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**gonzo** · 02-02-2003, 01:32 PM

oops

Duh! Nevermind the last gradient question, I looked in the FAQ forum here and found the 'adding to gradient' answer there.. a little counterintuitive, but it works

**DannyRaphael** · 02-02-2003, 01:39 PM

Gonzo:

Welcome to RetouchPRO. Congrats! You've just broken the all-time record for answering your own question! Well done.

By all means keep asking these good questions. Judging by the content of your first one, I'd say you are well qualfied to answer many, too. Don't hesitate to do that. We always appreciate it when those with knowledge and experience are willing to help out.
Again, welcome. If you haven't seen the RP site map yet, click the link below my signature. Picture sometimes worth 1K words.

~DannyR~

**gonzo** · 02-02-2003, 01:43 PM

Thanks for the welcome. I only answered the gradient question myself though

I still haven't figured out how to copy pictures into masks.. can you help? It's such a simple, obvious thing, I used to do it *all the time* with my old gfx program, but can't find the magic button in photoshop..

**jeaniesa** · 02-02-2003, 02:00 PM

Gonzo,

First, WELCOME to RetouchPRO!

If I understand your question correctly, I think that you want to do this:

1. If you're talking about a luminescence channel, I assume that is grayscale. So, make sure that the image you want to use for the mask is in grayscale mode.
2. Keep the grayscale image open along with the image you want to mask.
3. On the layer in the image that you want to mask, Load->Selection... Set the source document to your grayscale image and make sure that the channel is set to Gray. Click OK.
4. You should now see a selection based on your grayscale image. (Don't worry too much about the marching ant lines - the selection marching ants will only show areas that are above 50% gray and is not a good indication of what's actually selected when using a grayscale image for the selection.)
5. Click on the "Add layer mask" button at the bottom of your layers palette (second from the left). You should now have a linked mask that looks just like your grayscale image. (If you alt-click (PC) on the mask thumbnail, you'll see exactly what the mask looks like.)

Hope that I understood your question correctly and that my solution is at least close to what you're looking for.

Jeanie

**DannyRaphael** · 02-02-2003, 02:03 PM

This may turn out to be a terminology thing, so bear with me. I'm not sure what you mean by a "linked mask."

Let's assume you're objective is to combine two Alpha channels, say, Alpha 1 and Alpha 2. These Alpha channels can be from whatever source... something you paint with black and white, a layer mask, a copy of one of the color channels -- whatever.

Duplicate Alpha 2 (drag the channel name over the "new channel" icon at the bottom of the channels palette), creating Alpha 3.

Then, SELECT > LOAD CHANNELS... (choose Alpha 1)
followed by SELECT > SAVE CHANNELS (from the dropdown that says 'New', click the arrow and choose Alpha 3)

Notice when you specify Alpha 3, the options Replace, Add, etc. become available. The resulting Alpha 3 will depending on the option selected.

Does this help? Keep asking if close, but no cigar. Now you've got two approaches to try. Not to fear. We'll get ya there - eventually.

~Danny~

**jeaniesa** · 02-02-2003, 02:09 PM

Danny, You mean SELECT > LOAD SELECTION and SELECT > SAVE SELECTION (rather than LOAD/SAVE CHANNELS), don't you?

Jeanie

**DannyRaphael** · 02-02-2003, 02:21 PM

Jeanie...

Thanks so much. Yes, load and save SELECTION... is what I meant.

Danny

**gonzo** · 02-02-2003, 02:42 PM

Danny and Jeanie, thanks a bunch!

Jeanie:

Yay! This does what I need! It seemed a somewhat illogical and strange way of going about it, but hey, it works! . As soon as I figured out that I could have several images open at once and cycle between them in the 'load selection' box (which I have tried before, but not taken note of), everything else fell into place.

It is not necessary to convert the image used as a mask into greyscale btw. I just tested it, and you can just copy the image into the alpha channel first (which is always greyscale, hence the luminescence chatter), and then load the alpha channel as a selection into the other image. Yay!

Oh, and now that I actually got my brain running (a rare instance, I have to say) it's dead obvious that I can just do this within the same image.. so: copy relevant layer into alpha channel, then load selection->alpha channel, and make a mask. THAT was the magic button I was looking for! I *knew* it had to be something truly simple because it's needed all the time.. I also knew I was gonna feel really stupid when finding the answer, so thanks for bearing with me.

I better write this down before I forget it again.. I seem to forget most things I learn in photoshop, and of course I can never find all the post its with hints and tips on either

Danny: I tried playing with the alpha channels like you instructed, and I hadn't tried subtracting and adding like that in alpha channels, so that was pretty cool.. not really what I was looking for, although I can't seem to wrap my mind around whether this could be used for the same purpose as well.. Sometimes I feel like I'm blind with all the options sitting staring me in the face and I can't figure out how to put them together.

Thank you both again for the help, very much appreciated.

**jeaniesa** · 02-02-2003, 03:37 PM

Gonzo - glad I could help!! And yes, just copying the image to an alpha channel does make it a bit easier. I hadn't thought of that shortcut. Thanks!

Jeanie

**Stephen M** · 02-02-2003, 06:17 PM

There are more than one way to replace an existing layer mask alpha channel with other data.

* Target the layer mask alpha and not the layer content - select all and fill with white. Load your new selection and fill the targeted alpha with black.

* Target the mask, copy the pixel content previously saved as an alpha to the clipboard and paste into the target mask.

* Apply image can move data between the same file or multiple files, pretarget the mask and apply the new alpha.

Stephen Marsh.

**gonzo** · 02-02-2003, 06:44 PM

* Target the layer mask alpha and not the layer content - select all and fill with white. Load your new selection and fill the targeted alpha with black.

- not sure what that accomplishes...?

* Target the mask, copy the pixel content previously saved as an alpha to the clipboard and paste into the target mask.

- my problem all along has been that I couldn't directly paste into the target mask. That's why I had to get around that by creating an alpha channel and then loading it as a selection. How do you go about flat out pasting into the target mask? Whenever I try to paste into a mask (with the mask active) a new layer is created instead with the pasted image on it.

* Apply image can move data between the same file or multiple files, pretarget the mask and apply the new alpha.

- that's something I haven't tried using before, it looks interesting.

Thanks!

**Stephen M** · 02-02-2003, 07:11 PM

>> * Target the layer mask alpha and not the layer content - select all and fill with white. Load your new selection and fill the targeted alpha with black. <<

> - not sure what that accomplishes...? <

As I said, many roads lead to Rome in Photoshop...

This first suggestion targets the existing layer mask content and deletes it. Loading an selection then permits one to fill the current white targeted layer with content to make a mask.

I did not mention that you may have to invert the source before filling, otherwise the mask may be reversed. Try it, you just forced my to follow my own thoughts and it all works like I thought/said it would.

>> * Target the mask, copy the pixel content previously saved as an alpha to the clipboard and paste into the target mask. <<

> - my problem all along has been that I couldn't directly paste into the target mask. That's why I had to get around that by creating an alpha channel and then loading it as a selection. How do you go about flat out pasting into the target mask? Whenever I try to paste into a mask (with the mask active) a new layer is created instead with the pasted image on it. <

I thought the answer was obvious. <g>

Try turning on the eye or preview icon for the targeted channel before you paste. It does work.

>> * Apply image can move data between the same file or multiple files, pretarget the mask and apply the new alpha. <<

> - that's something I haven't tried using before, it looks interesting.

Thanks! <

Yes, I really like apply image - for many things.

Stephen Marsh.

**gonzo** · 02-02-2003, 07:28 PM

Ok, the first one still completely leaves me blank. I'm just not getting what you're explaining.. sorry. I understand it's just a different way to do it, but I can't get it to make sense.

Second suggestion: Aha! So that's what I did wrong. I kept pasting into the layer mask itself, not into the alpha channel of the layer mask. Well, this is even simpler than the selection bit (and seems cleaner too). I come from a program that handles masks and alpha channels rather differently and obviously still haven't quite accustomed myself to photoshop. This helps me better understand how the channels work in photoshop.

I'll have to read up on the apply image function later..

**Stephen M** · 02-02-2003, 10:00 PM

> Ok, the first one still completely leaves me blank. I'm just not getting what you're explaining.. sorry. I understand it's just a different way to do it, but I can't get it to make sense. <

Did you try it? Not that it matters, there are many ways to do this and that was the point in the method (it may not be the best way, but it is a way). Sometimes you actually have to do the steps instead of just going through them in your head (no matter now well you know Photoshop).

My post was brief and may presume some knowledge or steps, but the basics work in both my theory and my application of the theory, as you gave me doubts.

On apply image, an example is an existing layer mask and now you want to add a new bit that was created in another alpha. Simply pretarget the layer mask alpha and apply the new alpha to the old using LIGHTEN mode, so only the new white data is added and the black does not mess up the old data.

Stephen Marsh.

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