Rangefinder Magazine
August 2005

Click Here for printable version of this article.

This is one of a series of Adobe® Photoshop® tutorials sponsored by Adobe Systems and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) to be reprinted in Rangefinder. The article is from Photoshop User magazine, the official publication of NAPP (www.photoshopuser.com).

Original

You know all the benefits of using Layer Masks but what you may not have seen is this ancient technique of using an image to mask itself. (Don’t worry if you’ve never seen this method before. We dug it up from the Egyptian sands and carefully translated it from the PHVTVSHVP scrolls.)

mask 1

Needless to say, this technique will work differently with each image—and that’s part of the beauty of it. The other cool thing about this is that it only takes a few steps and then it’s up to you to try different variations.

STEP ONE: To add a Layer Mask to the Background layer, we have to turn it into a regular layer and the simplest way is to double-click on the background. We named our layer “main.”

STEP TWO: Now we’ll add a white layer below our layer to see the effect properly. To do this, hold down Command (PC: Control) as you click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Fill the bottom layer with white, using the fill command (Edit > Fill) or your favorite fill shortcut (F5 or Cmd/Ctrl-Del, for example).

mask 2a	mask 2	mask 3

STEP THREE: Click on the main (image) layer and press Cmd-A (Ctrl-A) to select the entire layer, and then press Cmd-C (Ctrl-C) to Copy the pixels.

STEP FOUR: In the Layers palette, click on the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers palette. Hold down the Option (Alt) key and click on the Layer Mask thumbnail to view the Mask (rather than the layer). It should be white. Press Cmd-V (Ctrl-V) to paste the image into the Mask. (See mask 3.)

Press Cmd-D (Ctrl-D) to deselect. Click on the Layer thumbnail to view the results.

Variations on a Mask
That’s the basic technique, but here are some variations to get your mind working on a whole world of possibilities. (Hint: To see the results of your experiments, use the New Window command (Window > Arrange > New Window) to create a second view that will show you the results on the fly as you play with the Mask.) In each case, we held down Option (Alt) and clicked on the Layer Mask thumbnail to view and work on the Mask.

mask 4—levels	mask 5

Use Levels to adjust the Mask: Press Cmd-L (Ctrl-L) to run Levels to lighten or darken the Mask. (See mask 4.)

Invert the Mask Press Cmd-I (Ctrl-I) to Invert the Mask. (See mask 5.)

Apply a Gaussian Blur to the Mask: Run the Gaussian Blur filter on the Mask (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Experiment with different Radius amounts. (See mask 6 and mask 7.)

mask 6	mask 7—inverse scale

Invert then scale and move the Mask: Click off the chain symbol between the layer and Mask thumbnails to unlink the Mask from the layer. Press Cmd-A (Ctrl-A) then Cmd-T (Ctrl-T) to Transform the Mask. Hold down Shift to scale proportionally and then move the Mask (in this case we moved the Mask so the eyes “lined up”). Press Enter to effect the Transform and then Cmd-D (Ctrl-D) to deselect.

In these next two examples, we selected and copied one of the Channels rather than the entire image.

In this case we used the Blue channel in the Channels palette.

mask 8—blue channel	mask 9—channel flip blur

Here are the results after:
1. Just pasting the channel into the Mask. (See mask 8.)
2. After flipping (Invert) and blurring the Mask. (See mask 9.)
Oh, and we haven’t even talked about duplicating the layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer) and adjusting this Mask differently from the original Mask.

Now you see why this secret has been carefully buried away for so long? It’s addictive in its simplicity. It’s hyp-notic in its vast possibilities. It’s cool. Try it yourself.
 

Dave Cross is senior developer for education and curriculum for NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and co-author of three books: Photoshop 7 & Illustrator 10: Create Great Advanced Graphics, Photoshop 7 Trade Secret, and Adobe Illustrator Killer Tips. Dave is also one of the lead instructors for NAPP’s Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour.