The following tutorial will show you a typical retouching use for layer masks. Once you get the hang of it, (it's easy!) you'll have a valuable imaging tool that will enable you to refine and improve your retouching projects. It's uses are limitless!
This tutorial will work with any version of Photoshop that allows layer masks.
 [details (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials?m=show&id=63)]

An excellent tutorial on a very important topic. Very well thought-out.

I need to start including more arrows and such to the tutorials I do. They help a lot, but I'm just too lazy :)

Thanks for contributing this, Vikki.

Excellent!!! Excellent!!!! Excellent!!!!

Now to use it on "Son of Horror Restoration"

:)

I only have one criticism. It's too late coming! :) This is something I would have absolutely loved to find a couple of years ago. Great tutorial Vikki. I's amazing that something we find mysterious is really so easy. This gets a 10 from me. :thumbsup:

Ed

I feel like a leetle kid in a candy store. Your tutorial is so easy. Why can't I intuitivly think this thru myself? I'm spending way too much time on this site. I'm lovin it!!

Duv

One of the best I've seen, Vikki, especially with the very practical example and great screen shots.

Well done...
~Danny~

Thanks for the feedback! It's good to know, and it makes the work that goes into writing tutorials worthwhile.

Danny, a little trick I found to get a bigger and better shot of the layers palette: I increased the palette thumbnail size to the largest setting.

Vickie...

It's printing out as I'm typing this "thank you!." :)

It's alway so wonderful when someone will take their valuable time to create such an informative tutorial to share with others.

And also love the very visible pix, helps the learning process.

GoldCoin

For those of us Corel folk out there :) the "layer mask" in PS is the same as the "clip mask" in Photopaint.

I did a tutorial on my colorization techniques and how I use the clipmask all over the place. Just translate "layer mask" for "clip mask" and it might be of help to PS users.

my tute: http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=43

One of the reasons I really love working with Photoshop is the number of easy to remember keyboard shortcuts.

For working with masks, learn this one:
X
X switches the brush between foreground and background colour! :)

Great tutorial on a subject that everyone will use.

Thanks for the information....

Great Tutorial. May I add a thought for those who might not have Layer Masks (e.g. Photoshop Elements). For those users, the following can be used.

Copy and Blur Background as in tutorial, then click on Background and click Add New Layer to add an empty layer between Background and Background Copy. Now click on Background Copy to make it active, and click Layer-Group With Previous. The blurred Background Copy will now be totally masked. Click on Empty Layer, and paint on it using any colour. Wherever there is colour the Background Copy will show, sort of a Layer mask in reverse. To partly reveal things, reduce opacity of Paintbrush. To remask areas, erase paint strokes.

Hi Vikki,

I was just looking at your tutorial, “The Awesome Power of Layer Masks”, but I could not view the pictures. I’ve made the adjustments referenced in RetouchPro’s “Red X Instead of Image” section and have been able to view other tutorials and pages at RetouchPro. Can you help me solve why the pictures on your tutorial are not displaying?

Thanks,

Tim

Hi Vikki,

I was just looking at your tutorial, “The Awesome Power of Layer Masks”, but I could not view the pictures. I’ve made the adjustments referenced in RetouchPro’s “Red X Instead of Image” section and have been able to view other tutorials and pages at RetouchPro. Can you help me solve why the pictures on your tutorial are not displaying?

Thanks,

Tim

Tim:

Vikki is making the transistion to semi-retirement, so she may not see your request as soon as she would have in the past. Just in case and if you've tried everything here...
http://www.retouchpro.com/pages/red-x.html

...note the last line: "If you have other problems (or other solutions), email me via the Contact page." It may not be clear that "me" = Doug Nelson, the site owner and tech guru.

Here's his e-mail address: dnelson@retouchpro.com

Give Doug a shout. He usually responds within a couple hours and if he can't get you over the hump, nobody can.

Hope you get fixed up soon. Vikki's tutorial is very informative.

~Danny~

I seem to be having problems with my service. I've changed the links to my PBase site. The tutorial should be working now.
Thanks,
Vikki

My PBase Gallery (http://www.pbase.com/vhansen)

Hi, New member here. I got red-x instead of picture when viewing this tutorial, but have not problems with any other tutorials. Read the following page and shut down ZoneAlarm, and still have problem. Please help!
http://www.retouchpro.com/pages/red-x.html

hpycmpr,

First of all -- make sure you turned ZoneAlarm back on! I have used ZoneAlarm for several years, and have never even had to add RetouchPro to my list in Program Control -- everything has always worked fine. The most you should ever have to do is tell ZAlarm "yes" if it asks you for permission to access something -- that YOU are asking it to do -- you never have to turn it off to let something work. ("Never" means never while doing the things that I've had to do -- there may be an exception ;) )

Second -- I just checked the images -- and I see red X's also!! Vikki may have changed her images or links at Pbase, or it may be a Pbase problem (they've been having some problems for a few months).

Email "the janitor" (the BOSS), Doug, at dnelson@retouchpro.com and let him know about the problem. He can get in touch with Vikki or you can try emailing or Private Messaging her (click on her name in a post and bring up her profile -- it will show links for email or messaging.

Sorry you're having problems. It's not just you... I'm getting Red x's (now) too. I don't know if the tutorial images are supposed to be linked to Vicki's pBase site, but you can try checking

http://www.pbase.com/vhansen/miscellaneous

...starting with the 2nd image. Not as convenient as having the pics right in the tutorial, but better than none.

In the mean time the following are very good tutorials on masking:
* http://www.webreference.com/graphics/column23/
* http://www.vrya.net/ts/photoshop7.php
* http://www.vrya.net/ts/photoshop1.php

As CJ suggested, contacting Doug Nelson would be my next step.

~Danny~

CJ and Danny, thanks for confirming that you are also seeing red-x. I'll bring this to the Boss's attention. BTW, I was desparate when I shut down ZoneAlarm. Not my normal procedure. :-)

I'll check out the other mask links. Every time when I thought I had masks nailed, some new info would pop up. It would be great if we can have a compilation of mask definitions and uses, such as shadow mask, contrast mask, etc. There must be an exhaustive list. Yes?

It should be ok now. I've uploaded the images here, so hopefully this won't happen again.

Vikki -- thanks, all the images show in my browser now! It's an important tutorial, and I'm glad that it's back online as it was written.

hpycmpr, hopefully you're a "happy camper" and can read the tut and see the images all in one place. Layer masks are such a handy technique to master, you'll be able to do so many more things easier with this tool in your toolbag!

Vikki and CJ, I can see the images now. Thanks.

I like this site already. With quick responses like yours, it's easy to be a happy camper.

It would be great if we can have a compilation of mask definitions and uses, such as shadow mask, contrast mask, etc. There must be an exhaustive list. Yes?

I've never run across an exhaustive list, but I'm sure somewhere on the net there must be such a thing.

Just found an excellent tutorial on Contrast Masking:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-contrast-masking.shtml

~Danny~

I've never run across an exhaustive list, but I'm sure somewhere on the net there must be such a thing.

Just found an excellent tutorial on Contrast Masking:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-contrast-masking.shtml

~Danny~
Danny, thanks for the pointer. I was aware of that link and a few others on contrast masking. After digesting and using them, I realized that "contrast masking" really means a way to enhance local contrast, instead of creating such a mask. It is very useful though, and has been part of my workflow. Do you happen to know any tutorials on shadow mask and saturation mask?

Danny, thanks for the pointer. I was aware of that link and a few others on contrast masking. After digesting and using them, I realized that "contrast masking" really means a way to enhance local contrast, instead of creating such a mask. It is very useful though, and has been part of my workflow. Do you happen to know any tutorials on shadow mask and saturation mask?

SATURATION MASKS

Glenn Mitchell did a nice tutorial on Saturation masks. He's got a lot of good stuff a his site: http://www.thelightsright.com
* Tutorial: http://www.thelightsright.com/DigitalDarkroom/Tutorials/RestoreThoseClippedChannels.pdf

Since you're familiar with LL, you've probably seen this one, but I'll include it for those not familiar with it:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/restore-clipped.shtml

SHADOW MASKS:
* Flora talks about them in this tutorial (about 1/2-way down):
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=138

* To my knowledge there's the method she describes and another where you invoke Select > Color Range > Shadows to create the shadows' selection, then Ctrl + J to create the mask layer.

* I found this one via Google...
http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorial/depth_mask/

It's based on type effects, but looks conceptually like it would apply to any situation.

~Danny~

Danny, thanks for the references. I'll check those out and probably will have questions.

Excellent and simple explained tut, i have learn a lot with this one. Thanks !! :bigthmb:

I use PSP and thought that this site would accomadte PSP but after trying out The awesome power of layer masks I was lost because it's all Photo Shop. To bad. I thought I had found a great site for retouching using PSP. Thanks. Richard Corbett bexar656@yahoo.com

Awesome tool and tut, Vikki! It's magic :) Thanks for teaching me something I know I'm going to use again and again.

Gilly

I use PSP and thought that this site would accomadte PSP but after trying out The awesome power of layer masks I was lost because it's all Photo Shop. To bad. I thought I had found a great site for retouching using PSP. Thanks. Richard Corbett bexar656@yahoo.com

Richard:

There are many retouching techniques that are "generic," e.g., dodging, burning, dust removal, etc. that are pretty much the same across most programs. Layer Masks, unfortunately, are application specific mostly in terms of terminology.

I found a PSP-specific tutorial on layer masks that looks promising:
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/tutorials/psp_layermasks.shtml

I hope this gets you moving.

~Danny~

...I'm still confused. You've masked the *corrected* image; the spots are gone together with much of the detail. To recover the detail of the original minus the spots, you paint over the spots. in the mask of the corrected (Dust & Scratches) image. But there are no spots in this version to paint over! What am I missing?
Bob Bollini

Keeping the actual task as simple as possible has payed dividends here.

It makes understanding how the technique actually works so much easier.

It's like we haven't been given a fish to eat; we've been taught how to fish :)

Nice one Vikki

You don't know how many times I have been through books etc which have failed to adequately explain layer masks. Instead I have been using layers upon layers to achieve the same thing and in a less than 3 minute read, I finally understand the concept of layer masks much better.

Happy to hear my tutorial is helpful.
My goal was to take the fear and dread out of learning to use layer masks.
Thanks.