trailguy Senior Member  More info | May 09, 2010 19:53 | #1 I thought I was fairly smart, but I cannot figure out how to make a layer mask work in any effective mannner, no matter what book or magazine I read.
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tim Light Bringer  51,010 posts Likes: 375 Joined Nov 2004 Location: Wellington, New Zealand More info | May 09, 2010 20:18 | #2 I just create a layer mask using the icon on the bottom of the layers palette, grab a black brush, click on the layer mask (important step), ensure the brush is >0% opacity (use 100% to start with), then paint. Professional wedding photographer, solution architect and general technical guy with multiple Amazon Web Services certifications.
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Damo77 Goldmember  4,699 posts Likes: 115 Joined Apr 2007 Location: Brisbane, Australia More info | May 09, 2010 20:34 | #3 Absolutely nothing to it - just think of the layer as a window in your house. If you put some black cardboard over part of the window, you can't see the scenery through that bit, right? Same thing with layers - if you paint with black on the mask on part of the layer, you can't see that layer in that area.
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ssim POTN Landscape & Cityscape Photographer 2005  10,884 posts Likes: 6 Joined Apr 2003 Location: southern Alberta, Canada More info | I'll add my 2 cents worth here. Layer masking is really quite simple and very powerful. I have shown a layers panel with an explanation of the various icons.  I just grabbed a quick image to show you an example. In the below example I wanted to lighten up the left side of the dogs face. On the bottom most layer I made the dogs face lighter but the rest of the image was overly light. In the top most layer I had the dog all correct except for the left side of the face. I created a layer mask and then selected a soft brush and painted in black over the area that I wanted to show through from the bottom layer. You can see the black spot in the layer mask. That represents the area that is showing through from the bottom layer. Black conceals, white reveals, is a good rule of thumb. When painting you can also adjust the brushes opacity level to attain different results. There are many online tutorials that are probably better than this but this was done in a few minutes to illustrate it quickly for here.  My life is like one big RAW file....way too much post processing needed.
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Damo77 Goldmember 4,699 posts Likes: 115 Joined Apr 2007 Location: Brisbane, Australia More info | May 09, 2010 21:00 | #5 ssim wrote in post #10151216  Black reveals, white conceals Oops! Typo! You mean the other way around, of course.
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ssim POTN Landscape & Cityscape Photographer 2005 10,884 posts Likes: 6 Joined Apr 2003 Location: southern Alberta, Canada More info | May 09, 2010 22:03 | #6 Damo77 wrote in post #10151319 Oops! Typo! You mean the other way around, of course. Oops....I fixed that. Going too fast again. My life is like one big RAW file....way too much post processing needed.
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May 10, 2010 03:29 | #7 ssim wrote in post #10151688 Oops....I fixed that. Going too fast again.
Nikon D810 Nikon 50F/1.4G - Nikon 70-200F/2.8II
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lettershop A lame title from the TF  967 posts Likes: 7 Joined Sep 2009 Location: Fairport NY More info | May 10, 2010 03:43 | #8 have you ever tried Lynda.com for self paced training? My wife swears by (and not at) them. 1DX, Gripped 60D,10-22mm, 18-135mm, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, 24-70L, TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II, 100mm f2.8 Macro, 50mm f/1.4, 60mm 2/2.8 Macro, 580ex, 430EXII, Pocketwizards, Softbox, Tamron 1.4X TC, Canon 2x TC, GT3541LS, BH-55
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May 10, 2010 03:58 | #9 lettershop wrote in post #10152725 have you ever tried Lynda.com for self paced training? My wife swears by (and not at) them.
Nikon D810 Nikon 50F/1.4G - Nikon 70-200F/2.8II
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