From the course: Photoshop Masking and Compositing: Fundamentals

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The channel is the origin of masking

The channel is the origin of masking - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop Masking and Compositing: Fundamentals

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The channel is the origin of masking

As most of you know Photoshop provides a Layers panel which is where you create and modify layers. Photoshop also offers a Masks panel, so you might naturally think that's where you create and modify masks, not so. In fact, the Masks panel is nothing more than a set of minor support options that we won't visit until Chapter 9. You create and modify masks in the Channels panel. Why? Because masks are channels, let me explain. Photoshop is in its hard a grayscale image editor. So rather than seeing a full-color image the way you and I do, Photoshop sees no fewer than three grayscale images working together, but ultimately unique. The fact that Photoshop blends the images on-the-fly to produce a full-color composite is strictly a favor to you. These grayscale images are called Channels. Imagine a river of full-color information one that Photoshop separates into its component parts. The red light goes down the red stream, the green light down the green stream, and the blue light down the…

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