In this case, we would see half clouds and half bird. In fact, layer masks can hold any form of grayscale pixel information. Press G to switch to the gradient tool, then select the layer mask by clicking on its thumbnail. As you can see, the thumbnail fills with a gradient from black to white and the corresponding layer smoothly transitions between full opacity and full transparency.
If layer masks can hold any grayscale information, why not try to mask a layer with something photographic? Now, the canvas displays the contents of the layer mask. Cool, huh? What we love about this technique is that it lets the layer below, in the case a warm orange color fill, show through the textural variance. You may also be wondering what that chain-link is doing between the layer thumbnail and layer mask thumbnail?
Quite simply, this chain-link means that if you move the layer image on the canvas, the layer mask will move around with it. This can be incredibly useful. In this case you would want to disable the chain-link. Just click it.
Now you should feel like you have a better understanding of layer masks! Bringing this tool into your workflow will make you a better Photoshop user based on your increased facility to enter into new creative possibilities! Our newsletter is for everyone who loves design! Let us know if you're a freelance designer or not so we can share the most relevant content for you.
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Get a design. What is a Photoshop layer mask? Usually, we use it to adjust the transparency of different areas of the layer independently otherwise we'd just use the Opacity option in the Layers panel that we looked at earlier. But by default, when we first add a layer mask, Photoshop keeps the entire layer fully visible. It does that by filling the layer mask with white. And, it uses the various shades of gray in between to represent partial transparency , with areas filled with darker shades of gray appearing more transparent than areas filled with lighter shades.
In other words, with layer masks, we use white to show the contents of the layer, black to hide them, and gray to partially show or hide them.
And that's really all there is to it! Let's see what happens if we fill the layer mask with black. Notice in the Layers panel that the layer mask thumbnail has a white highlight border around it. That's because the layer and its layer mask are two separate things, and the highlight border around the layer mask thumbnail tells us that the mask, not the layer itself, is currently selected. If you're not seeing the highlight border around the layer mask thumbnail, click on the thumbnail to select it:.
Then, to fill the layer mask with black, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choose Fill :. This opens Photoshop's Fill dialog box. Change the Contents option at the top to Black , then click OK :.
What if we fill the layer mask with gray? Let's give it a try. I'll go back up to the Edit menu and I'll once again choose Fill :. So far, layer masks haven't seemed like anything special. In fact, as we've seen, filling a layer mask entirely with solid white, black or gray gives us the same result as using the Opacity option in the Layers panel. If that was all that layer masks could do, there would be no need for layer masks since the Opacity option is faster and easier to use.
But layer masks in Photoshop are a lot more powerful than that. In fact, they have more in common with the Eraser Tool than with the Opacity option.
Like the Eraser Tool, layer masks allow us to easily show and hide different areas of a layer independently. But here's the important difference. While the Eraser Tool permanently deletes areas of an image, layer masks simply hide those areas from view. In other words, the Eraser Tool makes destructive edits to an image; layer masks do it non-destructively. Let's see how it works.
First, let's make sure once again that our layer mask, not the layer itself, is selected. You should be seeing the white highlight border around the mask thumbnail:. I mentioned earlier that the Eraser Tool is a brush. With layer masks, we don't use the Eraser Tool itself, but we do use a brush. In fact, we use Photoshop's Brush Tool. I'll select it from the Toolbar. You can also select the Brush Tool by pressing the letter B on your keyboard:. Since we want to use the Brush Tool to hide areas of the layer we paint over, and we know that on a layer mask, black represents areas that are hidden, we'll need to paint with black.
Photoshop uses our current Foreground color as the brush color. But by default, whenever we have a layer mask selected, Photoshop sets the Foreground color to white , not black. We can see our current Foreground and Background colors in the color swatches near the bottom of the Toolbar.
Notice that the Foreground color the swatch in the upper left is set to white and that the Background color the swatch in the lower right is set to black. These are the default colors when working with layer masks:.
To set our Foreground color to black, all we need to do is swap the current Foreground and Background colors, and the easiest way to do that is by pressing the letter X on your keyboard. This sets the Foreground color, and our brush color, to black:. All we need to do now is set the size and hardness of our brush.
Then, with black as my brush color, I'll start painting over roughly the same areas that I did with the Eraser Tool. Because I'm painting on a layer mask, not on the layer itself, we don't see the brush color as we paint. Instead, since I'm painting with black, and black hides areas on a layer mask, the areas I paint over are hidden from view:.
I'll continue hiding more of the cat image by painting over more areas with black until I get a result similar to what I achieved with the Eraser Tool:. At this point, the difference between a layer mask and the Eraser Tool isn't all that obvious. Both of them allowed me to blend my two images together by hiding parts of the top layer, and both gave me similar results.
Yet as we saw earlier, the Eraser Tool permanently deleted the areas I erased. Let's look more closely at what's happened with the layer mask. First, let's look again at our layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel where we see that it's no longer filled with just solid white. Some of it remains white, but we can also see the areas where we painted on it with black:. It's important to understand that the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel is not the actual layer mask itself.
The thumbnail is there simply to give us a way to select the layer mask so we can work on it, and to show us a small preview of what the full size layer mask looks like. This temporarily hides our image and replaces it with the layer mask, giving us a better view of what we've done. And, because I painted with a soft-edge brush, we see a feathering effect around the black areas, creating narrow gradients that transition smoothly from black to white. We can also turn the layer mask off in the document.
To turn off the mask, press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard and click on the layer mask thumbnail. A big red X will appear across the thumbnail, letting you know that the mask has been temporarily turned off:. With the layer mask turned off, we're no longer seeing its effects in the document, and this is where the difference between the Eraser Tool and a layer mask becomes obvious.
Remember, the Eraser Tool permanently deleted areas of the image. Yet as we see, the layer mask did not. All the layer mask did was hide those areas from view.
When we turn the mask off, the entire image on the layer returns:. To turn the mask back on and hide those areas again, press and hold Shift and click once again on the layer mask thumbnail. The red X across the thumbnail will disappear, and so will the areas of the image that you painted over with black:. Since a layer mask simply hides, rather than deletes, areas on a layer, and our original image is still there, it's easy to bring back any areas that were previously hidden. To change your brush color from black to white, press the letter X on your keyboard to swap your Foreground and Background colors back to their defaults.
This sets your Foreground color and your brush color to white:. Then, with the layer mask still selected and white as your brush color, simply paint over any areas that were previously hidden to make them visible. In my case, I'll paint over the dog's paw in the bottom center to hide it and show the cat image in its place:. Again, because we're painting on a layer mask, not on the image itself, we don't see our brush color as we paint. Thanks Jimmy. Just starting to work with masks and Photoshop.
It never hurts to see it explained another way to help in understanding masks. Another thank you Jimmy — what a brilliant teacher you are! You make the use of masks so clear I can now understand what I am doing rather than just doing things by rote. Again Thanks Jimmy, your tutorial always helpful. Excellent tutorial about Photoshop Masking. Nice tutorial thank you very much for share it.
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