How To Change Color Of Layer Mask In Photoshop

Photoshop tin can exist disruptive. It's a massive program with countless tools and techniques. Yet, it'due south non the advanced stuff that throws most people, but the very basics. As soon as yous start using Photoshop, you'll probably need to employ Layers and Layer Masks. If you don't wrap your caput effectually them, you'll never exist able to get much further.

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So, allow's take a look at what Layers and Layer Masks are, and how to apply them to edit your photos. (And if you're new to Photoshop, be sure to check out our 8-office beginner'south guide to Photoshop too.)

What Are Layers?

Photoshop is congenital on the idea of layers and the layer stack. Everything you exercise in Photoshop takes place on a layer. All the layers in a document are bundled 1 on top of the other. Whatever is on the layer at the pinnacle of the stack appears above the content on all the Layers below.

The easiest way to recall of information technology is to imagine y'all're a kid over again making a collage in school. You start with a white groundwork sail, cut some pictures out from a magazine and stick them to the folio. Possibly you catch a mark and add together write something on top. All your materials are physically layered. You can take a picture from the bottom of the pile and move information technology to the elevation. Or yous can take something from the top and move it to the groundwork. The only difference with Photoshop, obviously, is that the layers are digital.

Getting Started With Layers

Layers are surprisingly uncomplicated once you've grasped the basic concept. Permit'south motion away from metaphors and look at an actual Photoshop certificate.

The new document in the paradigm to a higher place has merely the single white-filled layer Photoshop adds to all new documents. To add a new layer to your documents at any time, click the New Layer push or use the keyboard shortcut Control-Shift-N (Control-Shift-N on a Mac).

I've added a second layer to the example certificate; this time it'southward a black square.

In Photoshop, each layer works independently. What gets saved out as the final prototype is the sum total of all the layers working together. The little eyeball next to each layer controls whether or not information technology's visible. To turn a layer on or off, click on the eyeball. In the paradigm below, I've turned off Layer 0, the white background.

The checkerboard pattern is Photoshop's way of showing that an area is completely empty. The white layer is filled with white pixels so, although it might look blank, it really isn't. Other than the black square, at that place is nothing else on the 2nd layer. If you were to export this as an image that supports transparency–like a PNG–the checkerboard area would be transparent.

I've added a pink circle on a third layer. It'southward at the top of the layer stack, so it appears above the black foursquare and the white background.

When I move information technology below the black square's layer, information technology gets covered by the content on the layer higher up. Whatever layer is on summit is going to announced on pinnacle, even if it covers up things below. To move a layer to a different position in the stack, Click and Drag it effectually the Layer Panel.

Layer Opacity

Layers aren't e'er fully visible or completely switched off; they tin can also have some transparency. In Photoshop, you tin can set up the Layer Opacity to anywhere between 0% and 100%. Its visibility will exist reduced to that amount.

In the example below, the pink circle layer is gear up to an Opacity of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. Look at how the image changes with the layer's opacity. Photoshop combines all the information from the visible layers to get the terminal event. At 50% opacity, it'due south taking information from both the pink circle and black square layers.

To adjust the opacity of a layer, enter a value of between 0 and 100 for the Opacity or Click and Drag on the number to use a slider to set up it.

Layer Masks

Layers on their own can't practice much. It'due south rare that you lot want to just identify things on peak of each other in Photoshop. Normally, y'all want to combine unlike parts of unlike layers to create the terminal image. This is where Layer Masks come in.

A layer mask selectively controls the visibility of the different areas of each layer. Each layer mask only affects the layer information technology's attached to. Areas of the layer mask that are black muffle the respective surface area on the original layer, while areas of the layer mask that are white reveal those areas of the original layer. Just remember "black conceals and white reveals".

To create a new layer mask, select the layer you want to mask and then click the Add Layer Mask button. Past default it volition exist filled with white. If you want to beginning with a black layer mask, hold down Alt or Option when you lot create it.

In the image beneath, I've added a new layer mask to the pink circle layer. It's white, and then it doesn't affect the layer.

When mask is black, information technology conceals the pink circle even though the layer is still on.

The real power of layer masks is that they let you control dissimilar areas independently. In the example below, I've added a white square to the layer mask. Only the area of the pink circle that intersects with square is visible in the epitome. It looks similar there are two square layers rather than a square and a circle.

Masks can too be used to add transparency. You don't have to but use blackness and white, you can besides use gray—the layer's opacity will be reduced past that amount. I've added a l% gray square around the edge of the white square to the layer mask. The image now looks like at that place's a pink foursquare, surrounded past a dark pinkish circle, sitting in a black square.

RELATED: Remove Complex Backgrounds from Images in Photoshop

This is a fleck of an abstract example, but information technology tin can be actually useful in photos. For example, you can use layer masks to remove the background of a photograph completely, which is very cool.

Working With Layer Masks

You lot can work on a layer mask with any of the regular Photoshop tools. The only divergence is that layer masks are grayscale, so you tin't add colors.

To change a layer mask, select information technology. You're then free to add black, white, or any shade of grey with the tool of your selection. Photographers do a lot of work with the Castor tool, while in this commodity, I've used the Marquee tool to create all my masks.

To leave a layer on while turning the layer mask off, right click on the mask and select Disable Layer Mask. You can likewise select Delete Layer Mask to get rid of information technology entirely.

Masks are ane of the most important tools in Photoshop. You'll use them in every projection. Beneath, you can see a mask from 1 of my own images. I'm using information technology to selectively burnish the model, while keeping the groundwork dark. It was painted with the Brush tool.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/274608/what-are-layers-and-masks-in-photoshop/

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