
on the Saturation slider and I'm going
| | 01:09 | to drag it to the left.
| | 01:11 | And notice that in the image, that's
desaturated the reds that were here in the
| | 01:16 | white part of her eye and
down here on her lower lid.
| | 01:19 | It also desaturated the entire
image, and that wasn't my goal.
| | 01:23 | So I'm going to go down to the Layers
panel and I'm going to make use of the
| | 01:26 | layer mask on the Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer.
| | 01:29 | I'm going to fill that layer mask with black.
| | 01:32 | In the Toolbox, my background color happens
to be black, my foreground color is white.
| | 01:37 | If you would like the same arrangement,
you can just press the D key on your
| | 01:41 | keyboard because these are default colors.
| | 01:44 | In order to fill that layer mask with
black, which is currently the background
| | 01:48 | color, I'll make sure that the
layer mask thumbnail is selected on the
| | 01:52 | Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and
then I'm going to hold down the Command key
| | 01:55 | on the Mac and press the Delete key.
| | 01:58 | That's Ctrl and Backspace on the PC.
| | 02:00 | That fills the layer mask with black
as you can see here in the layer mask
| | 02:05 | thumbnail, so that the reduction,
the saturation that I made on this
| | 02:09 | Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is
affecting nothing in the image right now.
| | 02:13 | Now, I'm going to get the Brush tool
in the Toolbox, I'll make sure that my
| | 02:17 | foreground color is set to white
and I'll make sure that the layer mask
| | 02:21 | thumbnail is still highlighted on that
Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and then
| | 02:25 | I'm going to come into the image and
I'm going to paint over just the parts of
| | 02:29 | the image where I want the
saturation to be reduced.
| | 02:32 | In other words, just over her eye.
| | 02:34 | Now, I don't have to be too careful,
because it's only the red parts of her eye
| | 02:37 | that are going to be affected by this change.
| | 02:41 | Now, let me remind you of how the
image looked a moment ago by pressing this
| | 02:45 | icon at the bottom of the Adjustment panel
that looks like an eye with a curved arrow.
| | 02:49 | There is the image as it was, and here
it is with the change that I've made.
| | 02:53 | I can use this same layer mask on another layer.
| | 02:56 | For example, I might want to whiten her
eye a bit and to do that, I'm going to
| | 03:00 | apply another adjustment layer.
| | 03:02 | Clicking the green arrow at the bottom
left of the Adjustments panel, to go back
| | 03:06 | to the List view of the Adjustments
panel and then going up to the top of the
| | 03:10 | Adjustment panel and clicking on
the Levels adjustment icon there.
| | 03:14 | That switches the Adjustment panel
to controls for a levels adjustment.
| | 03:18 | Here I'm going to take that White
slider, I'm going to hold down the Option
| | 03:22 | key on my keyboard.
| | 03:23 | That's the Alt key on a PC keyboard,
and I'm going to move that White slider to
| | 03:27 | the left until I see a few pixels in
her eye area, which are the blue pixels
| | 03:32 | that you see in the middle of the screen.
| | 03:33 | I'll backup just a little because I just
want a few of those blue pixels showing
| | 03:38 | and then I release my mouse and the Option key.
| | 03:40 | What I have done is to set some
pixels in her eye to pure white.
| | 03:44 | Now, I'm going to click on the gray
slider in the middle of the adjustments
| | 03:48 | histogram here and drag that to the
left, which lightens the entire image.
| | 03:53 | The changes that I made on this levels
adjustment layer are affecting the entire
| | 03:57 | image and I only want them
to affect the models eye.
| | 04:01 | So I'm going to copy the mask that I
have on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
| | 04:05 | to the Levels adjustment layer.
| | 04:06 | I'll click on the layer mask on the Hue
/Saturation adjustment layer and then
| | 04:10 | I'll hold down the Option key on the
Mac or the Alt key on the PC to copy and
| | 04:15 | I'll drag up to the Levels adjustment
layer mask and when I see a black border
| | 04:20 | around the Levels adjustment layer,
I'll release my mouse and the modifier key
| | 04:24 | and I'll click Yes in the
Replace Layer Mask prompt.
| | 04:28 | So, now the adjustments that I made
are affecting only the model's eye and
| | 04:32 | not the entire image.
| | 04:33 | I see that I've also lightened the iris
of this models eye and that wasn't my goal.
| | 04:37 | So I can fix that by clicking on
the layer mask thumbnail on the Levels
| | 04:42 | adjustment layer and then with the
Brush tool, and black is my foreground color
| | 04:47 | which I'll get by pressing X on my
keyboard, I'm going to come into the image
| | 04:51 | and paint over the iris and the pupil
of the model's eye here on the layer mask
| | 04:59 | thumbnail on the Levels adjustment layer.
| | 05:01 | I'll show you the layer mask on the
Levels adjustment layer now by holding
| | 05:04 | the Option key on the Mac or the Alt key on
the PC and clicking on that layer mask thumbnail.
| | 05:09 | The black pixels are hiding this
levels adjustment, the white pixels are
| | 05:13 | revealing the levels adjustment.
| | 05:15 | And I'll Option or Alt-click
again on that layer mask thumbnail.
| | 05:18 | Now, to remind you of how I started out,
I'm going to make both the Levels and
| | 05:23 | the Hue/Saturation adjustment layers
temporarily invisible by clicking their eye icons.
| | 05:27 | So that's where we stared.
| | 05:28 | The model's eye was quite red and the
white of her eye wasn't very bright.
| | 05:33 | Then I added this Hue/Saturation layer
reducing the saturation of the reds in
| | 05:38 | her eye and then added this Levels
adjustment layer to brighten the white of her eye.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Combining bracketed exposures| 00:00 | When you are shooting outside,
particularly if you have sky in the scene that
| | 00:03 | you are shooting, you can get into a
situation where the tonal latitude or the
| | 00:08 | tonal range of the scene that you are
shooting is too broad for your camera to
| | 00:12 | capture in a single exposure.
| | 00:13 | There are a couple of solutions you have
to initiate these while you are shooting.
| | 00:17 | One of those is to add a neutral
density filter to your camera lens.
| | 00:21 | So that you get a bit darker exposure in the
sky and the foreground is exposed properly.
| | 00:26 | Another solution is to bracket in your camera.
| | 00:29 | Try taking one shot at the metered
exposure and then a couple that are
| | 00:33 | slightly over-exposed and a couple
slightly under-exposed, maybe by as little
| | 00:37 | as a third of a stop.
| | 00:38 | It's best if you have a tripod with
you to mount your camera on a tripod when
| | 00:42 | you are taking multiple shots
of the same scene or handhold.
| | 00:46 | But if you have to handhold, Photoshop
can help you to align your two shots.
| | 00:51 | Here for example, I have two
exposures of this beach scene.
| | 00:54 | In this exposure, the foreground element,
this arrangement of stones is fairly
| | 00:59 | well exposed, but the sky on the top-
right is too light, so that I'm losing some
| | 01:04 | of the highlight detail here.
| | 01:06 | In the second exposure of the
same scene, everything is darker.
| | 01:09 | I don't like the way the foreground
elements look at all, but I do like the fact
| | 01:13 | that there is more detail in
the clouds up here in the sky.
| | 01:15 | So I'm going use a layer mask to combine
what I think are the best exposed parts
| | 01:20 | of these bracketed images.
| | 01:22 | You can do this with more
than two images if you want.
| | 01:24 | I'll start by dragging the
light image into the dark image.
| | 01:27 | So I'll click on the beach1 document Tab.
| | 01:30 | I'll get my Move tool in the Toolbox
and I'm going to move into the image and
| | 01:34 | click-and-drag and hover over the
document tab of beach2.psd, until the document
| | 01:40 | window switches showing
beach2.psd, the darker image.
| | 01:45 | I still have my mouse held down and
I'm going to move down into the document
| | 01:48 | window and with the mouse still held
down, I'm going to hold down the Shift
| | 01:52 | key on the keyboard.
| | 01:53 | Then I'm going to release the
mouse and then the Shift key.
| | 01:56 | Holding the Shift key registers the two images.
| | 01:59 | In some cases that will
align the images just fine.
| | 02:02 | In others particularly if you were hand-
holding your camera, you may need some
| | 02:06 | help from Photoshop to perfectly align
the content of the two images, so that
| | 02:10 | the images are easier to blend together.
| | 02:12 | I'm going to close beach1.psd.
| | 02:14 | We don't need that one anymore, and
now I have in beach2.psd, a separate
| | 02:19 | image on each layer.
| | 02:21 | Here is the light version, and then
I'll turn that Light layer off, and you can
| | 02:24 | see the dark version on the dark layer below.
| | 02:27 | I'll make the Light layer visible again
by clicking its Eye icon, and before I
| | 02:31 | combine the two images,
I'm going to auto-align them.
| | 02:34 | So I already have the Light
layer selected in the Layers panel.
| | 02:38 | I'll hold down the Command key on the
Mac, or the Ctrl key on the PC, and I'll
| | 02:41 | click on the Dark layer too.
| | 02:43 | With both layers targeted in the
Layers panel, I'm going to go up to the Edit
| | 02:46 | menu and down to Auto-Align layers.
| | 02:50 | In the Auto-Align layers dialog box, I
usually just leave Projection set to Auto
| | 02:54 | which is a formula for aligning the
two layers, and if there is some dark
| | 02:58 | vignetting at the corners of the images,
I might try checking Vignette Removal
| | 03:03 | and then I'll click OK.
| | 03:05 | You can see that the top image shifted
a bit as Photoshop did its best to align
| | 03:09 | the content of the two layers.
| | 03:11 | The next step is to add a
layer mask to the Light layer.
| | 03:14 | I will click on the Light layer, so
only that layer is targeted and then I'm
| | 03:18 | going to add a layer mask to that
layer by going to the bottom of the Layers
| | 03:21 | panel and clicking the Add Layer Mask button.
| | 03:24 | There is the layer mask,
filled with white pixels.
| | 03:27 | I'll make sure that there is a double
border around the layer mask meaning that
| | 03:30 | the layer mask, not the
image itself is targeted.
| | 03:33 | Then I'm going to go to the
Toolbox and select the Gradient tool.
| | 03:36 | I'm going to add a Grayscale gradient
to this layer mask, just like I did in an
| | 03:41 | earlier movie, where I showed you how
to use a Grayscale gradient to gradually
| | 03:45 | blend two different images together.
| | 03:47 | This is basically the same technique
except that the images that I'm blending
| | 03:51 | are just two different shots of the same scene.
| | 03:53 | I'm going to go down to the bottom of
the Toolbox and check the foreground
| | 03:56 | and background colors.
| | 03:58 | I want black as my
foreground and white as my background.
| | 04:00 | I am going to press D,
and then X on my keyboard.
| | 04:04 | Then with the Gradient tool selected,
I'll go up to the Options Bar, I want
| | 04:08 | to make sure that there is black on
the left and white on the right of that
| | 04:11 | Gradient Field which means that I'm using
the Foreground to Background Preset Gradient.
| | 04:16 | Then I'll check the Gradient Shape icons here.
| | 04:19 | I am going to start with the first one,
the linear gradient, and then I'll
| | 04:23 | come into the image.
| | 04:24 | I want to draw a gradient from black
to white because I want to hide the top
| | 04:29 | part of the Light layer, so I can see
down through the top part of this exposure
| | 04:33 | to the darker exposure below.
| | 04:35 | So I'll try beginning at the top of
the document, and then dragging down.
| | 04:39 | If I need to drag straight, I can hold
the Shift key as I go and the length and
| | 04:44 | the direction of this line control
the effect that I'm going to get.
| | 04:47 | So I'll try releasing here, and I
actually think that's not too bad.
| | 04:52 | If I want, I can start above the image,
I can start inside the image, I can drag
| | 04:57 | diagonally, whatever I think is
going to give me the best result.
| | 05:03 | When I get the result that I like, I'll
take a look at the layer mask by holding
| | 05:07 | down the Option key on the
Mac, the Alt key on the PC.
| | 05:11 | The darker areas of the mask are hiding
the Light layer, allowing the detail in
| | 05:15 | the clouds that's on the Dark layer to
show through there and the white areas
| | 05:19 | are completely showing the Light layer,
hiding the exposure that's on the Dark
| | 05:23 | layer and then there are gray pixels in
between that are gradually revealing the Light layer.
| | 05:28 | I will Option or Alt-click again on the
layer mask thumbnail to go back to the
| | 05:33 | Photo view, and then I'm
going to fine-tune a bit.
| | 05:36 | Adding this Gradient has hidden part of
the foreground element here at the top,
| | 05:40 | and I like the lighter
version of the foreground element.
| | 05:43 | So I'm going to paint on the layer mask
with gray to bring back the lightness of
| | 05:47 | the stones here at the top of the pile.
| | 05:50 | So I'll get the Brush tool in the Toolbox.
| | 05:52 | I'm going to switch my foreground
color to white by pressing X on the
| | 05:55 | keyboard, but because white may give
too harsher, too delineated result, I'm
| | 06:00 | going to go up to the Options Bar for
the Brush tool, and reduce the Opacity
| | 06:04 | of the Brush tip to about 50%.
| | 06:06 | `Then I'll move into the image.
| | 06:09 | I'm going to make my brush tip smaller,
so that it's no wider than the top of
| | 06:12 | this pile of stones by pressing
the Left Bracket key a few times.
| | 06:16 | I will also make sure that the brush
is soft by holding the Shift key and
| | 06:20 | pressing the Left Bracket key.
| | 06:22 | Then I'm going to click-and-drag over
the top of the pile of stones, bringing
| | 06:26 | back some of the lightness
of that area of the image.
| | 06:31 | If I release my mouse and do that
several times, the effect is cumulative.
| | 06:35 | If I would like the stones to be even
brighter, I can try increasing the Opacity
| | 06:42 | of the brush tip while I'm painting with white.
| | 06:44 | I am noticing that the left side of
the sky looks darker than the right side.
| | 06:54 | So I'm going to increase my brush
size by pressing the Right Bracket key.
| | 06:58 | I'll reduce the Opacity of the brush
again down to about 50% and then I'm
| | 07:05 | going to click a few times on the left side of
this guy to try to even out the exposure a bit.
| | 07:11 | Let's take another look at the layer
mask thumbnail by Option or Alt-clicking on
| | 07:15 | the layer mask thumbnail, and you can
see the white parts of the layer mask
| | 07:18 | which are allowing the Light layer to
show through and the darker parts which
| | 07:22 | are hiding the Light layer showing
the exposure on the Dark layer below.
| | 07:25 | I will Option or Alt-click again on the
layer mask and finally, I would like to
| | 07:30 | trim away the edges of the file which
are showing some transparent pixels by
| | 07:34 | selecting the Crop tool in the Toolbox,
coming into the image and dragging to
| | 07:39 | include everything except those edges
which have some transparent pixels, and
| | 07:43 | those were caused by the Auto-
align feature that I used earlier.
| | 07:46 | I will press the Return key on my
keyboard, or click the check mark in the
| | 07:49 | Options Bar to commit that crop.
| | 07:52 | There is my result.
| | 07:54 | To remind you of how I started,
this was the original light image.
| | 07:57 | I'll hold the Shift key and click on
the layer thumbnail to show you that and
| | 08:01 | then I'll click again on the layer thumbnail.
| | 08:03 | Then I'll make the Light layer invisible
by clicking the Eye icon to the left of
| | 08:07 | that layer to remind you how the dark
image looked, and then I'll click on that
| | 08:11 | Eye icon again to show you the result
of combining Bracketed Exposures using a
| | 08:15 | layer mask in Photoshop.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Combining Camera Raw exposures| 00:00 |
I've shown you how you can take multiple
shots of the same scene and use a layer
| | 00:04 |
mask to combine different exposures
that you've taken with your camera.
| | 00:08 |
But what if you've only
made one shot with your camera?
| | 00:11 |
You can use the Camera Raw Converter
that comes with Photoshop CS4 along with
| | 00:16 |
smart objects and layer masks to
make and combine multiple exposures from
| | 00:21 |
just one photograph.
| | 00:23 |
That's what I'm going to show
you how to do in this lesson.
| | 00:25 |
I've opened a raw file here
in the Camera Raw interface.
| | 00:29 |
You can do this exercise with a raw file,
like sanluis.dng, which I've provided
| | 00:34 |
for you, or you could even use a JPEG
or a TIFF, but this works better with raw
| | 00:39 |
files, because raw files, because raw
files have more information in them.
| | 00:42 |
Here in the Camera Raw interface, I'm
going to set some of the exposure settings
| | 00:46 |
here in the Basic tab, trying to
make the sky look a little better.
| | 00:50 |
As I tweak these settings, I'm going
to try not to look at the foreground,
| | 00:54 |
because I'm going to treat the
foreground separately in just a moment.
| | 00:57 |
I think, the sky and the mountains
are rather flat, and they would benefit
| | 01:01 |
from some darker darks.
| | 01:02 |
So, I'm going to go right down to the
Blacks slider here in the Basic tab.
| | 01:06 |
I'm going to hold down the Option or Alt key,
click on that slider and drag it to the right.
| | 01:12 |
I'm starting to see some pixels appearing in
the foreground, but I'm going to ignore those.
| | 01:16 |
I'm looking for pixels appearing
in the mountains and in the sky.
| | 01:20 |
I'm starting to see some cyan pixels in
the mountains over there on the top right.
| | 01:25 |
I'm going to back off the Blacks slider
a bit, dragging to the left, until there
| | 01:29 |
are just a few cyan pixels showing in
the mountains, then I'll release my mouse,
| | 01:34 |
and I'll release the Option or Alt key.
| | 01:35 |
I have increased the contrast, and I
can see more detail now in the clouds.
| | 01:39 |
I'm also going to go down to the
Clarity slider and drag that to the right to
| | 01:43 |
make the image look a little crisper.
| | 01:45 |
I'll also go to the Vibrance slider and
drag that to the right, to saturate a bit more.
| | 01:52 |
To see the results, I'll go up to the
Preview field, and I'm going to uncheck that.
| | 01:56 |
So keeping my eye on the sky alone, I see
that I started there, and now I'm there.
| | 02:01 |
I like that result, so I'm now going
to open this raw file into Photoshop.
| | 02:05 |
I want to open it as a Smart Object,
so that I'll be able to come back into
| | 02:09 |
Camera Raw from the Smart Object to
make further changes if I need to.
| | 02:13 |
To do that, I'll go down to the bottom
of the Camera Raw interface to the Open
| | 02:17 |
Image button, and I'm going
to hold down the Shift key.
| | 02:21 |
When I do that, the button changes to
the Open Object button, meaning that if I
| | 02:26 |
click the button now as I'm going to,
it will open that file into Photoshop
| | 02:30 |
proper as a Smart Object.
| | 02:32 |
So here I'm in Photoshop, and you can
see that there is a single layer now, and
| | 02:36 |
the layer thumbnail contains a
special icon that represents a Smart Object.
| | 02:41 |
In the document window, you can see
in the title bar that I've opened the
| | 02:44 |
sanluis image as a Smart Object.
| | 02:47 |
This Smart Object contains all
the original raw information.
| | 02:51 |
So I could go back from this Smart
Object into Camera Raw and change
| | 02:55 |
the settings there.
| | 02:56 |
I actually don't want to do that on this
particular layer though, I want to make
| | 03:00 |
a copy of this layer, and then go back
into Camera Raw from that copy, so that I
| | 03:04 |
can get two different
exposures of the same image.
| | 03:07 |
To make a copy of the sanluis layer,
I'm going to hold down the Ctrl key on the
| | 03:11 |
Mac and click on a blank area of this layer.
| | 03:14 |
On a PC, I'll right-click on this layer.
| | 03:17 |
From the contextual menu that opens, I'm
going to choose New Smart Object via Copy.
| | 03:22 |
It's important to make my copy from this
command, so that the sanluis copy layer
| | 03:26 |
that I just made is not linked to
the Smart Object on the sanluis layer.
| | 03:31 |
I'm doing that so that changes that I'm
going to make to the sanluis copy layer
| | 03:35 |
will not be reflected in
the original sanluis layer.
| | 03:38 |
Now, I'm going to reopen the sanluis
copy layer back in Camera Raw and change
| | 03:43 |
some settings there.
| | 03:44 |
To do that, I'll double-click the
thumbnail on the sanluis copy layer.
| | 03:49 |
That opens the image from the sanluis
copy Smart Object layer, back here in the
| | 03:53 |
Camera Raw interface.
| | 03:55 |
Now here, I'm going to change the White
Balance so that the foreground is warmer.
| | 04:01 |
I'll go to the White Balance menu and
I'll change it from As Shot to Daylight.
| | 04:05 |
That took out some of the
blue and added some gold.
| | 04:07 |
I'm also going to reduce the
contrast by moving to the Blacks slider and
| | 04:12 |
dragging to the left.
| | 04:15 |
Everything I do is also affecting the
sky and the mountains, but I don't care,
| | 04:19 |
because I'm going to use a layer mask
to hide the sky and the mountains on the
| | 04:23 |
exposure that I'm currently creating.
| | 04:25 |
I'm happy with these results, so
I'll click OK, and that takes me back to
| | 04:30 |
Photoshop, and makes the changes that
I just chose on the sanluis copy layer.
| | 04:35 |
I'll make that layer temporarily
invisible to remind you that it looks different
| | 04:39 |
than the sanluis layer below.
| | 04:42 |
I like the sky in the sanluis layer,
but I like the foreground in the
| | 04:46 |
sanluis copy layer.
| | 04:47 |
So, I'm going to add a layer mask to
the sanluis copy layer that hides the sky
| | 04:52 |
on the sanluis copy layer, allowing
us to see down through that area to the
| | 04:56 |
sanluis layer below.
| | 04:58 |
With the sanluis copy layer selected
in the Layers panel, I'll go to the Add
| | 05:01 |
Layer Mask icon and that
adds a white layer mask.
| | 05:05 |
Then I'm going to get the
Gradient tool in the Toolbox.
| | 05:08 |
I'll press D and then X on the keyboard
to set the foreground color to black and
| | 05:13 |
the background color to white.
| | 05:14 |
As I've shown you in other movies,
I'll go up to the Options bar, I'll check
| | 05:18 |
that I'm making a gradient from black
to white, and that I have that first
| | 05:22 |
gradient shape layer
selected, the Linear Gradient.
| | 05:26 |
Then I'll come in to the image, I'll
start with the top and I'll drag down.
| | 05:31 |
As I've mentioned in other movies, in
which I've added a grayscale gradient to
| | 05:34 |
a layer mask, the length and direction of
this line, affect the results that I'll get.
| | 05:39 |
So now I have a gradient on the layer
mask thumbnail that's hiding the top part
| | 05:43 |
of the sanluis copy layer.
| | 05:45 |
So we can see down through that
area to the sanluis layer below.
| | 05:48 |
I'm going to fine-tune that layer mask
by getting the Brush tool in the Toolbox.
| | 05:53 |
I have black as my foreground color.
| | 05:55 |
I'm going to go up to the Opacity
field in the Options bar and lower the
| | 05:58 |
opacity of this brush.
| | 06:01 |
Then I'll come in to the image, and
with a soft brush, I'm just going to drag
| | 06:05 |
over the sky, hiding more of the
sanluis copy layer to show some of the detail
| | 06:12 |
in the sky and the mountains
from the sanluis layer below.
| | 06:15 |
Now let's take a look at the layer mask,
I'll hold the Option key on the Mac or
| | 06:19 |
the Alt key on the PC and click on that
layer mask, so you can see which parts
| | 06:23 |
of the sanluis copy layer are being hidden.
| | 06:26 |
Then I'll Option-click or Alt-click again on
that layer mask to show you my final image.
| | 06:30 |
Now I realize that there is lots of new
information in this movie about Camera
| | 06:34 |
Raw and about smart objects.
| | 06:36 |
But it's such a useful technique
that I really wanted to show it to you.
| | 06:40 |
You can always go back and listen to
this movie again, if you need to pick up a
| | 06:43 |
little more about some of the
underlying techniques of using Camera Raw with
| | 06:47 |
smart objects and layer masks to
create multiple exposures from one file, and
| | 06:53 |
then combine those
exposures to get the best of each.
| | 06:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Manipulating depth of field| 00:00 |
A popular look in advertising and editorial
photography is the shallow depth of field look.
| | 00:06 |
If you shoot a photograph with your
camera set to a shallow depth of field,
| | 00:10 |
in other words, with a wide aperture, then
the background will be out of focus and
| | 00:13 |
a little bit of the foreground as well,
and just the subject will be in focus.
| | 00:17 |
If you're starting with an image like
this one that doesn't have a shallow depth
| | 00:21 |
of field, in other words, where
everything is in focus, you can simulate shallow
| | 00:25 |
depth of field by
applying a Gaussian Blur filter.
| | 00:28 |
In this movie, I'm going to show you
how to use a layer mask that comes with a
| | 00:32 |
special kind of filter called a Smart
Filter, in order to simulate shallow depth
| | 00:36 |
of field with a Gaussian Blur filter.
| | 00:39 |
This particular image has
only one layer, the winter layer.
| | 00:42 |
I'm going to start by converting this
layer to a smart object, so that it can
| | 00:46 |
take a smart filter.
| | 00:47 |
To do that, I'll select the winter
layer and then I go up to the Filter menu
| | 00:51 |
at the top of the screen, and I'm
going to choose Convert for Smart Filters,
| | 00:55 |
and then I'll click OK.
| | 00:56 |
Now if you look at the Layers panel,
you'll see the special smart object symbol
| | 01:00 |
on the winter layer.
| | 01:02 |
Now, I can add a smart filter to this layer.
| | 01:05 |
A smart filter is like any other
filter except that it's re-editable and it
| | 01:09 |
comes with its own layer mask, which can
be used to limit where in the image the
| | 01:14 |
smart filter is applied.
| | 01:15 |
And that's what I want to do in this case.
| | 01:17 |
So I'll go up to the Filter menu, and
I'm going to choose one of the regular
| | 01:21 |
filters from the Blur
category, the Gaussian Blur filter.
| | 01:25 |
In the Gaussian Blur dialog box, there
is just one slider, the Radius slider.
| | 01:29 |
I'm going to drag that slightly to the
left to reduce the amount of blur from
| | 01:33 |
the default, and then I'm going to click OK.
| | 01:36 |
Now as you can see that blur is
now applying to the entire image.
| | 01:40 |
But I can limit that by taking
advantage of this feature in the Layers
| | 01:43 |
panel, the Smart Filter.
| | 01:45 |
This Smart Filter, which I've just
added, comes with its own layer mask
| | 01:49 |
represented by this white thumbnail.
| | 01:51 |
I am going to select that layer mask
by clicking on it, and then I'm going to
| | 01:54 |
add some grayscale pixels to hide
the effect of this Gaussian Blur filter
| | 01:59 |
from part of the image.
| | 02:00 |
I could use any of the methods that
I've shown you in earlier movies for
| | 02:03 |
applying grayscale pixels to a layer mask.
| | 02:06 |
I could paint on the layer mask, I can
make a selection on the layer mask and
| | 02:10 |
fill that selection, but because I want
there to be a gradual transition between
| | 02:15 |
the sharp and the blurred areas of the
image, I'm going to apply a grayscale
| | 02:19 |
gradient to this layer mask on the
Smart Filter, and this is just like applying
| | 02:23 |
a grayscale gradient to any layer
mask as I've shown you how to do in other
| | 02:27 |
movies in this course.
| | 02:28 |
An important step is to make sure that
the layer mask has a double border around
| | 02:32 |
it, meaning that the layer mask is targeted.
| | 02:35 |
Then I'll go to the Toolbox, and I'm
going not select the Gradient tool.
| | 02:38 |
I'll set my foreground color to black
and my background color to white, by
| | 02:42 |
pressing the D and then
the X keys on the keyboard.
| | 02:45 |
I am going to go up to the Options bar,
and I'm going to click on the second
| | 02:49 |
gradient shape icon, the Radial Gradient.
| | 02:52 |
So that I can draw a
gradient from the center out.
| | 02:55 |
Then I'll move into the image, and
I'll click in the model's face, and I'll
| | 02:59 |
drag a gradient line.
| | 03:01 |
As I've mentioned in other movies, the
direction and the length of this line
| | 03:04 |
affects the look that I'll get.
| | 03:06 |
When I release my mouse, I've limited
the effect of the Gaussian Blur filter so
| | 03:11 |
that it's not applying to the model's
face, but is applying to the background
| | 03:15 |
and to some of the foreground of the image.
| | 03:17 |
If we take a look at the layer mask
on the Smart Filter layer, you can see
| | 03:21 |
why that's happening.
| | 03:22 |
I'll hold the Option key on the Mac or
the Alt key on the PC as I click on the
| | 03:26 |
layer mask on the Smart Filter layer,
and there you can see the dark pixels,
| | 03:30 |
which are hiding the effect of this filter.
| | 03:33 |
The white pixels, which are revealing
the effect of the filter out here and the
| | 03:37 |
background and in the model's hands.
| | 03:39 |
And then the gray pixels, which are
partially revealing the effect of this filter.
| | 03:44 |
Giving a gradual transition between
the sharp and the non-sharp areas.
| | 03:49 |
I'll go back to the photo view, by
holding the Option key on the Mac or the Alt
| | 03:52 |
key on the PC, and clicking on that
layer mask thumbnail on the Smart Filter.
| | 03:57 |
Finally, because this is a smart
filter, I can go back in and make changes.
| | 04:01 |
So I could double-click the Gaussian
Blur Smart Filter, and in the Gaussian Blur
| | 04:05 |
dialog box, I could drag the Radius
slider to change the amount of blur if I
| | 04:10 |
want to, then I'll click OK.
| | 04:12 |
I can also come in at any time, and
change the grayscale pixels that I've added
| | 04:16 |
to the Smart Filter layer, by
clicking on that layer mask thumbnail.
| | 04:20 |
And this time I'll get the Brush tool,
my Opacity is set to 50% for the Brush
| | 04:26 |
tool, and I'm going to come in and
just paint a little more black around the
| | 04:30 |
model's face, expanding the area
from which that smart filter is hidden.
| | 04:35 |
So that's how you can use the layer
mask that comes with the Smart Filter to
| | 04:39 |
simulate a shallow depth of field.
| | 04:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Targeting image sharpening| 00:00 | In the last movie, I showed you how
you can use a Smart Filter, and the layer
| | 00:04 | mask that comes with a Smart Filter
to add a blur filter to the image that
| | 00:08 | simulates a shallow depth of field.
| | 00:11 | In this movie, I'm going to show you
something very similar by using a different
| | 00:14 | kind of filter, a filter that sharpens.
| | 00:17 | Again, I'm going to use the layer mask
on a Smart Filter layer to limit the area
| | 00:21 | that's affected by the sharpening
filter, so that only the parts of the image
| | 00:25 | that I want sharpen are affected by that filter.
| | 00:28 | The first step is to convert the image
layer, in this case the Background layer
| | 00:32 | to a smart object so that
it can take a Smart Filter.
| | 00:36 | I'll go up to the Filter menu, and I'm
going to choose Convert for Smart Filters.
| | 00:40 | I'll click OK, and on the layer you
can now see the Smart Object icon.
| | 00:45 | That means it's a Smart Object layer.
| | 00:48 | Next, I'll go up to the Filter menu
and I'm going to choose Sharpen, and I'm
| | 00:52 | going to use the Unsharp Mask
Filter to sharpen this image.
| | 00:56 | I'll start with the Amount slider,
which I'm going to exaggerate, so that you
| | 00:59 | can really see this effect.
| | 01:01 | I'm going to pull this way over to about there.
| | 01:04 | And then, I'll take the Radius slider,
and I'll move it over to the right as well.
| | 01:08 | You usually want to keep the Radius
under about 2 pixels, because what
| | 01:12 | sharpening does is look for edges
where there is a difference between bright
| | 01:17 | pixels and dark pixels.
| | 01:18 | And then it exaggerates
the contrast of those edges.
| | 01:21 | And the Radius slider
determines how wide the edges are.
| | 01:25 | That will be exaggerated so
that they appear to be sharp.
| | 01:28 | And the Amount slider determines
strength of that sharpening effect.
| | 01:31 | There is also a Threshold slider there.
| | 01:34 | The Threshold slider can come in handy to
limit which pixels in the image are sharpened.
| | 01:40 | Right now, the Amount and the Radius
of the Unsharp Mask filter are affecting
| | 01:45 | not only the bird, but there are also
creating this halo around him, and they
| | 01:49 | are sharpening the grain in the sky, and
I don't want that halo and I don't want
| | 01:53 | the grain sharpened.
| | 01:54 | So I could try dragging the Threshold
slider to the right, to set a threshold
| | 01:58 | for which pixels are going to be sharpened.
| | 02:00 | But doing that leaves the decision to
Photoshop, and I'd rather control that myself.
| | 02:05 | So I'm not going to use
Threshold, I'll leave that at 0.
| | 02:08 | And I'm going to click OK.
| | 02:10 | Normally, when I'm evaluating the
sharpening effect on an image I want the image
| | 02:13 | at 100%, but in order for you to be able
to see on your screen I'm going to zoom
| | 02:18 | in to 200% by pressing
Command+Plus on my keyboard.
| | 02:22 | Now, keep in mind, I've also
exaggerated the sharpening effect, I normally
| | 02:26 | wouldn't do it this much.
| | 02:27 | But I want you to see how I can limit
the sharpening by using the layer mask
| | 02:31 | that comes with the Smart Filter that I created.
| | 02:34 | You can see that Smart Filter
over here in the Layers panel.
| | 02:37 | Here is this Smart Filter sublayer and
beneath that the Unsharp Mask filter.
| | 02:42 | The Smart Filter sublayer comes with
its own layer mask, which by default is
| | 02:46 | filled with white pixels, so it's not
having a visible effect on the filter.
| | 02:50 | But in order to limit the areas
affected by this filter, I'm going to highlight
| | 02:55 | the layer mask on that Smart Filter layer.
| | 02:57 | And then I'm going to apply grayscale pixels.
| | 03:00 | Black or gray pixels will limit the areas
to which the Unsharp Mask filter applies.
| | 03:05 | I'll start by getting the
Gradient tool in the Toolbox.
| | 03:09 | Then I'm going to set the foreground
color to white and the background to black
| | 03:12 | by pressing the D key on the keyboard.
| | 03:15 | Up in the Options bar for the Gradient
tool, I want to select this second shape
| | 03:19 | icon, the Radial Gradient.
| | 03:21 | And then, I'm going to come into the
image, and I'll click around the bird's eye
| | 03:25 | and I'm going to drag down.
| | 03:27 | And as I've mentioned in other movies,
the direction and the length of the
| | 03:31 | gradient line will affect the result that I get.
| | 03:34 | I will release my mouse, and as you
can see I significantly changed where the
| | 03:39 | sharpening is applying.
| | 03:41 | To show you a before and after, I'll go
over to the Smart Filter sublayer, I'll
| | 03:45 | hold down the Shift key, and I'll
click on that layer mask thumbnail.
| | 03:48 | So that's how the sharpening
looks without the layer mask.
| | 03:51 | And you can see the sharpening effect
on the grain and the sky and around the
| | 03:55 | edge of the bird, and then if I
make the layer mask effective again by
| | 03:59 | Shifting-clicking on the layer mask
thumbnail, you can see that it really has
| | 04:03 | limited where the filter is being applied.
| | 04:06 | I'll hold the Option key, that's the
Alt key on the PC and click on that layer
| | 04:10 | mask thumbnail, so that you can see
that most of the mask is filled with black
| | 04:14 | hiding the effect of the Unsharp Mask filter.
| | 04:17 | Only this small area of white
pixels which is near the bird's head is
| | 04:21 | revealing the full effect of the
Unsharp Mask filter, and the gray pixels in
| | 04:25 | the Radial Gradient are partially
showing the effect of the Unsharp Mask
| | 04:29 | filter on the image.
| | 04:30 | I am going to Option-click or Alt-click
on that layer mask thumbnail again to go
| | 04:34 | back to the Document view.
| | 04:35 | I can further refine this layer mask
by painting on it with Grayscale pixels.
| | 04:40 | So I might get the Brush tool here,
I'll lower the Opacity of the brush
| | 04:44 | slightly, and then I'm going to switch to
black paint by pressing the X key on the keyboard.
| | 04:48 | I will come into the image, I'll make
my brush smaller by pressing the left
| | 04:53 | bracket key a few times, and softer by holding
the Shift key as I press the left bracket key.
| | 04:58 | And then I'm going to paint around
the edge of the bird hiding some of the
| | 05:02 | sharpening from around the edge, so
that I'm reducing that sharpening halo.
| | 05:06 | I will go back to 100% view by double-
clicking the Zoom tool in the Toolbox so
| | 05:10 | that you can see the final result.
| | 05:12 | At 100% I see that there are some
other areas from which I might want to hide
| | 05:16 | the sharpening, like right here.
| | 05:18 | So I'll get the Brush tool, I'll make
the brush bigger, and I'll paint with
| | 05:22 | black over those areas as well.
| | 05:26 | So as you can see using the layer mask
on the Unsharp Masks Smart Filter gives
| | 05:31 | me full control over where my
sharpening effect is appearing in the image.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Framing photographs| 00:00 |
Layer masks offer all kinds of
creative possibilities for framing your
| | 00:04 |
photographs in other images.
| | 00:06 |
Here are a couple of ideas.
| | 00:08 |
I have a photograph here on the top
layer, the model layer, and beneath that I
| | 00:12 |
just have a plain color.
| | 00:13 |
I'm going to add a layer mask to the
model layer, but I'm going to start out
| | 00:18 |
with the mask that's completely Black,
hiding everything on the model layer.
| | 00:22 |
And then I'm going to add some White
paint to that mask to allow just part of
| | 00:26 |
the photograph to show through.
| | 00:28 |
To add the Black layer mask I'll first
click on the model layer to select it.
| | 00:32 |
And then I'm going to hold down the
Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on a PC
| | 00:36 |
as I click on the Add Layer Mask icon.
| | 00:38 |
The Black layer mask is now
hiding everything on the model layer.
| | 00:42 |
So, in the document, all we
see is the background below.
| | 00:45 |
Now, I'll select the Brush tool in the Toolbox.
| | 00:48 |
I'll make sure my foreground color is
set to White by pressing D on the keyboard.
| | 00:52 |
And then I'm going to go up to the
Options bar for the Brush tool and click on
| | 00:56 |
the arrow to the right
of the brush picker field.
| | 00:59 |
In the Brush Picker, I'm going to scroll
down to find these irregularly shaped brushes.
| | 01:04 |
I'll select one of those and then I'll
click in the blank area of the Options
| | 01:08 |
bar to close that palette.
| | 01:10 |
Now, with the layer mask highlighted on
the model layer, I'm going to paint back
| | 01:16 |
and forth and it looks as if I
were painting with the photograph.
| | 01:23 |
I can make some of these edges even rougher
to really make it look more like a painting.
| | 01:29 |
So, that's one thing that
you can do with a layer mask.
| | 01:31 |
I'll show you how the mask looks right
now, by holding the Option key on a Mac
| | 01:35 |
or the Alt key on a PC
and clicking on that mask.
| | 01:39 |
I'll fill that mask with Black again by
using the shortcut for filling with the
| | 01:43 |
background color, which is Command+
Delete on the Mac or Ctrl+Backspace on the
| | 01:48 |
PC, because I want to show you
something else that you could do with this mask.
| | 01:52 |
It's simple to create a vignette by
selecting the Elliptical Marquee tool and
| | 01:57 |
then coming into the image and drawing
an oval selection and then with the layer
| | 02:02 |
mask thumbnail selected
filling that selection with White.
| | 02:05 |
I'll use the keyboard shortcut for
filling with the foreground color to do that
| | 02:10 |
pressing Option+Delete on the
Mac or Alt+Backspace on the PC.
| | 02:14 |
Then I'll press Command+D on the
Mac, Ctrl+D on the PC to deselect.
| | 02:19 |
I can move the oval into place by
clicking the link between the layer mask
| | 02:24 |
thumbnail and the image
thumbnail on the model layer.
| | 02:28 |
Then getting the Move tool and with
the layer mask thumbnail selected on the
| | 02:32 |
model layer, clicking and dragging to
move the mask without moving the image and
| | 02:38 |
then I'll link those up again by
clicking in between those two thumbnails.
| | 02:41 |
Now, there's nothing new there, but the
new pieces that you can use one of the
| | 02:45 |
specialty brushes to enhance this framing mask.
| | 02:48 |
I'm going to go back to the Brush
tool and select it in the Toolbox.
| | 02:52 |
Then I'm going to go up to the brush
picker, open it by clicking its arrow.
| | 02:56 |
And then I'm going to click this small
arrow on the far right of the brush picker.
| | 03:00 |
From the menu that appears, I'm going to
choose Special Effect Brushes and click OK.
| | 03:06 |
And that changes the available preset brushes.
| | 03:09 |
I'm going to click on this Butterfly
brush right here and then click in a blank
| | 03:12 |
area of the Options bar to close that palette.
| | 03:15 |
I still have the layer mask
thumbnail selected in the Layers panel.
| | 03:19 |
I'm going to come in with the
special butterfly brush and click and drag.
| | 03:24 |
I can make the brush bigger
to make bigger butterflies.
| | 03:28 |
Basically I'm adding to my frame by
painting with white in the shape of
| | 03:32 |
butterflies on that layer mask.
| | 03:34 |
I'll show you the layer mask by holding the
Option key on the Mac or the Alt key on the PC.
| | 03:40 |
And here in the mask all the areas
that are white are revealing the model and
| | 03:44 |
all the areas that are Black are hiding the
model and allowing the background to show through.
| | 03:48 |
I'll Option or Alt click on the layer mask
thumbnail again to go back to the Photo view.
| | 03:53 |
So, those are just a couple of ways
that you can use Black, White or Gray on a
| | 03:57 |
layer mask like this one to
frame a photo or other image.
| | 04:02 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 | That wraps up this course
Photoshop CS4 Layer Mask In Depth.
| | 00:05 | I hope you have enjoyed taking this course
as much as I have enjoyed teaching it to you.
| | 00:08 | If I can leave you with one last thought,
that's please practice what you have
| | 00:12 | learned here, because practicing in
Photoshop really is the best way to learn.
| | 00:16 | If you ran into any ideas or
terminology or concepts with which you are not
| | 00:20 | familiar, you may want to get a little
background by listening to some of
| | 00:24 | my other courses here at the
lynda.com Online Training Library.
| | 00:28 | For general information about
Photoshop CS4, take a look at Photoshop
| | 00:33 | CS4 Essential Training.
| | 00:35 | If you would like to learn more
about layers, you can listen to my course
| | 00:38 | Photoshop CS4 Layers In Depth.
| | 00:40 | And if you want to know more about
adjustment layers or image adjustments,
| | 00:44 | take a look at Photoshop CS4
Image Adjustments In Depth.
| | 00:49 | And I hope you will join me for future courses
here in the lynda.com Online Training Library.
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