Adobe Photoshop 2023: Masking

Name: Adobe Photoshop 2023: Masking
Author: Jeff Drylewicz

Learn how to isolate specific areas or elements within an image and apply effects to those areas without affecting the rest of the image

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 3 lessons.

Request a demo Sign in

Course: On-Demand

Hello, welcome to Knowledge City's course on Adobe Photoshop. My name is Jeff Dreilowitz, and today I will be showing you examples of how to create a layer mask and utilize a clipping mask. So to start off with, I'm gonna look down here at my layer panel. And I've got this little box down here. It's a white box with a black circle inside of it. When I click on that, it will put a mask onto my image. So now there are two different windows in my layers panel now, right? I've got the mask, and I've got the image itself. I need to make sure when I'm using a mask, I am always on the mask. You can see how you can highlight either one. And when you're on the mask, you'll notice that the toolbar over here on the left hand side defaults back to black and white. Because with a layer mask, you are not using an eraser at any point. You are using your paintbrush. And with that paintbrush, when I brush down over here, you can see I'm actually not erasing the background. I'm masking it out. So I have the option to do this manually. And if I needed to, I could always change the hardness of my brush. I could zoom in on the flower a bit more. If I wanted to, like I said, be on the keyboard, I could go around this and manually mask my way around this flower. Changing the size as I get to different smaller areas. And it's a fine way to do it if you've got a steady hand and you're feeling confident. The flip side of this is I could use white, if I hit X on my keyboard, and put anything back that I masked out. Now, if I want to do a cleaner job of this, just let me zoom back out. Remember, I can hit Command minus as well to do that. I'm going to delete my mask. So I'm going to drag it down to the trash can and hit delete. The other option I have here is to grab right here, the object selection tool. I'm going to make a box over my flower or whatever the subject of your image might be. And you can see it's selected it pretty nicely. And if I hover over it too, you can see it turns pink, letting me know that Photoshop intuitively knows what it is trying to select. All right, so I've got my flower selected. I'll just come back to my move tool. And if I click the mask button again, now it cleanly creates that mask without me having to manually go in there. And if something didn't go right, if a little bit of the background was still showing or if part of the flower got cut off, I could still use my brush to add back in whatever I needed to. The next thing I want to look at here is a clipping mask. So what I'm going to do is make a new layer. Remember, the new layer button is down here in the bottom of your layers panel, right next to the trash can. I'm going to choose my rectangular marquee tool, make myself a rectangle. I'm going to press G on my keyboard and pick the paint bucket tool. I'm going to use red as my color, and I'm going to fill this box in with red. I could fill it in with any color I wanted to. I'm just choosing red for now. I'm going to hit Command D to deselect it. I'm going to come back to my move tool. I'm going to drag the flower up so it's lined up with my panel. But notice right now it's behind it, so it's not going to work. So what I'm going to do is come down to my layers, grab the flower and drag it up above. And I can do two different things. I can simply go to layer, create clipping mask, and there we go, it's in. Works very nicely. It only fits within the confines of that shape that it is clipped to. The other option is if I hold Option on my keyboard, right? And remember, like I said, the image you want clipped into the shape, I need to make sure the layer is physically above it in the layers panel. I can hold Option on my keyboard, and then you notice if I hover between the two layers, I've got this box and a black arrow pointing down. That's telling me that when I click, it's going to clip that layer into the one beneath it. So I click, and there we have it. It's clipped right inside of it. So that is all on creating a layer mask and utilizing clipping mask. In the next lesson, we'll learn how to create and use a vector mask and a quick mask. Thank you for watching.

Beginner Provider : Jeff Drylewicz 3 Lessons · 14m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

Achieving a polished and professional look for brand collateral relies on your ability to use clean and well-designed images. Adobe Photoshop offers a suite of powerful tools that can help you accomplish this, including the Selection Tools, Brush Tool, and Vector Tools. By understanding how to properly utilize these tools, you can create precise and unique masks that are tailored to meet the specific requirements of your project. These masks allow for precise control over color adjustments, seamless object removal, and targeted edits, ensuring that you maintain the integrity of your images while achieving exceptional results.

In this course, you will learn how to utilize Layer Masks, Vector Masks, Quick Masks, Clipping Masks, and the Select and Mask features. These versatile features allow a vast amount of control over the modifications of colors, removing and cutting out of objects, and targeting your edits so they affect only specific areas, instead of the entire layer. By the end of this course, you will have the skills you need to create polished and captivating visuals that truly stand out.

What You'll Learn

Create a Layer Mask using both the Layers Panel and the Layers drop-down menu
Attach a Clipping Mask and create Vector Masks and Quick Masks
Apply masks to various layer options using techniques covered in the course
Use the Select and Mask features to refine and target edits
Distinguish between the different types of masks and know when and how to use each
Edit colors, remove or cut out objects, and target edits to specific areas of a layer

Key Takeaways

Adobe Photoshop provides tools such as the Selection Tools, Brush Tool, and Vector Tools that help create clean, well-designed images for brand collateral.
Layer Masks, Vector Masks, Quick Masks, Clipping Masks, and the Select and Mask features give control over color adjustments, object removal, and targeted edits.
Masks allow edits to affect only specific areas of an image instead of the entire layer, helping maintain the integrity of the image.
Different mask types serve different purposes, and knowing when and how to use each type is part of the course.
By the end of the course, learners have the skills to create polished, captivating visuals that stand out.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn how to utilize Layer Masks, Vector Masks, Quick Masks, Clipping Masks, and the Select and Mask features in Adobe Photoshop to control color modifications, remove and cut out objects, and target edits to specific areas of a layer.

What topics do the lessons cover?

The lessons cover creating Layer Masks and attaching a Clipping Mask, creating Vector Masks and Quick Masks, and utilizing the Select and Mask options.

What skills will I gain from this course?

The course covers skills including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Data Masking, Image Editing, Photoshop Plugin, and Spectral Mask.

Will I learn the differences between mask types?

Yes. One of the learning objectives is to understand the differences between different types of masks and when and how to use each type.

What can masks help me accomplish in Photoshop?

Masks allow precise control over color adjustments, seamless object removal, and targeted edits, ensuring you maintain the integrity of your images while affecting only specific areas instead of the entire layer.