A video tutorial on simple Masking in Photoshop. It's designed for the beginning Photoshop user to help them wrap their brain around what a mask does. QuickTime is required to view the video.

NOTE: Always make sure you are painting on the MASK and not the image. Just click on the mask's icon in the layer's palette and you make sure that it has a darker border around the mask icon.

Masking-White Reveals (http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s316/lpswampy/Tutorials/?action=view&current=masking.flv)

Wonderful job, Dee Dee. Another example where "pictures (along with a few well chosen words) worth many thousands of words."

The only thing I would add would be the importance of knowing "when" one is painting on the mask vs. the image itself, and how to get out of trouble. Before all the dots were connected in my mind on this concept I remember the frustration of trying to paint white or black 'on the mask,' but the result was painting 'on the image' instead and not knowing "Why?"

In CS3 does it work the way it does in PS7... click on either the image thumbnail or mask thumbnail on the applicable layer to activate one or the other?

>>>In CS3 does it work the way it does in PS7... click on either the image thumbnail or mask thumbnail on the applicable layer to activate one or the other?

Yes it works the same. And thank you Danny... I'll edit the above post with a note about painting on the mask and not the image.