Pixiq

Photoshop has many powerful tools and features built into it, and without a doubt the most powerful one would have to be the ability to create floating layers. Layers allow us to apply a wide range of effects to our images without affecting the original picture. Layers can also be turned off at any time to hide any changes that have been made on them. However, making changes on a layer often affects the entire image, especially when applying many of the filters in this book, and sometimes we only want part of our image to be changed. That’s where a layer mask, the best-kept secret in Photoshop, comes in. Creating and using a layer mask lets you selectively show or hide an effect or technique anywhere in the image. For example, instead of having your entire image blurred from a Gaussian Blur, you can apply the blur to just a specific part (or parts) of the image.

It’s important to cover the topic of layer masks at the beginning of this book because they will let you apply the plug-in filters with a much greater amount of control. You can be as specific as you want in affecting the photograph, and you can tweak your work at any time without altering the original picture.

PHOTO A

WORKING WITH LAYER MASKS

To begin using layer masks, open Photoshop and select a picture. For my example, I’ll be using a photo of the Cadillac seen in PHOTO A. Throughout this book, we’ll be using our own images to show the steps involved for working with the many plug-ins this book covers. And while our pictures obviously won’t be the same as yours, you can follow along on your own images. Just remember that settings we use won’t always work exactly the same on your images. You’ll often have to experiment to find settings that work for your pictures, which is a good thing. The creative nature of plug-ins makes them perfect for experimentation.

In my original picture of the Cadillac, I wanted to enhance the color of the red body paint since color always has a tremendous influence on the impact an image makes. The first step in the layer mask process is to create a duplicate layer from the original layer. There are several ways to do this in Photoshop, but the easiest is to go to the pull-down menu and choose Layer>Duplicate Layer (FIGURE 1). This creates a background copy layer as seen in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

Now that I have created a layer copy, I can apply any effect or technique that I want to this image. (Just always be sure that you’re working on the duplicate layer by opening the Layers palette and noting that the duplicate layer is highlighted.) For this example, I used one of the plug-in filters that is discussed later in this book, Nik Color Efex Pro. I chose their Bleach Bypass Filter and changed its settings in the dialog box until I got the paint color on the Cadillac looking just the way I wanted. The rest of the image looks blown out to me, but it doesn’t matter since using layer masks will apply the filter effect to just the Cadillac when I’m done. I hit OK to apply the filter to my duplicate layer. My entire image now has the Bleach Bypass effect applied to it (PHOTO B), and I can start using the layer mask so only the Cadillac is affected.

PHOTO B

There are two ways to apply a layer mask. They are called Hide All or Reveal All, and they essentially let you paint in or paint out the filter’s effect with Photoshop’s Brush tool. To create a layer mask using Hide All, which is the choice I usually use, go to the pull-down menu and chose Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All (FIGURE 3). This basically hides (or masks) the effect that I just created using the plug-in filter. Now I’m ready to use the Brush tool to paint in the filter to reveal the brighter looking red color for the Cadillac.

In the Layers palette, you can now see there is an icon filled with black on the Background Copy layer (FIGURE 4). This icon represents my layer mask and it is filled with black because I chose Hide All. Since this layer mask icon is black, I need to make sure that my foreground color swatch on the bottom of the Tools palette is white. If my layer mask were white (which it would be if I chose Layer>Layer mask>Reveal all), then the foreground color would need to be black. With white selected as my foreground color, I went to the Tools palette and choose the Brush tool.

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 4

I’m now ready to begin painting back in the effect from the plug-in filter. I chose my brush size with the bracket keys on my keyboard (the left bracket key makes the brush smaller and the right bracket key makes it larger) and began painting back in the effect on the Cadillac. My preferred way to use any of the brush tools in Photoshop is to use a Wacom graphics tablet. Instead of using a mouse to paint in my effects, which is not a very natural way to paint, a Wacom tablet uses a stylus (a cordless pen) that feels much more comfortable. Once you use a graphics tablet, especially when working with the Brush tool, you can never go back to only using a mouse.

With a small brush size selected, I began to paint in my effect over the Cadillac with the brush tool. In FIGURE 5, you can see that the circled area is lighter and more saturated in color than the surrounding area. This shows the Bleach Bypass layer coming through as the mask is painted away. I chose a smaller brush to work in tight areas of the image, and then I made the brush size bigger for painting along the broad sides of the Cadillac. In this situation, I made sure to keep the brush inside the lines of the Cadillac so as to not affect the background. Depending on the image, I may work from 100–300% magnification so the application of the effect is absolutely precise.

FIGURE 5

If you accidentally paint the effect outside of the area that you want, it’s very easy to fix. Just change the white foreground color to black and this will let you paint out the effect where it’s not wanted.

When I am done, the effect of the plug-in filter has been selectively applied to the red Cadillac and to no other part of the image (PHOTO C). Using a layer mask is a key step to improving your Photoshop skills. Once you start using layer masks in your images, you will wonder how you ever worked in Photoshop without them.

PHOTO C