Selective Adjustments with Layer Masks

Uncle Frank · Mar 15, 2005

FLEW and a few others have asked me to explain layer masking. It was a concept that was difficult for me to grasp,
but a very valuable one once I understood the basics, so I'll give it a try. I'm not a Photoshop guru, so please excuse
my folksy approach.

Here's a photo of mother and child that needs adjustment to better display their beauty.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

A global levels adjustment, will work, but also brightens the background, which I'd rather avoid.

View attachment 6295

One way around this is to create a duplicate layer [press ctrl + J], apply the global levels adjustment to the upper layer,
and then use an eraser to remove the parts of the top layer that didn't need brightening.

View attachment 6296

The problem with this approach is, should you find you made an error, you might have to go back to the beginning and
start all over again. Fortunately, Photoshop offers a more forgiving and elegant solution... layer masking.

After you've created the duplicate layer and globally adjusted the levels, go to [layer - layer mask - hide all]. You''ll
see that a black square has been added to the icon for the top layer, and that the levels adjustment you made has
been hidden.

View attachment 6297

Now set the foreground color to white, click on the black mask icon, and select the paintbrush tool. Wherever
you paint on your picture, you'll change the mask covering that portion of the image to white, letting the
levels adjustment show through.

View attachment 6298

Oops! Now you see why I got a low grade in coloring in kindergarden.... I can't paint between the lines :?. Those lighter
colored blobs on the background are where I screwed up and painted white on parts of mask that should have been
left black. No problem! I'll just change the foreground color to black, and carefully paint back in black on those
portions of the mask.

View attachment 6299

This masking approach works on any change you'd like to make to the upper layer, including levels, sharpening,
hue/saturation, etc. For example, the amount of sharpness of this picture works well for the child, but isn't very
flattering to the mother's mature skin, so I created a duplicate layer, and applied 1 pixel of gaussian blur to
the picture. Then I used a hide-all layer mask, and painted white on the mask over areas where "character lines"
needed to be softened, leaving the rest of the image sharp.

View attachment 6300

I can guarantee you that once you understand the concept, you'll find countless uses for layer masking.

Feel free to download the original image and work through the steps I've outlined. If you run into any problems, I'll
be happy to explain the process in more detail.

Flew · Mar 15, 2005

Fantastic!! Thanks UF. We knew you had it in you. I'm hoping to get my copy of PS CS today, so I'll be able to try all of these neat tricks.... 8)

Thanks again,

Frank

Steve S · Mar 15, 2005

Thanks Frank

Thanks for the PM headup too! I promise to bookmark this page, and try to get a handle on this layer masking...if I have to sit at the puter all day, I'm going to learn this!

tweber · Mar 15, 2005

Thanks Frank

Best tutorial on layer masking I've seen. I appreciate it.

Tom

Flew · Mar 15, 2005

Re: Thanks Frank

tweber said:

Best tutorial on layer masking I've seen. I appreciate it.

Tom
Click to expand...

Amen.... 8)

Frank

NeilCam · Mar 16, 2005

Re: Thanks Frank

Steve S said:

Thanks for the PM headup too! I promise to bookmark this page, and try to get a handle on this layer masking...if I have to sit at the puter all day, I'm going to learn this!
Click to expand...

Me to!

Thanks Frank.

Neil

Uncle Frank · Mar 16, 2005

Re: Thanks Frank

tweber said:

Best tutorial on layer masking I've seen.
Click to expand...

That's kind of you to say, Tom . In truth, my tutorial isn't too technical, and one fellow on DPR critiqued me
for not addressing adjustment layers, which are marginally simpler. But those are just short cuts to masking that are
available for a narrow range of effects. I was trying to demonstrate masking in it's broadest context, which is why
I added a section on selective Gaussian blur at the end of the piece.

Uncle Frank · Mar 16, 2005

Re: Thanks Frank

Steve S said:

I promise to bookmark this page, and try to get a handle on this layer masking...if I have to sit at the puter all day, I'm going to learn this!
Click to expand...

Let me know if I can be of any help, Steve. It's a snap once you grasp the basic concept.

Uncle Frank · Mar 16, 2005

Flew said:

Thanks UF. We knew you had it in you.
Click to expand...

Whatever you need, boss :lol:.

I'm serious. You and Patrick have put a lot of hard work and money into building this site. Just ask and I'll be happy to
do anything I can do to help.

realeyz · Mar 16, 2005

You should really only make duplicate image layers if you are doing something destructive to the image like blurring or filters or whatever. If you want to make adjustments to only a certain part of the image mask your adjustment layers instead. This way you can paint them in and out as desired using greyscale paintbrush - its very effective at polishing up your image fast but makes it easy to correct mistakes along the way.

If I'm not making any sense let me know and I can try and explain it better.

Uncle Frank · Mar 16, 2005

realeyz said:

You should really only make duplicate image layers if you are doing something destructive to the image like blurring
or filters or whatever. If you want to make adjustments to only a certain part of the image mask your adjustment layers instead.
Click to expand...

Photoshop only offers 14 adjustment layers, and I believe Elements is limited to a mere 4. There are dozens of other
filters that require a layer mask to apply selectively. I think it's better to teach the more general application and then,
once the concept is mastered, move to narrower application, like adjustment layers. But that's jmho.

Clivegriff · Mar 16, 2005

I can't add anything specific to UF's excellent tutorial but, in general terms, I would encourage those who haven't yet grasped the concept of layer masks to stick with it until they do.

Nearly everything you want to do in such as Photoshop, Elelements or Paintshop Pro is done with greater ease and efficiency when you can mask well.

Consider a real world analogy: what's the first and most important thing the body shop does when re-spraying a car? They mask all the parts like the windscreen, headlights, bumpers etc that they don't want to alter.

The skill with which they do this greatly affects their finished product.

You do the same with your image: some parts you want to alter, some parts you don't. Layer masks simply separate the two.

DavidM · Mar 16, 2005

Amen, Amen, Amen. I'm not well-skilled at retouching (although I'd sure like to be!), but I do believe that layer masking is truly a fundamental concept to grasp. My limited imagination has led me to use it mostly for selective application of sharpening, blurring, and compositing, but I've seen people do amazing things once they start editing in selective areas this way.

UF's recent explanation of how to selectively deal with yellow highlights in some of Gordon's pictures was another fantastic use of this technique.

Thanks for doing this, Frank!

Iliah · Mar 16, 2005

my 2 cents - level and other adjustments can be done on layer, too. To make that layer affect only duplicate, Alt-Click at layer divider line (marked with yellow)

you will see a small arrow and the adjustment layer shifted to the left:

This way you can also paint on the mask to the right of the adjustment layer, to limit the adjustment effect to local

Uncle Frank · Mar 16, 2005

Masking for PS Elements

If anyone is using PSE3, I've just learned that, while layer masks don't come with the program, there's a clever "trick"
that allows you to do layer masking without adding 3rd party software. Let me know if you're interested.

greyflash · Mar 16, 2005

Thanks a bunch Frank your tutorial is excellent and it works too. What more can you ask for.

MontyDog · Mar 16, 2005

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MontyDog · Mar 16, 2005

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

Steve S · Apr 7, 2005

Still not getting this Frank

After 2, really 3 trys, including the time I tried it with a skin glamourizing action, which seems to apply the same principles, I am not getting this. Call it densness for multiple tasks, but I need help. My latest effort was to mask off an eagle, then apply lens blur to the bg. That went well, but I couldn't get myself out of the mask to show the finished product. The eagle was painted white, the bg blurred, and then I tried flattening the layers, but that didn't help anything. I want to learn this, but this is hard for me! I think I'm at the "close, but no cigar" stage.

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Selective Adjustments with Layer Masks

Uncle Frank

Flew

Steve S

tweber

Flew

NeilCam

Uncle Frank

Uncle Frank

Uncle Frank

realeyz

Uncle Frank

Clivegriff

DavidM

Iliah

Uncle Frank

greyflash Subscribing Member

MontyDog

MontyDog

Steve S