This week I’m going to be taking a quick look at Layer Masks, these are useful for non-​​destructive cutting out of objects. I’m going to be using Adobe Photoshop CS4.

There have been new Mask features added to CS4 but I’m not going to be looking into them, instead I’m relying on functionality that has been in Photoshop since CS2 and before probably.

Let’s say you want to crop a layer of your work, remove some excess from a picture or fade it. You could use the marquee and delete it but what if later on you want that bit back, no easy way to get it back without having to undo all your hard work. With Layer Masks however you can non-​​destructively edit your images visibility.

So for this example I’ll be using simple shapes but this can work for any layer.

Making Holes

To create a Layer Mask either go through Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All or at the bottom of the layer palette click the icon three in from the left (the circle in a rectangle one). This will create a white rectangle to the right of the selected layer. Click on this box, the brush colours will probably turn black and white, if not hit D to return them to Black and White defaults.

Now simply use the brush to paint on your object. Where you paint black that layer is invisible, where it’s white the layer is visible. Pretty simple really. Any shade of grey between has a different level of transparency depending on how dark it is.

Of course you can use the Marquee Tool (M) or Lasso Tool (L) to mark out a selection and fill it in using Ctrl (Cmd) + Backspace for Background colour or Alt + Backspace for Foreground colour.

Now what makes the Layer Mask great is that you can paint over the sections you’ve painted invisible with white to make it visible again or just right click on the Layer mask rectangle and Delete or temporarily Disable it. That’s what I mean by non-​​destructive, the effects aren’t permanent.

Gradient Fades

You might have figured where this is going by now, you can use the Gradient tool with the same black and white to fade a layer out. I prefer to use the colour to transparent gradient for this so I can fine tune it after the initial gradient.

From Selections

Instead of creating a Layer Mask then editing it you can create a Layer Mask from a selection. If you delete the layer mask you’ve already done and make a selection now try clicking the Layer Mask button or menu option. You’ll notice that the area around which you’d selected is the only bit left visible. If you wanted the inverse then you can just click on the Layer Mask rectangle and press Ctrl (Cmd) + I to invert it.

That’s all folks.