Layer Mask - Photoshop for Beginners | Lesson 4

so let me ask you a question what is the purpose of a mask an actual mask actually to hide the face right thieves and robbers wear a mask you know why to hide their faces of course they don't want to be seen superheroes at least most of them wear a mask why to hide their face and of course their identity similarly in Photoshop the only objective of a layer mask the only purpose of a layer mask is to hide the layer that's it so here we have a beautiful ballerina on top of that we have this flow text we want to create the text layer in such a way that the O comes from behind her how do we make that happen we have to hide parts of O right and we make that happen with the help of a layer mask and the way you can create a layer mask is by selecting the layer for which you want to create the layer mask and then click on the mask button right there there you go it creates something right there at the moment it is all white the concept of layer mask is black are the areas which hide white other areas which show up so if the layer mask is selected and then you select the brush right there and you start painting with black let's paint with a soft round brush have a look those areas hide what is happening inside of the mask that area is black which means that area is simply not showing up remember black Heights and white shows so this area is black that is why this area is not showing up however if you paint that back with white by the way you can press X to toggle between the foreground and the background colors and if the foreground and the background colors are funky to some other random color right here press D to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white now let's paint that area back in White have a look it starts showing up which means it is not permanent it's absolutely non-destructive and that's a great thing which means you can change stuff later so to erase the O from that area take the brush black as the foreground color again we pressed X to toggle between the foreground and the background and just paint you don't have to be very accurate we can create a shadow effect like this and there you go this is a wonderful effect right here and then you can find tune it according to your liking just like this this looks so darn classy two things to remember the only purpose of a layer mask is to hide the layer certain parts of the layer the whole layer or hide nothing but the purpose of it is to hide different areas of the layer and the second most important concept is black hides and white shows wherever we painted black those areas are hidden and all of the white areas show up have a look at it by the way how did we see the mask you can hold the ALT key or the option key click on the mask to see just the mask you can hold the ALT key or the option key back again click on the mask to see the layer also there is no need to panic if you hold the alt carry the option key click on the mask and you forget where you are just select any other layer or simply click outside and you should be fine before we continue there are lots of fun projects like this coming up so make sure to download the practice files also a lot of you guys were confused I read the comments just know that this is an absolutely free course you don't have to sign up you don't have to do anything just watch watch the playlist and how can you find the playlist just go to the pixin perfect Channel go to playlist and go to photoshop complete course playlist you'll find all the lessons there also you can go to learn photoshopfree.com if the domain expires just do the YouTube thing back to the lesson you must be wondering why use a layer mask in the first place you can just simply use an eraser right sorry about that there are two major reasons we use layer masks number one it is non-destructive and number two it works with non-raster layers let's look into that let's start for the first reason that is non-destructive abilities heavy word but very simple to understand let's say in this landscape you want to do a very simple Sky replacement don't worry about reflection that is too complicated for right now just a simple Sky replacement now I do understand Photoshop has a sky replacement feature right here but we're gonna do it in a very simple way for it first of all let's select the sky just go to select choose sky it makes a selection very fantastic isn't it in the later versions of Photoshop now what if we just simply delete this guy by pressing the delete key now again it won't let you delete it cleanly because it's a background layer and background layers cannot be transparent so first of all let's unlock this layer by clicking on this button press the delete key all right now press Ctrl or command D to deselect because there was a selection we wanted to deselect now let's bring in the new Sky I'm just going to drag it and drop it right here make sure to download all the assets so that you can follow along let's make it larger and of course the sky needs to be behind the mountains right so place the sky behind the mountain layers or the whole landscape layer press Ctrl or command T and adjust it right now it looks pretty okay there is a problem however the problem is we deleted the sky area from this one if we wanted something back we cannot have a look at it there are parts of the mountains that are gone if I turn it off you can easily see that have a look these have become transparent also have a look at this area that is completely erased if I turn this on have a look the mountain is gone we cannot have it back similarly if you just use the Eraser tool by selecting right here and erased the sky let's say we did it this way we cannot have the mountains back if we painted extra accidentally or if we want something back for some reason so that my friend is the destructive style of editing it is the style of editing where we cannot go back after the fact layer masks allow you to work non-destructively let's go back to how it was right this is how it was first of all let us select the sky how do we do that go to select Sky you can also use other tools you can erase it in a layer mask with a brush that that's all up to you but this is easy Once the selection is active if you click on the mask button it will create a mask of the selected area so if I click right here have a look only the selected area shows up because in The Mask right here the sky area is White and the other areas are Black White are the areas which show up blank are the areas which hide that is why this is the case but we want it opposite of it so there are two ways we can approach this we can select the mask and then press Ctrl or command I to invert the mask now the sky is black and the ground base is white right it completely opposites the mask the other approach is a little shortcut let's go back to how it was here we now have a selection if we wanted to create an opposite mask or in other words a negative mask we would hold the ALT key or the option key and then click on the mask button it creates the opposite mask already so you don't have to do that extra step now if you bring in the new sky let's make it a little larger like this take it behind the ground the mountains Ctrl or command D let's take it up like that right now we can bring stuff back if you zoom in have a look these areas are transparent right I can go into the mask right here we can take the brush white as the foreground color and paint these areas back in bring them back there you go so this gives you the flexibility this gives you the non-destructive abilities to go back if the mask was not right or if you want to change something now before we move on to the next reason why we use layer masks what was the first reason because it is non-destructive you can go back and stuff let's start with the second reason so what was the second reason we talked about second reason is simply that it works with non-araster layers what do I mean by that so in this image of this classy lady let's say we want to add some funky background so let's open up finder or Explorer we're just going to drag it and drop in the doodle pattern by the way I downloaded it from envato elements I highly recommend it it's amazing it gives you unlimited access to all of these assets unlimited downloads of these things like Photoshop actions brushes Graphics like these and so much more sound effects stock photos talk videos Photoshop plugins and stuff so check it out there's a sale going on right now I don't know how long it will go check the links in the description did you notice that when we placed it it placed as a smart object let us delete that and let me do that again for you and this time notice so if we go right here if we click and drag and drop on the canvas like this this my friend comes as a smart object and comes resized why is this so you need to make a small change in your Photoshop preferences go to edit and then preferences on a Mac it would be under Photoshop and then preferences and inside of that go to General and inside of general make sure you check always create smart objects when placing also you might want to resize during place and that is why it was fitting to the canvas hit ok now of course we want this design to be behind the subject for it we need to select the subject right now if we select any of these three tools the object selection the quick selection or the magic wand tool at the top we will see the option for select subject but it won't do anything why because this layer is selected not the subject layer so select the subject layer click on select subject now that we have a selection remember we want it not on the subject but everywhere else in other words we want a negative mask so how do we create a negative mask we just learned if you hold the ALT key or the option key and then click on the mask button now you have a negative mask now did you get the second reason why we use layer masks have a look this my friend is a smart object and that is why we were going on and on about smart objects now the thing with smart objects is it is simply a preview we talked about it in the lesson about less and since it is just a preview if you take the brush and try to paint it won't let you do it also if you take the Eraser and try to erase it won't let you do it so the only way to hide certain areas from a smart object or a shape layer or a text layer like we did in the very first example is using a layer mask if we create a simple regular raster layer and if we take the brush and we paint something like this of course we can take an eraser and erase it why because the Eraser erases the pixels but with smart objects we are not dealing with pixels with shape layers we are not dealing with pixels with text layers it's Vector based right so the only way to hide stuff is using a layer mask now let us make the background a little realistic double click on the right hand side of the layer this opens up the layer style dialog box we want to take this design away from the dark areas of the underlying layers or the layer that lies under it so dark areas of this layer and how do we do that by taking the slider of the underlying layer layers that lie under it from left to right but again this would be harsh so we would want to break it down have a look this is Harsh right here going completely away from the Shadows we don't want that so hold the alt clear the option key click on the slider to break it apart take it all the way apart that looks great let's take it even further like this a little light design is fine too hit okay once you're satisfied and there you go now let's say you want to move this pattern around make it larger or smaller how would you do that right now there's a problem first of all let's name the lead that is a problem organization is important if you press Ctrl or command T and if you try to move it the mask also moves that is an issue if you try to make it larger The Mask also becomes larger so how do we move it in a way so that the mask stays intact by simply unlinking The Mask so right now as you can see have a look at the link icon right there which means that the mask and the layer is linked so whatever movement resizing or rotation you do to the layer The Mask will also do the same accordingly and also if the layer is a regular raster layer not a smart object like this one but a regular raster layer and let's say we paint like this we create a mask and we erase this area right even if you apply a filter to this one like filter blur and then gaussian blur have a look The Mask also blurs right so to make the mask independent of the layer we need to unlink it so how do we unlink it simply click on the link the same way you unlock a leg click on the lock it unlocks the layer click on the link to unlink it to link it back click right here in the middle it just comes back in like magic so once they have broken up by clicking right here you can press controller command D make it larger smaller The Mask stays intact you can move it around have a look you have all the freedom to do that and right here as you can see the paint cannot be that sharp there has to be a little bit of blur to it right let's go to filter blur and then gaussian blue let's apply two that's fine that looks more realistic or maybe 1.4 possibly hit okay that's nice and there you have it now one very important thing when using Photoshop there are no set of rules and if we try to cram a set of rules which would be infinite steam will come running out of our ears instead once we understand the concept your approach might be absolutely fantastically different from mine and that is absolutely fine and that is the way it should be now just as we can turn off and on layers we can also turn off and on just the masks and here's how to do it let's say you want to take a look at how the original Sky looked like without the mask right here you can hold the shift key and click on the mask there you go the mask is turned off and this is how the image would be without the mask sometimes we don't want to delete the mask because we just want to look at how it would look like if the mask was not there or you might want to check something but right now I have deleted it and I have to do the mask all over again so that is why Photoshop has this feature where you can simply turn off the mask whenever you want just hold the shift key click on the mask across will show up which means it's turned off again just click right here it will turn on you don't have to hold the shift key again once it turns off just click on it or if you have to have it you can hold the shift key click on it it doesn't really matter now the layer mask has its own properties everything has a property in Photoshop but with layer masks there are only two you need to worry about let's say you want to create a vignette let's create one of my favorite adjustment layers first time in this series so click on the adjustment layer icon and then choose curves now this may be a little Advanced however if you're interested you can watch the this complete master class that takes you through how to use the curves from start to finish right here but for right now just know that if you create a point and take it down it will make it darker if you take it up it will make it brighter the right hand side represent the bright areas the left hand side represent the dark areas so if I want to make the dark areas darker I can create a point right here drag it down if I want to make the bright areas brighter I can create a point right here and drag it up so bright areas have become brighter dark areas have become darker as a result we have more contrast let us reset it by simply clicking on this button now what we want to do is create a vignette so take the point on the right hand side down like that and to create some contrast create a point in the middle and take it down as well again to understand curves that is the video to watch for now this much understanding is fine let's collapse it now make sure the mask is selected let's press Ctrl or command 0 to fit it to the screen now take the brush take a hard round brush right here let's make the brush a little larger and just dab in the middle with black as the foreground color make sure opacity and flow at the top are at 100 just dab once now here's the great part you can press controller command D and move it around make the face in focus and then let's make it a little larger if you hold the shift key you can stretch it a little if you wish to if you also hold the ALT key it will stretch from the center you already know that but this is way too harsh right so here comes the first property if you double click on the layer mask you should see the properties by the way when you double click for the first time I think you might get a choice as to what you want to see select and mask our properties make sure you choose properties if that's what you want one other way to bring up properties is by selecting the mask and just bring up the properties just like this again if you cannot see the properties go to window and make sure properties is selected right here checked the first slider we're going to talk about right now is feather it simply blurs it we're going to talk about density later but feather if you increase it have a look this is getting more and more blurred so it simply blurs the mask in a non-destructive way so that you can always go back so right now this is looking fine let's blur it a lot like this much how much is it 600 right let's go for 620 all right take a look it's dragging the attention of the viewer towards the face now that's not all watch this with the mask selected if you press Ctrl or command d this can be adjust later pretty cool now you can resize it move it around it's all up to you there you go the next property will be a little fun let's say we want to color grade it the easiest way to do it is by using a color lookup adjustment layer click on the adjustment layer icon and then choose color lookup right from here you can choose whatever you want so you can go for crisp form you can go for whatever you want let's say we choose fall colors that looks dreamy now let's say we only want it on the subject now of course you can select the subject apply the mask right here let me show you the long process and then the shorter process so if you select the subject layer and using the same method of using these tools and at the top clicking on select subject you can go to the mask right here and fill that with black so with black as the foreground color press alt backspace or option delete Now deselect by pressing Ctrl or command D now it is the opposite of what we wanted so select the mask and then press Ctrl command I to invert the mask that is the long way of doing it the shorter way is before even creating any adjustment layer if you already have a selection because adjustment layers already come with their own masks if you just make a selection beforehand let's click on select subject and then if we created a color lookup adjustment layer have a look it already comes with that mask now let's change it to let's say fall colors this was it right now it's looking a little odd because it's all on the subject not on the background we want a little bit of this on the background as well how do we make that happen only if we could decrease the opacity of the mask and that is the setting of density if you select the mask and open up the properties and just decrease the density see what happens it is just like opacity for the mask if the density is at zero it acts like there was no mask in there in the first place but as you begin to increase the density it's like the opacity of the Mask increases and the effect of the Mask becomes more and more opaque so I'm going to keep it at about 50 that looks nice continuing with this example let us learn how do we copy a mask usually I like to add a little grain to my images the way we do it again we covered this in previous lessons we press Ctrl shift n command shift n to bring the new layer dialog box we choose the blend mode overlay and choose fill with overlay neutral color over laser blend mode which hides anything that is 50 Gray since this layer is gray it looks hidden now before we do anything let's go to filter convert for smart filters hit OK to convert this layer into a smart object so that whatever filter we apply we can change that later now let's go to filter noise and then add noise 40 is fine for now uniform monochromatic is good hit okay noise is too fine let's blur it let's go to filter blur and then gaussian blur 0.8.6 is fine for this example let's go for 0.8 it okay now I think the noise is too much that is the advantage of a smart object we can go back to noise settings by double clicking on add noise right here hit okay let's change it to about 30. hit ok now for the background I love the texture but let's say we don't want that much on the subject how do we do it we can recreate the subject mask or just simply copy this one so hold the alt cure the option key click and drag and drop this mask right here it is copied right now it is the opposite on the background it is less on the subject it is more so select the mask and then press Ctrl or command I to invert the mask and then it can control the density to your liking so open up the properties make sure the mask is selected if you want more noise on the subject decrease the density so that the mask slowly and gradually becomes invisible if you want lesser and lesser noise increase the density I think 50 was fine and there you have a fantastic effect now we just learned how do we copy a mask but too many copies can be an issue also with the workflow and also with results let us take a look in this example we created some lipstick and by the way it's from this tutorial which you can watch later mind you it's a very old video now here we have created a lot of Shades this is for the dark areas again this one this one for the highlights and again this one for the overall darkness and it's simple solid color adjustment layers with the lips masked in as you can see and all of them with multiply or screen blend modes and we applied some blend if it's a very simple technique and the technique is besides the point the point is we have four same masks the way we did it is by once we have a mask we just held the alt here the option key drag it and dropped it right here of course we want to replace it and we made copies of the same mask but it can be an issue have a look around the edge it's creating that weird highlight and it can do that sometimes another challenge is if you want to adjust something in one mask for example let's say this area was not looking right so you went into the mask of this one you took the brush and you painted accordingly let's say we painted in Black we erased that area but now you have to do the same thing in all four masks that's an issue so instead of doing all this just group all of those lists let's say these were ungrouped by the way to ungroup a group right click on it and then choose ungroup layers just select all of them select the first one hold the shift key select the last one and then press Ctrl or command G to group them let's name it whatever you want lipstick and then let's open up the group and put one of the masts on the group that's it and you can delete the rest of the masks so Drag The Mask drop it to the trash can delete do the same you can also check don't show again did not show it again but I keep it because I have to teach now have a look there is no more weird highlight around the edge also if you have to change the mask now you just have one mess to deal with now let's talk about the concept of double masking let's say we want to paint some highlights so we create a solid color adjustment layer by clicking on the adjustment layer icon and then choose solid color all right hit OK for now turn it off double click right here and then you can choose any highlight color from the image to ensure that it's picking the colors make sure sample all layers is selected sample size Point size or 3x3 is fine keep it three by three it takes a three pixel by 3 pixel average let's sample this color hit OK all right let's turn this on now we want the Highlight on the subject so select the subject layer select any of these three tools click on select subject you know the process you know the drill select the mask fill it with black alt backspace option delete controller command D and then select the mask press Ctrl or command I you wouldn't have to do that long of a process if you already had a selection and then you created a solid color adjustment layer we just covered it now the Highlight is literally all over the subject we only wanted it on the right hand side y because the light is coming from the right hand side so now we have a mask but the problem is if we go right here we take the brush and with a soft round brush we erase it from the areas we paint black in the areas where we didn't want the highlight like this now to make it look like a highlight you can double click on the right hand side of the layer hold the ALT key the option key click on the slider to break it apart and take it away from the dark areas of the underlying layer it's pretty good hit okay I would also decrease the opacity that's a nice highlight but the problem now is this if I wanted to get the Highlights back in the hand areas I cannot do that because if I go to the mask take the brush white as the foreground color we pressed X to toggle between the foreground and the background if we try to paint this area back in it also paints on the sky have a look it also faints on the sky so that's an issue if I try to paint this area back in see it also planes that area so my mask is gone I wish I had the mask for the subject again so I would have to redo it I would have to redo select subject create that mask and go through the entire process instead of doing that here's what you do once you have the mask once you have this filled put that layer and just that one layer in a group a group can have one layer no issues you can always be a group of one select that layer and press Ctrl or command G now create a negative mask by holding the ALT key or the option key and click on the mask button that creates a black mask now this mask is right here no issues but here's another mask that you can work with now you have two masks for the same layer now if you paint with white and bring back some of the highlights right here it's not an issue because that's a different mask and you still have this mask intact only the intersecting areas of both of this mask is going to show up now we can zoom in erase this area paint that back in no issues at all because we still have this mask so that is the concept of double masking and I've saved the most fun project for the end and that is using image as a mask and you can create incredible effects with it yes you can definitely use an image as a mask let's first create a black background unlock the layer and click on the adjustment layer icon and then choose solid color let us choose black and hit OK place this behind the bushes because we're gonna need it now what if we had a face in a mask form so that only the highlights of the face show up so here my friend we have our beautiful model let's copy this Ctrl or command a to select all Ctrl or command C to copy and then let's get back to it and first let's create a mask by clicking on the mask button right here now to paste it properly we need to hold the alt kill the option key click on the mask to get to the mask mode and then press Ctrl or command V it's pasted but it's too big press Ctrl or command D to transform you know the drill let's make it this way this is fine hit enter or return Ctrl or command D to deselect now there are some additional areas you can take the brush black as the foreground color and just fill that in not an issue you can also use the rectangular Marquee too but I just did it this way now ready for the Moment of Truth click anywhere else and there you have it pretty cool isn't it now this may be not too bright you know why because the highlights of the Mask is not too bright so to fix it we need to make the highlights of the Mask brighter select the mask and then press Ctrl or command M to bring up the curves and to make the highlights brighter just take this slider to the left so we're gonna keep it this way that is good hit okay by the way okay it's hidden hit okay and there you go cool wonderful isn't it it's all in all there are just two things you need to remember number one the only objective of a layer mask is to hide the layer and number two black hides and white shows that's all thank you so much for joining me in this video and again this is a free series just enjoy watching don't worry about anything I hope this video helped you and if it did make sure to give us a like and also don't forget to subscribe and not just subscribe ring the bell so that you my friend don't miss any other future tips tricks or tutorials I would like to take this moment to thank all of these nice and amazing people who are making these series possible and helping keep fixing perfect free for everybody forever I'll see you in the next one till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating [Music] for you

Channel: PiXimperfect

Views: 324,727

Keywords: layer mask photoshop, photoshop for beginners, photoshop complete course, compositing, adobe, tutorial, piximperfect, unmesh dinda

Id: aNpO6G72O3w

Length: 29min 25sec (1765 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 27 2023