Tag Archives: edit your layer mask in photoshop
edit your layer mask in photoshop
To edit your layer mask, make sure it’s active by clicking its thumbnail in the Layers palette, then
modify pixels in the mask using your tools of choice. As with any bitmap mask, you can use practically
any tool or command you like on the mask, ranging from the brush tools and retouching
tools through to the filters in the Filter menu and the transform commands under Edit ➪
Transform.
If you paint black onto the mask, you mask off the corresponding areas of the layer, allowing the
underlying layers to show through. If you paint using white, you unmask those areas of the layer,
making them opaque and blocking out the underlying layers. Painting with shades of gray makes
the corresponding pixels in the layer semitransparent—a bit like adjusting the layer’s Opacity
slider, but on a pixel-by-pixel basis. You can see these effects in Figure 9.11, which shows a layer
mask that’s been painted on using black, white, and gray.
