Help pasting into a mask

[down2earth2]

I'm following directions for a sharpening technique that sharpens only edges based on color difference. Basically I've created a layer that accents the color edges. The direction that is throwing me is "Invert the layer for an edge mask."

What I have is the inverted layer above my background copy layer. What I'm trying to do/what I think I'm directed to do is to add a mask to the background copy layer, and then paste the inverted layer for finding edges into the mask.

When I try to do this PS pastes the inverted layer into a new layer above the background copy layer, instead of into the mask. I've made sure to select the mask before pasting. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Scott]

Actually, you can't paste layer contests into a mask. So it's not that you're doing anything wrong. It sounds like the instructions may be a little lacking. Any chance of a link to the tut?

[south-canuck]

I'm not quite sure what the tut is telling you to do, but if you do need to paste something into a layer mask, before pasting, hold down Option/Alt and click on the layer mask thumbnail. Now you'll be looking at the mask and when you paste, it will paste your selection into the mask, creating a mask from the pasted information.
Again, I'm not sure of that's what this particular tut is aiming to do, but that's how you paste into a mask.

[Scott]

interesting! Thanks SC!

[down2earth2]

Thanks for the help!

[QUOTE=Jolt] Any chance of a link to the tut?[/QUOTE]

I can't seem to get back to the site. I started at RetouchPRO. Anyhow the I downloaded the tutorial as a pdf so I can attach it.

...Or maybe not. It's 1.3 megs (19 pages).

The file won't let me copy any text from it so I can't send the relevant pages. Hmmm. If you'd like I can email it to you, or later this evening I may be able to track it down.

[Scott]

sure d2e2 thanks.. email to jolt@pixeladdiction.com

[down2earth2]

The hold down Option/Alt and click on the layer mask thumbnail worked great, and will certainly come in handy. I've tried pasting into a mask before, and I'm sure I'll want to do it again. Unfortunately, the tutorial doesn't make sense to me even after learning how to paste into a mask. Oh well.

[down2earth2]

Actually, trying it a second time the tutorial accomplished just what it said it would; it restricted the sharpening to just the edges.