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Masking Basics by Silky < Previous Article | Next Article >

Masking Basics
Contributed by: Silky

Average Rating : 4.4706/5.00

Published on: 04/06/2005 Views: 355874

Layer Masks

A layer mask, in a nutshell, is a way to hide (temporarily if necessary) parts of a picture. In Photoshop, when using more than one layer for an image, using layer masks is a way to remove portions of the layers to "hide" them behind other portions of the image.

To start this very basic tutorial you'll need to know a couple of things. First, each item that we will add will be on its own layer, thus making it possible to hide certain portions of the different layers to create an "overlapping" composite of the three images. Second, remember that in layer masking your foreground and background colors will change to black and white. And finally, remember that the color black will "remove" pixels, and the color white will "replace" pixels.

The purpose of this tutorial is to teach you the very basic concept of layer masks. We will take three separate images, incorporate them into one image, and then using layer masks we will "remove" or "replace" pixels to create a cohesive single image.

The three images we will use will be:

Tea

Tutorial Index

1. Masking Basics
2. Combining images
3. Layer masks
4. Masking
5. More Masking
6. Final Touches

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