Graphics Design: Layer Mask Basics - Prevent Painting on an Image Layer
If you know anything about Photoshop, then you’ve at least HEARD about layer masks and how they are used hide or show certain parts of an image.
Being that I was self taught, it took me a long time to figure out the importance of using layer masks versus erasing part of the layer. (Keep in mind that I am extremely slow, haha, so maybe you have/will figure out layer masks sooner than I did)
You see, when you erase parts of an image, followed by 100 other steps, and then you realize "shoot, I want part of that layer back but I erased it", well folks, you are out of luck! The “undo button” (my favorite button in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE) will only go back a certain amount of steps! The only way to get part of the layer back is to reinsert the original layer into your layers palette, and start all over from scratch!
Using a layer mask is sort of like putting a piece of transparent film over the top of an expensive painting. When you want to hide a part of the expensive painting without DESTROYING it in the process, you can take a black dry erase marker and scribble on that piece of transparent film that is sitting on top of it, thus hiding part of the image beneath it. Since you used a dry erase marker, you can easily remove the black if you decide you don't like it.
The same is true with layer masks. When you click the layer mask button, the first thing you see is a white mask, sitting next to your image. This indicates that no part of that layer is hidden. To "erase" a part of the image, make sure the mask is selected, select the brush tool, make sure you have black as your color, and "paint" on the canvas to remove parts of your layer. You can ONLY use black, white, or shades of gray on a layer mask. Shades of gray only PARTLY hide a layer. For the sake of this article, we’ll just stick to black and white. The image below shows an example of an alien’s eyes that have been “erased”. I simply painted black onto the layer mask, which tells photoshop, “hey! Make the alien’s eyes transparent! Hide that part of the layer!”
But, OH NO! Hours later, I realized that I only wanted ONE of his eyes transparent, not both! That’s an easy fix! Since I used what we call “non-destructive” editing, I am able to go back and show his blue eye again! (we could also refer to this as UN-erasing his eye, which I usually do call it that because it sounds way cooler). Simply click the little double arrow, which switches your primary color from black to white, make sure the layer mask is still selected (not the image itself! I'll explain why later) and paint over his eye to reveal the original portion of the image! Below is an example. As you can see, I missed a spot!
Let me go back and make both eyes transparent again for the project I’m working on. Wait! What happened?!! Drats! Something’s not right! What’d I do? I’ll tell you what I did, the same thing I’ve done over 350 times!
As you can see from the thumbnail in the layers palette, the image thumbnail is selected instead of the layer mask, and I accidentally PAINTED HIS EYE RED instead of painting the layer mask BLACK!
It’s hard to see with a red background. Here, let me remove the red background, and put a green background to show you what I mean:
“What happened Fritz? I thought you were the man?”
When you select the layer mask, your foreground and background colors automatically switch to black, white, or shades of gray since a layer masks purpose is to show or hide parts of the image, NOT to color them!
When you select the image itself, instead of the layer mask, the foreground and background colors go back to what you had originally chosen, in this case it was red and white, because I had previously created a red layer to help me see the layer mask I was creating.
Since I preach and practice non-destructive editing, this will not work, because I just destroyed the image by painting red on it!
So, how do I prevent this from happening EVER AGAIN? The answer is simple, it’s called LOCK IMAGE PIXELS! WOOHOO! (insert noisemaker sounds and confetti here). With lock image pixels, I am able to move the entire layer around wherever I want, and transform it, but not to paint on it! The best part, is that lock image pixels ONLY locks the image and NOT the layer mask, so I can paint on the layer mask to my hearts content!
Try it for yourself, lock the image pixels of one of your layers and then try to paint on it, I DARE YOU!!!! You get a message saying “Could not use the brush tool because the layer is locked.” Right? RIGHT? HA! I knew it!
Now, I don’t have to worry about painting all over my image when I’m just trying paint on the layer mask! (insert heavenly sound of angels here)
Fritz
Pensacola Website Design
Being that I was self taught, it took me a long time to figure out the importance of using layer masks versus erasing part of the layer. (Keep in mind that I am extremely slow, haha, so maybe you have/will figure out layer masks sooner than I did)
You see, when you erase parts of an image, followed by 100 other steps, and then you realize "shoot, I want part of that layer back but I erased it", well folks, you are out of luck! The “undo button” (my favorite button in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE) will only go back a certain amount of steps! The only way to get part of the layer back is to reinsert the original layer into your layers palette, and start all over from scratch!
Using a layer mask is sort of like putting a piece of transparent film over the top of an expensive painting. When you want to hide a part of the expensive painting without DESTROYING it in the process, you can take a black dry erase marker and scribble on that piece of transparent film that is sitting on top of it, thus hiding part of the image beneath it. Since you used a dry erase marker, you can easily remove the black if you decide you don't like it.
The same is true with layer masks. When you click the layer mask button, the first thing you see is a white mask, sitting next to your image. This indicates that no part of that layer is hidden. To "erase" a part of the image, make sure the mask is selected, select the brush tool, make sure you have black as your color, and "paint" on the canvas to remove parts of your layer. You can ONLY use black, white, or shades of gray on a layer mask. Shades of gray only PARTLY hide a layer. For the sake of this article, we’ll just stick to black and white. The image below shows an example of an alien’s eyes that have been “erased”. I simply painted black onto the layer mask, which tells photoshop, “hey! Make the alien’s eyes transparent! Hide that part of the layer!”
But, OH NO! Hours later, I realized that I only wanted ONE of his eyes transparent, not both! That’s an easy fix! Since I used what we call “non-destructive” editing, I am able to go back and show his blue eye again! (we could also refer to this as UN-erasing his eye, which I usually do call it that because it sounds way cooler). Simply click the little double arrow, which switches your primary color from black to white, make sure the layer mask is still selected (not the image itself! I'll explain why later) and paint over his eye to reveal the original portion of the image! Below is an example. As you can see, I missed a spot!
Let me go back and make both eyes transparent again for the project I’m working on. Wait! What happened?!! Drats! Something’s not right! What’d I do? I’ll tell you what I did, the same thing I’ve done over 350 times!
As you can see from the thumbnail in the layers palette, the image thumbnail is selected instead of the layer mask, and I accidentally PAINTED HIS EYE RED instead of painting the layer mask BLACK!
It’s hard to see with a red background. Here, let me remove the red background, and put a green background to show you what I mean:
“What happened Fritz? I thought you were the man?”
When you select the layer mask, your foreground and background colors automatically switch to black, white, or shades of gray since a layer masks purpose is to show or hide parts of the image, NOT to color them!
When you select the image itself, instead of the layer mask, the foreground and background colors go back to what you had originally chosen, in this case it was red and white, because I had previously created a red layer to help me see the layer mask I was creating.
Since I preach and practice non-destructive editing, this will not work, because I just destroyed the image by painting red on it!
So, how do I prevent this from happening EVER AGAIN? The answer is simple, it’s called LOCK IMAGE PIXELS! WOOHOO! (insert noisemaker sounds and confetti here). With lock image pixels, I am able to move the entire layer around wherever I want, and transform it, but not to paint on it! The best part, is that lock image pixels ONLY locks the image and NOT the layer mask, so I can paint on the layer mask to my hearts content!
Try it for yourself, lock the image pixels of one of your layers and then try to paint on it, I DARE YOU!!!! You get a message saying “Could not use the brush tool because the layer is locked.” Right? RIGHT? HA! I knew it!
Now, I don’t have to worry about painting all over my image when I’m just trying paint on the layer mask! (insert heavenly sound of angels here)
Fritz
Pensacola Website Design
posted by Fritz and Scott at
5:03 AM
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