This week we are going to take a look at layer masks. These are important as they are an essential building block for any type of composition that you will ever make. It is through masks that you are able to do some of the advanced blends and other type stuff. Below you can get a sense of what we’re trying to accomplish.

Without any further ado, lets get started!

1. Here we have our initial photo. It is an image I made of an old truck during a parade, just for this purpose!

   Click on the photo to download the full-size version so that you can work alongside me in the tutorial.

   (Note: This photo is distributed for educational purposes only. You are not allowed to redistribute it in any way nor use it for any commercial or personal projects.)

2. The first thing we’re going to do is duplicate the background layer. There are several ways to accomplish this, for now, just drag the layer over top of the New Layer icon beneath it.
3. After you’ve duplicated the background layer, go ahead and fill the original background with White. Press [D] to set your colors back to default, then press [Alt][Delete] (PC: [Alt][Backspace]) to fill the layer with your background color.
4. With the top layer selected, click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel (it’s the third from the left). You won’t notice any change to the image because it creates a mask that is completely empty (filled with white).
5. With the layer mask selected, and black as your foreground color, go ahead and start painting on the image with the Brush Tool (B). You’ll notice that the layer will begin to disappear, showing through to whatever is beneath it in the layers panel.
6. If you lower the opacity of the brush you’ll see that you being to produce a transparency. If black conceals and white reveals, any shade of gray in between is only going to partially conceal the layer.
7. Using the Gradient Tool (G) produces a nice soft transition from transparent to opaque. This is very useful when trying to mask shadows or reflections.
8. Go ahead and fill the mask with white once again. If you’ve forgotten, [Alt][Delete] (PC: [Alt][Backspace]) will fill a layer with your background color).
9. Using your favorite selection method, go ahead and make a selection of the truck. Press [Cmd][Shift][I] (PC: [Control][Shift][I]) to invert the selection so that you have everything EXCEPT the truck selected. With your mask selected, and black as your foreground color, press [Cmd][Delete] (PC: [Control][Backspace]) to fill the selected area with black.
10. Zoom in and use the Brush Tool (B) or the Smudge Tool (R) to clean up your mask.
11. To finish this image off, lets create a shadow beneath the truck. First, make a new layer underneath our masked layer. Using the Lasso Tool (L), draw a rough shape underneath the wheels of the truck. Fill this selection with black.
12. Blur the layer by going up to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. In this example I used a ~6px blur.
13. If you want to get really fancy, add a layer mask to the shadow and paint out some areas to make it more natural. I also have reduced the opacity of the layer to 45%.

Thanks to everyone who has been holding out for the past year! I know that this has been a long time coming, but I promise you, it is worth the wait! I have been putting together a lot of great stuff these past several months and am getting more excited than ever to release it! I’ve already published PS101:Know Your Tools and PS101:Know Your Panels and there is plenty more where that came from!

Look for 2 more articles coming up this week covering the Curves Adjustment and Layer Masking. I have been getting a lot of inquires on those two subjects specifically, so I thought I would cover them right away. Following shortly after that will be an in-depth look at blending modes and the various options you have available to you when compositing elements together within an image. Exciting stuff!

In the meantime, if you direct your attention over to the Resources section in the navigation panel (to your right), you’ll find I have added countless helpful websites that I use on a near-daily basis.

Enjoy!

Have a question about Photoshop that you want resolved?  Suggestions for a tutorial? Submit them here!

In this article, we’ll be covering the following aspects of the Photoshop workspace:

• Panel Options
• The Options Panel
• The Color Panel
• The Type Panel
• The History Panel
• The Layers Panel

Panel Options

Every panel (with very few exceptions) have their own set of options. These options can be accessed by clicking on the contextual menu icon in the upper right-hand corner of the panel (shown at left).

The Options Panel

Not to be confused with panel options, the Options panel is what spans across the top of the workspace. When you select a tool from the toolbar this panel will display many of the options associated with that tool. My only advice here is to study how it changes whenever you select a different tool, you may discover a hidden option you had never seen before.

The Color Panel

There is very little to say about the color panel: use it to select a color. Personally, I don’t use it very often, but you can use it if you want. Grab the sliders to adjust the color until it is to your liking. Alternatively, you can double-click the color swatch you are editing and edit it through the color picker dialog.

Hidden behind this panel is the Swatches panel (my personal favorite) and the Styles panel (useful for applying your saved Layer Styles).

The Type Panel

Unlike the color panel, there is quite a lot to look at in the type panel. Try not to get overwhelmed. At the top you can select your font family and style. Beneath that you can select the font size, line height, and letter spacing (I’ll spare you from the technical terms for now).

In the next section you can adjust the horizontal and vertical scaling of the font, if you want to completely destroy the letterforms, that is.Beneath that you can adjust the baseline of the font, as well as it’s color.

Finally, along the bottom of the panel, are some simple text transformation options. In order they are: Faux Bold, Faux Italics, All Caps, Small Caps, Superscript Subscript, underline and strike-through. Behind the Character panel is the Paragraph panel where you can modify the alignment and indentation of your text (Note: to create a paragraph, click and drag a text area using the Text tool).

The History Panel

Even better than Undo and Redo is the History Panel. In the event that you have made undesirable changes to the document, the history panel allows you to go back in time to before they ever happened.The buttons along the bottom of the window allow you to Make a New Document from Current State, Create a Snapshot of the current state, and Delete the Current State (similar to Undo).

What’s the benefit of a Snapshot, you ask? With a snapshot you can immediately jump back to a point where you were happy with the image, prior to all of the radical changes. This is also very useful if you are in the habit of running out of history states and can’t go back far enough to undo a mistake. Note: You can increase the number of available history states by opening Performance preferences within Photoshop (Mac: Photoshop > Preferences > Performance; PC: Edit > Preferences > Performance).

The Layers Panel

The Layers panel is easily the most powerful area in all of Photoshop. Revel in its glory. Go ahead, no need to feel embarrassed, I’ll wait. Ready? Okay! We have a lot to go over here, so please bear with me.

Layers Rock!

When used correctly, layering an image can produce some impressive results. Layers allow for separate elements to be moved and altered independently from one another; they can be stacked and positioned in any way you see fit. Think of them as transparencies, always showing through to the uncovered areas beneath them.

Creating/Deleting Layers

You can create new layers or delete selected layers by clicking their respective icons in the bottom right-hand corner of the panel. Dragging a layer on top of the New Layer icon will create a duplicate of the layer, dragging it over the trash icon will delete it.

Hiding Layers

Layers can be shown/hidden by clicking the visibility icon (that eyeball) to the left of the layer.

Renaming Layers

Layers can be renamed by double-clicking on their title or by right-clicking on the layer and selecting Layer Properties (you can also color-coordinate your layers, if you’re OCD). I strongly urge you to keep track of your layers by giving them names. You can thank me later.

Grouping Layers

For larger compositions, you can organize layers into groups by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Alternatively, you can also select the layers and press Command+G (PC: Ctrl+G).

Layer Styles

Double-clicking on a layer, or clicking the [fx] button at the bottom of the layers panel, will bring up the Layer Styles dialog. There are a lot of styling options you can apply to a layer (like Drop Shadow, for example) and they can be combined to produce some very interesting effects. Experiment and have fun!

Layer Masking

Applying a mask to a layer is a way to hide/show specific areas of a layer, without erasing them permanently. By default, when you add a layer mask it will be completely white and you will see no change in the image. With the layer mask selected, anywhere on the layer that you paint black will conceal it from view, exposing the layers underneath. Painting with a shade of gray will create transparency (Hint: try using a gradient).

A simple rule of thumb when masking: Black Conceals, White Reveals

Click here to learn more about layer masking.

Layer Blending

In addition to masking, there are other ways to collage elements together. At the very top of the layers panel is a drop-down menu that reads “Normal”. This is where you specify what is called the Blend Mode of the selected layer. This dictates how the layer interacts with everything beneath it.

To the right of the Blend Mode is the Opacity slider. This determines how opaque or transparent a layer is. Directly beneath the Opacity slider is the Fill opacity. These two sliders seemingly do the same thing at first, but there is a very subtle difference: the Fill slider only affects the layer contents, whereas the Opacity slider affects the contents AND any styles applied to the layer (this will make more sense later).

Closing Thoughts…

That is all I have for this article. Hopefully you found this useful!
If you have any tutorial requests or general suggestions about the site, please send them in!

• Selection Tools
• Cropping and Slicing Tools
• Painting Tools
• Retouching Tools
• Drawing and Text Tools
• Helper Tools

Many of these tools operate in a similar fashion and produce similar results, just in slightly different ways. So why did Adobe make everything so complicated, you ask? Because different tools can perform different tasks more easily.

A helpful hint: Holding [Shift] and/or [Alt] will modify the function of many tools. Think of Shift as your rigid modifier, forcing the tool into a locked aspect ratio or straight lines at every 45º. Try holding them when working with a tool to see what results!

Additionally, each tool has a letter shortcut associated with it. If you hold [Shift] and press the corresponding tool’s letter you will cycle through those buried beneath it.

Selection Tools

These tools limit your actions to a single selected area. Whether you’re drawing, erasing or transforming something these tools will ensure that you only affect what you want.

Move (V) - [Click-and-Drag] to move a selected area or layer within the drawing area. Using the Arrow keys on the keyboard will allow you to nudge by one pixel at a time.

Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee (M) - [Click-and-Drag] selections based on either rectangular or elliptical shapes. Holding Shift while drawing the selection will create a perfect square or circle. Holding [Space] will allow you to reposition the selection while drawing it.

Lasso/Polygonal Lasso (L) - Create free-form selections by drawing any shape. [Click-and-Drag] with the Lasso, or Click-and-Release with the Polygonal Lasso to create multiple points and make your selection.

Quick Selection/Magic Wand (W) – Quickly and effortlessly draw complex selections just as if you were painting them with this tool. The boundaries will automatically adjust to select the areas you have clicked based on color or contrast.

Cropping and Slicing Tools

Crop Tool (C) – Works like the Rectangular Marquee. Draw a selection of the area you want to keep and press enter, the rest is deleted. Can also be used to enlarge the canvas by dragging outside of the drawing area.

Slice Tool (K) – Used mainly when designing web pages. [Click-and-Drag] slices the way you would draw a selection. Slices allow you to export multiple images from a single design by choosing File > Save for Web.

Painting Tools

Brush (B) – Arguably the most powerful tool in Photoshop, the brush engine is what powers many of the other tools. Hold [Shift] to paint in straight lines, or [Shift-Click] to connect the dots.

Eraser (E) – Functions like the Brush Tool, but erases instead of paints. If erasing on the Background layer you will essentially paint your background color. If erasing on a layer you remove its information.

History Brush (Y) - It’s like Undo, but on a brush. Select a previous state in the History Panel and use this brush to paint back how the image looked oh so long ago.

Gradient/Paint Bucket (G) - Use the Gradient Tool to draw a smooth transition from one color to another (or from a color to transparency). The Paint Bucket will fill an area with a solid color. By default these tools work with whatever Foreground and Background colors you have selected.

Retouching Tools

Clone Stamp (S) - Functions like the Brush Tool, but paints an exact duplicate of a targeted area. [Alt-Click] to target an area.

Healing Brush (J) - Works like the clone stamp, but attempts to automatically blend the edges of whatever you paint.

Blur/Sharpen/Smudge (R) - These tools do exactly what they say, and work just like the Brush Tool. [Click-and-Drag] to unlock their potential.

Dodge/Burn/Sponge (O) - Referring back to days of analog photography, the Dodge/Burn tools can be used to lighten/darken an area of a photo while the Sponge Tool absorbs color saturation (resulting in a desaturated area).

Drawing and Type Tools

These tools produce vector-based elements that can be easily adjusted and scaled to any size. You have the option of drawing a shape layer, drawing a path, or drawing a filled, pixel-based selection.

Pen Tool (P) - Draw or trace any shape free-form. [L-Click] to create a point, [Click-and-Drag] to produce a curve. Use the Direct Selection tool along with the Anchor Point tools to modify your paths.

Path/Direct Selection (A) – Use these tools to select either an entire shape or a specific anchor point, respectively.

Type (T) - Add text to your image. [L-Click] once to begin typing, [Click-and-Drag] to create a text-box.

Rectangle and Other Shapes (U) - Use this tool to create many common shapes and lines.

Helper Tools

Notes (N) - A great way to type a reminder or a note when working on a project. Particularly useful when collaborating with others.

Eyedropper (I) – Don’t know what that color is? Sample any color simply by clicking on it with this tool. You can sample colors outside of Photoshop by clicking within the document, and dragging elsewhere.

Hand (H) – [Click-and-Drag] to pan around an image with this helpful tool. Hint: Access the Hand Tool at any time just by holding [Space].

Zoom (Z) - Zoom in or out by Clicking, zoom to a specific area by Clicking and Dragging a selection around area. Alternatively, press [Cmd][+] to zoom in, [Cmd][-] to zoom out and [Cmd][Alt][0] to return to actual size.

After a year of delays and preparation I am proud to announce that I am nearly ready to open the doors. Keep a steely eye on the horizon, this site is due to burst with content any day now.

‘Til next time!