Advanced' Photo Effects Forums

Next to the Layers feature, masking is the most wonderful feature in
Photoshop. It separates the men from the boys, and the veterans from
the newbies. We currently have a celebrity face aligned with a
fine art background. But there are a lot of extra pixels that must be
removed from the face image. Use the eraser, right?

NO!

Erasing is permanent. Masking is not. Suppose you are cleaning up the
edges of the face, and you remove a little too much cheek. But you do
not notice it right away. This happens. With erasing, it's quite
possible that you may not be able to get that cheek back easily, but
with masking, it's never gone, just hidden. Pixels can be hidden and
exposed easily, at any time.



Hilite Layer 1 on the layers window. Notice at the bottom of the
window, there is a button containing a rectangle with a circle in it.
This is the Add Layer Mask button. Hit it and watch what happens. Did
you see it? 3 things happened...

1) A white rectangle appeared to the right of the thumbnail for Layer
1 in the Layers window.
2) The little brush was replaced with a rectangle and circle to the
left of the thumbnail for Layer 1 in the Layers window.
3) The colors at the bottom of the main Tools palette changed to
black and white.



Select the brush command. With your foreground color set to black,
begin brushing the edges of the face image. Notice how the pixels
disappear. They are not being deleted, just hidden.

Now select the eraser command. Take the eraser over the area you just
edited. Notice how the pixels reappear.

Now, switch the foreground and background colors using the little
semicircle with the arrowheads on it.



With the foreground color now set to white, use the eraser on the
face image. Notice how the pixels disappear. Switch to the brush. Brush
the same area. The pixels reappear.

NOTE: When masking, a black brush hides pixels, a white brush
restores pixels. A black eraser restores pixels and a white eraser
hides them.

Now, using as large a brush as possible, clean up the area around the
face.

Some tips...

A feathered brush makes for a softer blend.

Brush opacity (not layer opacity) also helps to create a softer
blend, and prevents the dreaded appearance of a bad "cut and paste" job.

It may be easier at first to turn off the background so you can see
all of the pixels you want to remove. Do this by hitting the little eye
on the left side of the Background layer on the Layers window.

Also...avoid brushing the pixels with one long continuous brush stroke,
instead, use several small strokes, that way, an undo will not destroy too
much of the brushing that still may be good.

Here is how my Layer 1 looks when i am done...