How to Use Layers in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019 – Part 4 – Layer Masks

Watch the Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019 video training tutorial for beginners. We will talk about the layer masks and how to work with it. We will specifically tackle how to select and edit layers. If you’re using layers in photoshop, this is the tutorial for you.

Welcome back to our course on PSE 2019. In this section, we’re going to look at Layer Masks. As part of that, we’, re also going to look at a specific adjustment layer. We looked at fill layers in the preceding section.

You may have wondered what happened to adjustment layers. Well, we’re going to be using adjustment layers quite a bit in the course from now on.

I’ve mentioned quite a few times already, when you use layers, particularly for some kind of effect or adjustment, you’re not restricted to applying that effect or adjustment to a whole image.

One of the great advantages of using layers is that not only can you easily switch on or switch off the application of an adjustment. For example, but you can be very specific about which parts of an image to apply that to.

Let me, first of all, explain what a layer mask is and what we use it for, then I’ll show you how to select a layer mask so that you can work on it, and I’ll show you a couple of options for editing layer masks.

One of the great advantages of using layers is that not only can you easily switch on or switch off the application of an adjustment for example, but you can be very specific about which parts of an image to apply that to.

The way that you do this is by masking the areas that you don’t want to apply the adjustment or effect to. Do this by creating and then editing what’s called a Layer Mask. As the name implies this masks the effect of a layer.

Now, I have some pictures of orchids in my kitchen. This particular picture I like but I want to brighten up the flowers themselves. I don’t want to do is to brighten the background. So, the job is to brighten but only the flowers, the petals, etcetera themselves.

So, first of all, let me make my normal background copy and then what I’m going to do is to insert an adjustment layer. In this case, the type of adjustment layer that I’m going to use is a brightness contrast layer.

That brings up a little dialog there where I can adjust the brightness and contrast. What I want you to do is to look at the whole image very carefully as I increase the brightness. I’m just going to slide it along a little bit at a time. Now, I’ve probably slightly overdone it there.

I’ve gone up to 18, but I’m sure you can see the effect. I’m going to stick with 18 for the moment. One way of seeing how big that effect is, is to make the layer in the Layers panel visible and invisible. Currently, it’s visible. Let me switch off again, invisible, visible, etcetera. Now, you’ll notice there that not only are the flowers made brighter but the background is as well.

If you look at the Layers panel tile, you’ll see there are actually two thumbnails in it. One of them, the left hand thumbnail indicates what sort of layer it is and this tells me that it’s a brightness/contrast layer. The right one, is the layer mask thumbnail.

By default, when you create fill and adjustment layers you automatically get a layer mask as well. The fact that it’s completely white tells you that there is nothing being masked at the moment.

The adjustment that I’m applying is applying to the whole image. What I need to do in order to mask this adjustment is to paint over the areas that I want to mask in the layers mask. I’m going to do that in black on this occasion. You can do it in any shade of gray and that will allow you to vary the level of masking.

The other thing I want you to look at very carefully in this tile is that the righthand thumbnail has a double blue border around it. It indicates that it’s the layer mask that is currently selected.

If I click back on the icon for the brightness/contrast adjustment the double blue outline goes back to that. Now, I can actually work on the adjustment itself rather than the layer mask.

If for instance, I double clicked on that, that would bring up the Brightness/Contrast dialog again. I could adjust the settings, but it’s the layer mask that I want to work on.

Now, what I’m going to do on this occasion is to brush over the areas that I want to mask. So, first of all, let me make black my foreground color and let me choose a brush. I’m going to start with a pretty big brush actually.

Then, what I do is to start to paint over the layer mask area. What will happen is you won’t see black pain. What you’ll see is the removal of the brightening effect.

As I do this, I’m just going to stop at this point and pause for a moment. Look now at the layer mask because you can see on the layer mask where I have now masked this effect.

Now, as is usually the case when you’re doing anything with paint in PSE it’s usually a good idea to start off with a nice, big brush. Then, having done most of the work, I can revert back to a smaller brush and start to fill in a bit more of the detail.

In order for you to see this effect so far, let me try switching on and off the layer mask. Let me switch it off again. So, we’re back to the original image.

Let me switch it on again. Now, you see it’s very much more the flower that is brightened. Of course, I haven’t done a very accurate layer mask yet. I might now need to spend a bit more time painting around the image to completely mask the effect on the background. But there is another way of doing this.

As an alternative way of basically creating the mask to cover everything except the flowers. What I’m going to do is to use Selection.

First of all, let me undo what I’ve done so far on the layer mask. Now I’m going to make sure I still have the layer mask selected. I’m going to choose the Quick Selection tool.

I know these flowers are pretty easy to select. Having done that let me, okay. Now, I’m going to select the Inverse. So that’s everything except the flowers. I make sure that I have black selected as my foreground color.

I’m going to use the Paint Bucket tool and this will fill the selected area. Let me click somewhere in the background and I now have a much more accurate layer mask.

Let me deselect, back to my tile in the Layers panel. Currently, the adjustment layer for brightness is visible. Let me make it invisible. We’re back to the original picture.

Now, watch while I make that visible again. This time what you should see is that only the flower becomes brighter.

That’s the end of this section. I’ll see you in the next one.

Adam Lacey

Adam Lacey is an Excel enthusiast and online learning expert. He combines these two passions at Simon Sez IT where he wears a number of different hats. When Adam isn't fretting about site traffic or Pivot Tables, you'll find him on the tennis court or in the kitchen cooking up a storm.