layers and their masks – Photoshop tutorial
I am planing on doing a tutorial soon on basic image editing but before i do that i think its important to get some very important basics explained for anyone new to photoshop.
These are layers and layer masks. Both are used in photoshop CS and Elements but in slightly different ways. Dont worry, i will explain both.
Layers are how you stack images or elements of a page on top of each other. Think of them like pieces of paper. You can place an image of a field at the bottom. Then on a layer above this, place a picture of a person. You can then cut out the surrounding image of the person to reveal the field from the layer below giving you a new image.
Masks are a way of hiding parts of an image without actually deleting it. This means you can erase part of an image without actually erasing it. If you make a mistake you can simply unmask it.
The following is a very quick and basic way to make your own compositions using layers and masks.
First you need 2 images you can use to create a new scene. I will be using the following.
The idea here is to use the flying duck image as a background with the pigeon as the forground.
First open up both the images you want to use into photoshop (any version).
Next drag and drop the forground image onto the image you want as the background. This will leave you with an image that now has 2 layers. The bottom one will be the duck (background) and the top will be the pigeon (forground). On your layers window you can hide and reveal any layer at any time by clicking the little eye icon next to it. But we want both of them visable so leave the eye icons on.
Now you have your 2 layers its time to use masks to get rid of the pigeons current background.
In the full version of photoshop (CS) this is very easy. Click on the layer you want to have the mask. In this case it will be your forground image (the top of the two layers). Then go Layer > Layer mask > Reveal all. This will add a layer mask to this layer. It will look like a white square to the right of the layers thumbnail in the layers window.
In elements its a little different. It has the same result but is a slightly longer process. You can get a plug-in that allows you to add layer masks easier but i will show you the proper way using the standard program.
Elements doesnt allow layers to have there own masks. What it does allow is you to add adjustment layers (I will go into more detail on these in later tutorials) which automatically have masks on them. So what we need to to is steal their masks. It is a fairly quick process though, so dont worry.
Select the layer you need the mask to be on, in our case its the top layer. Then go Layer > New adjustment layer > levels. When a window comes up dont change anything, just click ok.
This will create a new layer above the pigeon image. On the layers window it will have a symbol on the left and a white box on the right. That white box is the layer mask. Now, in the layers window, select the pigeon layer and drag it so its now above the layer mask. When this is done put your mouse cursor on the line between the pigeon layer and the adjustment layer and hold down the alt key. The cursor should change to a strange symbol. Click the mouse button and the pigeon layer will indent itself slightly. This just means the 2 layers are now joined and you can use the mask on the adjustment layer for your pigeon layer. Your layers window should now look like this.
Now we have our mask set up and ready to use.
The main thing to know about how masks work is white means reveal and black means hide. The mask is currently all white so is showing the whole image. Select the colour black and then select the brush tool. In the brush options (should be at the top somewhere) select a brush with a hardness of about 70-80%. You might need to click on the brush shape symbol to open up more brush options to find this.
Make sure the mask is selected by clicking on it (the white square in the layers window). If it is selected it should look like it does in the image above. In the image above in the top right you should see 3 squares. One has a thumbnail of the pigeon, one has a graph like symbol and one is a white square. The white square is the mask and thats what you need to click. Notice it has a black outline. That means its selected.
With it selected paint some black on your page. You will notice the pigeon image is disapearing and the layer below is starting to show.
Now you need to carefully paint around the pigeon. You can change your brush size quickly using the ‘[' and the ']‘ keys. You need to shrink down to a small brush when close the subject but a large brush is great for getting rid of large areas fast. Dont worry if you accidently mask a piece of the image you didnt mean to. Simply change the colour to white and now everything you paint will be brought back again.
Slowly work your way around the image until its completely cut out and your done.
Hopefully this will give you an understanding of how masks and layers work. They are 2 very important parts of photo editing. This is a fairly basic and simple tutorial but is intended only to help people understand how they work. It wont take you long to realise just how powerful they can be.
Tags: elements, layers, masks, photo editing, photoshop
What a way to start!!??
An excellent tutorial…looking ahead for more.
Regards,
Mayur
Thanks Adam that was great, very easy to understand with my limited knowledge. I just put a hover-fly on my sleeping dog’s nose. lol
Can’t wait for the next one!
Many thanks
chris
Like the tutorial , nearly making me put photoshop CS3 back on my computer .It was a really good tutorial will look forward to more of these.
Regards
Chrsitina
I can’t not do it even at the first stage ,
After open 2 images, I can not ” drap and drop ” in order to make 1 to be a layer of another , please help . Thanks
Firstly are you dragging and dropping by clicking on the image or the layer? Both should work but try both in-case its different in older versions of Photoshop. What version are you using?
If that doesn’t work dont worry there are other ways to do this.
First try this
If your layer says background and has a picture of a lock on it, double click it and hit OK. now try dragging and dropping
If that fails try this
press ‘Ctr + a’ on the forground image. A dotted outline box should appear around the whole of the image. Copy this by pressing Ctrl + c. now go to the background image. Create a new layer (Layer > new > new layer). With this layer selected paste your iamge using Ctrl + V. hopefully you should now have the 2 images in one file.
If not then let me know.
Hello ! Adwig,
I did it successfully now ..ha ha . Thanks for your help .
[IMG]http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu325/pinkermun/P10904721.jpg[/IMG]
I am now going to learn another Tip from you !
It’s seams I don’t need to update to DSL-R
Thanks
I can post my sample Pic to my reply…how ? Thanks
im not sure you can. However just place your image in the digitadiversity group on flickr and put a link here so we can see.
Adam -
SMOOOOOOOCH! I’m sending you a big kiss – Thanks for making this so clear – I FINALLY get it!
Stupid-est question. I was good following through step by step until you said “Select the colour black and then select the brush tool”. Where the heck to I select ‘black’?????? I have tried various things (I thought) but have had no luck. Please help…
at the bottom of the tools window (normally the left of the screen) there should be 2 coloured boxes overlapping. The one on top is the foreground colour and the under under is the background colour. Clicking on either of thee boxes opens a colours screen allowing you to choose a colour. You also can click the small black and white boxes next to them to change them straight to black and white. Make sure the foreground colour box is black.
Hope that helps
Thanks! I knew it would be obvious. I was looking there, I just wasn’t setting the foreground/background thing properly. Thank you heaps
very good and easy to follow tutorial!
Two small things to add:
another way to copy one image to the other is to simply rightclick on the image > duplicate layer > (pulldown menue) select the other image > click ok
this is very useful if you work with many pictures at one time
To make the bird fit into the other image correctly smooth its edges with the unsharp tool
awesome tutorial!!!!!!!
now that my blurry idea on masks hav becom clear
Hai Adwig, Thanks a lot. Waiting for more totorials from you.
Itz very kind f you for providing these tutorials…..i have done it well……BDW would you mind providing us a tutorial regarding adding glows for layers as well as texts….
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! Smooches and hugs and the whole bit!!! I have just spent 2 days trying to get my Photo Shop Elements 6 to make a mask (!!! Insert many angry and unsuitable words) and I FINALLY, luckily stumbled into this site. I am off to give it a try! You are indeed my Hero! …at least I hope! lol
Hi Adam
You are a truly great tutor! I think you should consider issuing either book, or DVD tutorial for beginners available for purchase.
I bet it would sell as hot doughnuts, as there are only few good ones available now.
Thank you Adam! i finally get the why behind the layers & their masks! thank you thank you! I will be checking out all your tutorials!
Andrea
Thank you so much for this! I am very new to Photoshop and appreciate these tutorials. Keep the Elements tutorials coming!
I am not new to Photoshop. Yet never quite understood creating a layer mask. vs. selecting the object for the foreground then paste or paste into. This looks much more realistic.
Thank you!
Thank You for your great tutorial. I did it successfully
Really great
[...] this tutorial you will already need to know about layers and masks and [...]
I use layer masks all the time in Photoshop, and need to explain to my dad how he can do it in Elements 8, and a quick google search identified your blog. Thank you very much for your simple and straight forward explanation.