So let me ask you a very simple question.
Why do we wear masks?
Well, in real life, you wear masks to
hide our faces.
Similarly in Photoshop,
layer masks hide the layers.
That's pretty much all there is to it.
Let me show you how it works.
So here we are back in the magical world of Photoshop
and let's create a brand new document
by going to "File",
"New"
and let's create a document.
Let's go to "Art & Illustration"
and let's choose "2000 pixel grid"
and click on "Create"
All right?
Now let's say if you want to create a text
with a reflection effect
and for that, let's create a dark background first.
So click on the adjustment layer icon and then choose
"Solid Color"
and let's choose any color we like.
Whatever your favorite color is.
I'm going to choose a dark blue color.
You can choose a color of your choice.
Hit "OK"
Now we do not need the background layer.
So you can select that and press
the "Delete" key.
Now on top of that, let's write something.
So with the help of the text tool,
"T" right there, don't forget.
Or the shortcut for the text tool is:
so if you press "T",
Text tool is going to be selected
and click
to activate it.
If you accidentally drag something, it's going to create a text box.
So we don't need it.
I accidentally dragged it.
All right.
So let's click again.
Just make sure it's center aligned.
So we're going to click on the center button right there,
and then let's write,
"Create",
okay?
Now, currently it's black in color.
To change the color of the text,
first of all, we need to
select that.
There's birds in the background if you can hear them.
So double click on the "T"
the text is selected.
Now single-click on [Unintelligible] right there at the top
and choose white.
All right, you can choose any color you want.
That's totally up to you.
So I'm going to choose white
and hit "OK"
Let's transform it
with the create text selected
and with the Move tool selected
press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"
and then let's make it
a little bigger.
This looks interesting.
Now we need to center alignment.
And how do we do that again?
Well we learned that in previous lessons.
First of all,
we need to select the area of which we want the center of.
Does that make sense?
So, right in this case,
we want to place the create text
in the center of the canvas.
So we need to make an entire selection of the canvas
and to do that, we press "Ctrl + A" or "Command + A"
you see the margin ends right there?
It makes a selection of the entire canvas.
Now, once the Move tool is selected,
you can click here right there.
It will center it horizontally.
And if you click here, it will center it vertically.
All right?
Once they're done centering,
press "Ctrl + D" or "Command + D"
Now we need to create a reflection of this.
And the reflection of it would be similar to this, right?
And for that, we need to create a duplicate of this text.
To create a duplicate of any layer in Photoshop,
select that layer and simply press
"Ctrl + J" or "Command + J"
let's name this.
Create reflection.
All right.
Now we have 2 create layers.
And this one, we want to invert it
for the reflection.
So with the create reflection selected,
press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"
and then right click on it
and flip vertically.
Now, this looks strange.
All you need to do is to drag it down.
Nice reflection, isn't it?
Now to create a more realistic feel, the reflection will look much nicer
if it was a little more opaque at the top,
and gradually as it went down,
it became transparent.
And a way to do that is of course, you can convert it into a raster layer
and then erase it,
but that's going to be destructive.
However, if you create a mask,
it will solve your problem.
So with the create reflection layer selected
click on this button.
This creates a mask for that layer.
Right now, you see
2 things.
One: is the layer
and the other one is a box right next to it.
What is it?
It is my friend,
a mask.
In Photoshop,
a mask is represented by black and whites.
So black are the areas, which hide
and white are the areas, which show up.
So right now,
the entire mask is white.
So all of the layer shows up.
All of the objects in that layer,
show up.
As soon as you begin to paint in black,
those areas are hidden.
So with the mask selected,
let me show you first how it works.
So we'll take the brush,
right?
This is a simple, soft round brush.
Black is the foreground color.
And if we paint with black,
see?
Those areas are hidden.
Now, keep in mind, those are not erased.
They're just hidden.
If you have a closer look at the mask,
have a look.
Those areas are black
in the mask,
right?
So of the entire mask,
those areas would be hidden.
And rest of the areas where it is white,
those areas are going to show up.
In short,
black hides,
white shows.
Black conceals
white reveals.
Always remember that.
Now, remember I told you this is different from erasing?
Which means that we can bring back stuff right here.
So with the brush selected,
if we change the foreground color to white by pressing "X",
what did we learn in the lessons before?
Pressing "X" toggles
the foreground and the background color, right?
So press "X",
toggle the foreground and the background.
And then if we paint with white,
see?
We are painting back with white,
those areas come back.
Isn't it great?
So let's get everything back.
All right.
Now, to create a reflection,
to create an interesting reflection.
We will just erase the bottom very softly.
All right?
Now, before doing that,
let me share with you a cool trick.
And this is not related to masks,
but that's going to be very helpful, no matter what you do in Photoshop.
And that is painting a straight line.
I know it sounds simple, but it's really cool.
So let me show that to you in a brand new layer.
All right?
Now,
if you want to create a line,
a straight line from point A to point B,
all you need to do is to dab
just like this.
I just dabbed in there
and then
hold the "Shift" key.
Imagine this is point A
and you want to draw a straight line to point B.
Once you're holding the "Shift" key,
you dab again,
a straight line from point A to point B is created.
Let's go back by pressing "Ctrl + z" or "Command + Z"
If you want to draw a continuous straight line,
then,
you can click and hold
and then hold the "Shift" key
and then continue
drawing.
You see?
Interesting, isn't it?
Also,
when you're joining points A and B, you can also have
many other points.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, even more than Z.
So dab,
hold the "Shift" key.
We dabbed again,
it made a line from point A to point B.
If you're still holding the "Shift" key
and you continue dabbing,
it'll just continue creating lines.
Fun, isn't it?
Let's go back.
Now, why am I telling you this?
Well, of course, this is going to be helpful to you.
But also in creating a reflection, it's going to be helpful.
Right now, I'm not introducing you to gradient because
that's going to be a whole new tool.
And I don't want to confuse you right now.
So select the mask
and then
take black as the foreground color,
make the soft round brush a little bigger.
Keep in mind, we have selected the soft round brush.
So right here,
the soft round brush.
Okay.
Now,
we're going to just click and hold
and then hold the "Shift" key
and draw a straight line.
See that?
Now the reflection looks exciting.
If you want,
you can also decrease the opacity
and there you have it.
Interesting, isn't it?
Let's decrease the opacity to 50% and there you have the reflection effect
for the text.
Now let's understand the major differences
between erasing and masking.
I know you already have one difference in mind.
However,
there's one more major difference
between erasing and masking
and why we should focus on masking more
than erasing,
in most cases.
Let's have a look at this example.
We have this man
dancing in the rain.
Pretty good.
I'm not sure why isn't he slipping.
He must be really talented.
I wish I could do a handstand, but I can't.
I would break my bone and never be able to teach you Photoshop.
We don't want that to happen, so let's not try it.
So,
this is an interesting image.
And let's drag in and overlay.
I have this purple smoke overlay.
So let's drag it and drop it
right there.
Now, when you drag and drop stuff into Photoshop,
it's important as a smart object.
And I've said that as a preference,
if you want to change it, you can change it.
So this is okay.
I'm going to hit enter.
Now as you can see,
from this logo, that this is a smart object.
For a moment,
I usually keep it at smart objects, but for a moment,
let's rasterize it.
So I'm going to right click on it and then choose "Rasterize Layer"
Now, this is a simple raster layer.
Now again,
what did we learn before?
What is the blend mode
that makes everything that is black,
absolutely invisible
and makes everything that is 100% white,
100% visible?
Screen, right?
Screen is the blend mode, which brightens stuff and hides everything,
which is 100% black.
So in this case, we're going to choose the blend mode:
"Screen"
So let's choose "Screen" right there.
And this looks pretty exciting, isn't it?
Now,
let's say we want the smoke to look
as if it's going through the leg, right?
It's not going
on top of it,
but going through it, and between it.
So,
if you're going to click on the mask button,
and simply take the brush,
and this time we can decrease the flow of the brush
or the intensity of the brush.
So let's decrease the flow to about 20%
and just paint with black in this area.
So it kind of gives a feel
that it's going through it.
Pretty good.
Paint with white
in the areas you want to bring back.
So probably you want to take it away from this area.
So it gives a feel that it's going through it.
Even I want to hide
these areas
a little more.
All right.
Do you want to make it look more exciting?
Let's add a Color Lockup Table.
So click on the adjustment layer icon, and then choose
"Color Lookup"
It's another adjustment layer
that allows you to apply LUTs
or Look Up Tables,
which is kind of a color grading filter
on top of your image.
So again, choose whatever we like in the "3D LUT" file drop down.
There's a lot of things that we can choose.
So I'm going to go ahead and choose "Crisp_Warm"
Why not?
Because this looks exciting.
Of course, this is too much.
So what do we do to reduce it?
Well, simply decrease the "Opacity"
So let's keep the opacity
to about probably 55
This is nice.
Now
we erased a couple areas,
some areas with mask.
What if I want to bring it back?
It's pretty simple, right?
We select the mask,
take the brush
with white as the foreground color.
We paint that area back in and we get that back.
All right?
What if we had erased it?
So let's say, there was no mask.
And by the way, to delete a mask,
you can just drag the mask to the "Trashcan"
And it is going to ask you whether you want to apply the mask before
deleting it.
Well, no, I don't want to apply the mask.
I just want to simply delete it.
If we had to use the "Eraser" tool, let me show you what happened.
So the eraser tool right there,
and then let's delete everything.
Let's delete the color lookup that we added.
I added that for a reason.
So with the eraser, we decreased the flow to 20%,
and then we erase these areas.
Maybe I was a little too excited
and erased a couple extra areas.
And then
I went ahead and added a color lookup table
at the very top.
And we chose "Crisp_Warm", remember,
and we chose the opacity to be 55%.
And let's say we did
a thousand steps after this.
And after doing a thousand steps,
we think to ourselves,
maybe we erased a little too much
and maybe we want to get it back.
What do we do now?
There was no way other than
"Undo"
So you have to undo all of those thousand steps
if you can,
because Photoshop's limit is thousand,
but that's for another topic.
You have to undo all of those thousand steps
and then undo this.
And in many cases for the default preference settings,
it might not even be possible.
So right now let's say,
I went ahead and added a Crisp_Warm
and on top of that, I added so many adjustment layers
to make this image look exciting.
It's all recorded in history.
And then
if I want to go back and get these areas back of the smoke,
I can't.
What I have to do is, I have to undo
all of the hard work that I did later
of adding all those adjustment layers.
So right now, the only way of getting it back
is by pressing "Ctrl + Z" or "Command + Z"
going a step backwards,
pressing it again,
going one more step backward,
pressing again,
going one more step backwards
and pressing it again,
pressing it again
and getting it back.
And now
once I've got it back and adjusted it
according to my liking,
I will again have to add color lookup table again.
Choose "Crisp_Warm" and whatever the hell I did after that.
It is very destructive.
Once you have erased, it's gone.
There's just no way to get it back.
Unless you have to undo everything.
So masks give you that flexibility.
It gives you that non-destructive nature.
So this was when we were working with masks.
So if you work with mask,
with the purple smoke selected,
if you create a mask
and then if you erase it
any time.
So right now I'm painting with black, rights?
So let's use the brush tool, not the eraser tool.
And if I raise it
right here,
see the black right there?
What does that mean?
Those areas are being hidden.
I can easily get it back
by painting
it with white.
No matter how many steps I have done after it,
I can always go back to the mask
and then
just get it according to my desire.
Isn't it interesting?
So that's one difference
between erasing and masking.
One other major difference between erasing and masking is,
and you might have guessed it already if you have a keen observation
from the first example.
The difference is
erasing only works with raster layers.
Because it has do with pixels, right?
Because it has to do with manipulating and erasing pixels.
It does not work
with smart objects.
It does not work with texts
or shape layers or any of that.
Only raster layer.
All right.
So let's go ahead and let's say we wanted to type
and add some text at the very top.
So select the topmost layer,
choose "T"
and then we're going to write something
right here.
Let's type in "Achieve"
Sounds inspiring.
Let's make it a little bigger
and we're going to choose the font.
"Bebas Neue",
neu or whatever,
however you want to pronounce it.
Double click on the "T"
and let's choose "Bebas"
All right?
Let's choose this font
and make it
a little bigger,
place it in the center.
Let's make it even bigger.
Okay.
Now there's a lot of gap between the text.
That means there's a lot of tracking.
Remember tracking means the space between letters.
So double click on the "T"
and just decrease the tracking,
something like this.
All right.
So we want to place the text
right here.
And we want to place it in such a way that it feels the text is at the back
and the subject is at the front.
So we need to erase the feet area.
If the pick the eraser tool,
and try to do it, it's not going to let us do it
because that is a text layer.
So if you
try to erase it,
it's going to ask you to rasterize the layer.
If you rasterize the layer, of course you can erase it,
right?
But you cannot get back stuff.
You already knew that.
But also now we cannot change the text to anything else we wanted to.
We cannot do it.
So right now,
let's go back
when it was a text layer,
if you create a mask
and then when you erase it,
with black
with the mask selected, make sure the brush is selected,
and then
you paint on it with black.
Let's increase the flow to 100
Alright.
Now let's get these areas back properly.
Now you can take all the time in the world to do it.
You can also do it for the selection.
And we will talk about selections in the next example.
So don't worry about it.
The next couple of examples.
All right.
So let's say we get it back.
Something like this.
Now I know I'm not doing the perfect job of it, but you get the point.
You can take the time to refine a mask.
And the best part is
you can change it later.
Now let's say I want to change the text.
I can easily do that.
First of all,
you can unlink
the mask and the layer for extra security,
if you want it to resize the text later.
So,
let's double click on the "T"
and we can change it to something else.
Now we need to work on the mask a little properly.
So with the mask selected,
let's just take the brush
and then
just get it right.
Okay.
Let's zoom out.
We have easily changed the text.
So the mask gives you a lot more flexibility.
It gives you the ability to change stuff later.
And that is the basis of
non-destructive editing.
So always keep in mind.
The difference between erasing and masking is
erasing is destructive.
Masking is non destructive.
If you erase something,
you cannot bring it back later.
The only way to get it back is "Undo",
which is not very ideal.
You would have to undo everything you did after it.
Masking on the other hand,
it is just hiding and showing up.
Everything is still there.
You're just hiding the areas.
That's pretty much it.
You're not deleting those pixels
while when you are erasing,
you're just erasing those pixels.
You're just taking it away.
Now, the other major difference between erasing and masking is
because masking is only related to hiding stuff,
it can work with anything.
It can work with smart objects,
text layers,
but erasing only works with
raster layers.
Now let's talk about selections.
We can also turn selections to mask.
What do we mean by that?
Let me show you one other exciting examples.
Now, keep in mind,
all of these examples are about creating something awesome.
So follow along, if you can.
All right.
Let's take a look at this beautiful woman.
So she's standing by the wall
and let's say, if you want to create and add
a beautiful illustration to the wall
and I have a nice tree illustration.
So we're going to go to our finder or Explorer,
and
I'm just going to drag in and drop in this illustration right there
over the canvas.
This is a beautiful illustration, isn't it?
So let's make it a little larger.
So I'm going to keep it this way.
Looks exciting.
All right.
Now, by the way, you might be wondering
while we zoom out,
how am I fitting the canvas to the screen?
Well, there's a shortcut to it.
And the shortcut is
"Ctrl + 0" or "Command + 0"
I have assigned that shortcut
to one of my keys in my Wacom tablet.
So you can either press "Ctrl + 0" or "Command + 0"
or assign that shortcut
to a tablet you're using,
or if you're not using a tablet
or maybe your keyboard has some extra keys
that allows assigning shortcuts,
you can also do that right there.
Even if you're using a mouse,
something like this,
it has a lot of keys, right?
And you can assign shortcuts to different keys.
Or you can,
if you have
just your keyboard, you can also press the shortcut
if you're habituated to it.
Okay.
Now we're going to try different blend modes and see what works
for this image, I guess
the Multiply Blend mode will work because
it darkens stuff.
All right?
Let's choose "Multiply"
Now, this looks nice.
However,
what if I want to make it just one color?
Well, to do that,
let's create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
Click on the adjustment layer icon, and then choose
hue/Saturation.
Now, if you click on colorize,
that'll make it just one color.
But it's also making everything else just one color.
Even the subject.
Even the wall.
We just want to make the illustration just one color.
How do we limit the adjustment layer
to just the layer which is beneath it?
Well, there's a way to do it.
And the way is
creating clipping mask.
There's 2 ways to do it.
One is holding the "Alt" key or the "Option" key
and click on the line between these two.
You see this arrow right now?
This arrow means
now it's only applied to just that tree layer.
Whatever you do,
it will only affect that tree
and not anything else.
One other way of doing it
is let's go back.
Is by simply pressing this button on some adjustment layers.
This also creates a clipping mask.
Now we can change the color of this to whatever we like.
So I'm going to go ahead and choose blue.
Now that looks fantastic.
You can increase the "Saturation" if you wish to.
Let's collapse this by pressing this arrow right there.
Okay.
Now, if you zoom in,
you will notice
that it's very sharp.
And when we paint in real life,
especially on walls like this, it's not so sharp.
So we need to blur it a little bit.
So with the tree layer selected,
let's go to "Filter",
"Blur",
and then
let's choose "Gaussian blur".
Not too much blurred.
Let's decrease the "Radius" and slowly and gradually increase it
to something that looks okay.
So 2 is fine.
Let's zoom out.
You can always decrease the blur,
if you wish to.
This is a smart object again,
and we can change the filters.
We learned that in a previous lesson,
when we applied the "Camera Rraw" filter, remember?
So we can always change the values by clicking on this arrow right there,
double click on the Gaussian blur
and change the radius.
Hit "OK"
Let's collapse that.
Now the problem is
the tree looks amazing on the wall, right?
But it's also over at the subject.
How do we take it away?
We just learned that.
It's a lesson about it,
and that is masking.
You just have to hide those areas.
But first we need to select
the subject.
So,
let's hide all of this.
Let's turn both of these layers off.
Now let's select the subject layer or the background layer.
And in this,
to make a selection of the subject,
there are a lot of ways.
And there are so many dedicated lessons on selections later.
But for now,
let me show you one simple way of selecting
a subject automatically.
And that is
choose any of these tools like the "Object Selection Tool",
or the "Magic Wand Tool" any of them.
And once you select them at the top,
you will see "Select Subject" button.
It uses Photoshops AI
to determine the subject and automatically selected.
It can select humans,
animals.
So click on "select Subject"
It'll automatically try to make a selection and it did a pretty good job.
Now, since the "Object Selection Tool" is selected,
let me show you a feature of that.
Well,
you can tell Photoshop that this
is not a part of the subject.
And you can easily say that
by,
first of all,
choose the mode to "Lasso"
and then
hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key.
See? It turns into Lasso minus.
Just make a rough selection of that area.
And that's how you're telling Photoshop that this is not a part
of the subject.
And it automatically made a selection of that.
Similarly, this area hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key
make a selection.
And it automatically
subtract that.
If you have to add something, you would hold the "Shift" key and then
make a selection.
And it made a pretty good rough selection.
Now, let's turn the tree on,
make sure tree and the "Hue/Saturation" both are on.
Now, if the click on the mask button,
the opposite happens.
Those areas that were selected,
those areas show up
and the areas that were not selected,
those areas hide.
Well, we want just the opposite of that.
So we can easily invert the mask.
So right now,
we want to make the white areas black
and the black areas white.
And to do that,
with the mask selected,
press "Ctrl + I" or "Command + I"
"I" stands for "Invert"
And once you do that,
there you go.
Beautiful, isn't it?
One other way is, let's go back
by pressing "Ctrl + Z" or "Command + Z"
Once you had the selection,
right?
We have the selection
and we want to create an opposite mask
instead of creating the mask and inverting it,
what if we already want to create a negative mask?
We can easily do that by holding the "Alt" key
or the "Option" key on a Mac.
And then when we click on the mask,
the areas that were selected will be black
and everything else will be white.
Just the opposite.
All you have to do is to hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key
while you do that.
Now, let me give you one more bonus tip.
To make this
look more realistic, to make the illustration look more realistic,
what if we take away the bright areas of this brick?
So it creates some highlights.
So with the tree layer selected,
double click on the right-hand side of the layer,
and we're going to discuss the setting later in detail in the
advanced sections.
If we take the slider of the underlying layer from right
to left,
it takes away the bright areas
of the underlying layer
or the layer that is lying under it,
that is the layer with the bricks.
It'll take the bright areas
of that layer away
from the current layer.
So right now it looks nice, but it's
also very harsh.
So to make the transition smooth
between the areas that show up and the areas that hide,
we can hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key,
click on the slider to break it apart
and then
just make
the transition a little more smoother.
All right.
Hit "OK"
And there you go.
It looks way more realistic.
So this is the before
not very realistic.
This is the after
looks more natural.
Now let's learn a little bit about the magic
of mask properties.
And the first property we're going to learn is
Mask Density.
So here we have our subject
and let's say we want to add some steam
to the photo
Around the subject.
So I have some overlays.
So we're going to go to a finder or Explorer
and let's add
the first layer of steam, right?
This is nice.
Hit "Enter" or "Return"
And again, what is the blend mode, which
brightens stuff and hides everything that is black?
Screen, right?
So change the blend mode from "Normal"
to "Screen"
There you go.
This looks nice.
You can decrease the opacity if you wish to,
but I'm going to leave it at about 100
and we want more steam at the back.
So let's go to our finder
and drag and drop this steam.
Now change the blend mode from "Normal"
to"Screen"
Now this looks like kind of too much.
At the back, it looks okay.
But on the top of subject, it's
too much.
So you want to take it away
from the subject area.
And we learned how to do that already.
To make it clearer for you,
Let's turn both of these off,
select the background layer,
and we're going to select the subject.
You can use any selection tool of your choice.
You're going to use the same technique,
just simply click on "Select Subjects"
And it did a pretty good job, right?
So now let's turn on "Steam 1"
turn on "Steam 2"
now we want to create a negative mask.
What did we learn in the previous example?
To create a negative mask,
to create the opposite.
All you have to do is to hold the "Alt" key
or the "Option" key
and click on the mask button.
Now, as you can see very clearly,
that steam has gotten away
from the subject.
Well, this looks okay.
This looks much better,
but,
let's say, what if you didn't want to completely lately take it away
from the subject area?
What if you just want to take it away partially?
Well, did you know, there's an opacity for the mask as well,
and that property is called
"Density"
So when you select the mask
and when you open up the properties, it's going to show up.
To open up the properties, you can click on this button
or you can go to "Window",
and make sure property is checked.
If you don't see that button
and the property is open right there.
You can just drag it
and place it right there.
That way,
it'll always be there for you.
So when you have selected the mask,
these 2 properties are going to show up.
You're going to talk about "Feather" later.
But for right now,
let's talk about Density.
Density is simply the opacity for the mask.
So if the "Density" is zero,
it will act as if there was no mask at all.
When the Density is at 100,
it's going to bring in the original form of the mask.
So as he gradually begin to decrease the Density,
the mask
starts to go lighter and lighter.
So for this example,
I didn't want to completely have it
or completely take it away.
But something in the middle.
Something in lines of
about 55 to 60.
Now that looks realistic.
So there you go my friend.
That is Mask Density.
It is just opacity for the mask.
If the density is at 100,
the mask is exactly the way you created it.
If the density is at zero,
it acts as if there was no mask.
Now let's talk about the second property, which is
"Mask Feather"
and Mask Feather is simply a Gaussian blur
for the mask.
That's all there is to it.
So let's say,
we want to bring the focus more towards the car.
Right now, this image looks flat
and we want to draw the attention of the viewer
towards the car.
And one of the ways of doing it
is by making that area brighter
or making everything else darker.
let's start by making everything else darker.
So
Create a curves adjustment layer,
click on the adjustment layer icon,
and let's choose "Curves"
And we're going to talk about
the curves adjustment layer later.
But for now, just keep in mind
that if we take the point on the right down,
it's going to make it
darker and darker.
If you take it all the way down, it's going to make it black.
So we're going to take it a little down, something like this.
And then,
let's collapse this.
Select the mask
and then
select the brush.
And this time choose a hard brush.
So let's choose a "Hard Round" brush
and let's make the brush a little larger
with black as the foreground color.
"Opacity" and "Flow" at 100
Let simply dab on the car.
That's it.
Now the car is more bright.
I know it looks funny, but,
it's more brighter.
So now,
press "Ctrl + T" or "Command + T"
yes, you can transform masks.
Let's make sure it is just limited to the car.
Something like this.
This looks nice.
Okay.
Hit "Enter" or "Return"
Now,
with the mask selected,
go to the "Properties"
Now inside the Properties,
have a look at this oval,
just
increase the "Feather"
See?
It's getting softer and softer.
So we're going to increase it even more,
and keep it at about,
right now, it's 398
What if we keep it at 380?
So let's keep it at 380
and it looks interesting.
Let's take a look at the before and after.
Here's the before.
Here's the after.
More attention towards the car.
We can blur it even more.
Let's keep it at about 450, why not?
Now select the mask.
And then,
even after increasing the Feather,
we can change the position of it.
We can change the size if we want to.
So the size
seems to be nice.
Okay.
Pretty good.
Now we didn't want to darken the sky.
Everything else darkening is fine,
but we didn't want to darken the sky.
So you want to take this darkness away from the bright areas.
Again, what did we learn from the previous example?
We need to double click on the right-hand side
to open up the "Layer Styles"
And inside of that,
take the slider of the underlying layer
from right to left.
Now this is harsh.
So hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key.
Click on it.
To break it apart, click on the slider.
And then
let's take it even further.
This looks nice.
Hit "OK"
Now it's time for us to make that area brighter.
To make it brighter again,
you can make a copy of this curves
and just change the properties to make it brighter,
press "Ctrl + J" or "Command + J"
this time we have a copy.
And this time we want to target that area.
So let's invert the mask.
So with the mask selected, press "Ctrl + I" or "Command + I"
now it's darkening that area.
Don't worry right now.
We will clean the blend that we did.
So if you double-click on the right inside of the layer,
we did all of this, so let's bring it back to normal.
And hit "OK"
There's also one more way to bring it back to normal.
Let's say you had moved this
and you want to bring it back to normal.
You can right-click on it
and simply choose
"Clear Layer Style"
It'll bring it back to normal.
Now, double click on the Adjustment Layer symbol
to bring up the properties
and then
to make it brighter, create a point in the middle
and just make it brighter.
To add some more Contrast,
create a point on the left hand side,
which means we are controlling the shadows.
And if we take it down,
we are making the shadows darker.
Don't worry.
We're going to talk about Curves later.
But this looks exciting.
Let's collapse this.
So,
here's the before.
Here's the after.
Let's take a look at the complete before and after.
So here's the before
here is the after.
As you can see,
if we zoom out a little bit,
the attention goes straight to the car.
Before.
After.
Exciting.
Now let's simply understand and recap some fundamental Mask functions,
with this simple composite that I made for you.
This was the original forest background.
I blurred it a little bit.
Added a leaf on top of it,
made some adjustments to the leaf
to make it look more realistic.
On top of it, I added some flare
to make the composition one.
To make the composite blend together well,
on top of that, I added some noise,
one color lookup table, and at the very top,
some contrast.
Simple composite,
and there's an entire module on just compositing later.
So if this confuses you,
don't worry about it.
Right now, just focus on layers
and masks.
First of all, let us understand how you can turn off and on a mask.
Yes, we can do that.
So let's take a look at the "Leaf" layer.
If you have a look,
this was added from another image.
And as you can see,
it's masked out.
If I want to turn off the mask,
we have to hold the "Shift" key
and then click on the mask.
See the mask is now
shown with a cross, a red cross,
which means the mask is turned off.
And this, my friend is the original image.
To turn the mask back on,
you can hold the "Shift" key again and click on the mask.
The red cross goes away.
And the mask turns on.
The second thing is how to link and unlink the mask.
And we already learned that.
If you choose the "Leaf" layer
and if we make it bigger,
you will notice,
of course, there's a lot of other adjustments to it.
So it's looking strange,
but,
it's getting bigger
along with the mask,
Let's press "Ctrl + Z" or "Command + Z"
If we want them to be unlinked,
we can click on the Link button right there.
Now they're unlinked.
Now, if you choose the layer and make it bigger,
the mask stays at the same place.
Let's go back.
If you choose the "Mask" and make it bigger,
the layer stays at the same place.
So that is linking and unlinking
the Mask and the Layer.
Now, what are the most important feature, when it comes to using masks,
is the ability to see
just the mask.
Right now, we can only see the mask in such a small thumbnail
in the layers panel.
What if you want to see just the mask
in the entire canvas?
Well, to do that,
You have to hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key
click on the "Mask"
to just see the mask.
To bring the original image back,
to see the actual image,
you can hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key
and click on the "Mask" back again.
Now let's talk about moving and copying the masks.
Let's say,
after applying a lot of global effects,
at the very end,
I only want to apply something
on top of just the leaf.
Alright?
How do we do that?
Well, let's say,
from the top, I want to apply an effect
by creating
an adjustment layer.
Any adjustment layer of your choice.
So let's choose
"Brightness/Contrast"
one more time.
So this is just for the leaf
"Brightness/Contrast"
for leaf.
Okay?
And let's say, if you want to increase the "Contrast"
but we only one to do it
on the leaf.
So we already have the mask of the leaf.
We can simply
hold the "Alt" key or the "Option" key
drag the mask
and drop it
onto this one.
Now this layer already had a mask right there
because adjustment layers
already come with a white mask.
So that's why it's going to ask you,
do you really want to replace the mask?
And we definitely do.
So let's choose "Yes"
Now,
when you change the properties of Brightness/Contrast,
it's only going to be applied
just to that area.
Now,
That's how we can copy a mask.
There's also a way
to move the mask.
So let's say you wanted to move the mask.
You wouldn't do that in this case,
but if you wanted to move the mask,
all you have to do, let's say, you wanted to
move the mask of this curve,
to the "Brightness/Contrast" for the "Leaf" layer,
you can simply drag it and drop it right there.
That's it.
That's how you move the mask.
Let's go back.
If you want to copy the mask,
you hold the "Alt" key and then
drag it.
Now let's learn how to delete a mask.
So let's say the "Brightness/Contrast" layer already had this
leaf mask
with increased contrast.
To delete the mask, the first way is we already discussed this.
We dragged the mask onto the trashcan.
Do you want to delete layer mask?
Choose "Delete"
Sometimes it might show a pop-up that might say,
"Do you want to apply the mask before deleting?"
If you want to apply it, click on "Apply"
If you don't want to apply, simply click on "Delete"
So let's click on "Delete"
and it's deleted.
If this was a raster layer, let's say,
I painted with white.
If that was a raster layer, let's move the mask right over there.
If you try to delete the mask,
it's going to bring up another pop-up.
If you click on "Delete",
it's going to delete the mask.
Let's go back.
If you deleted again,
and if you click on "Apply",
it's going to apply it.
In other words,
it's going to erase all of those areas, which were black.
Now in the end,
let me share with you a super useful technique
that will allow you to never lose your masks
that you spend hours to create.
So let's say we have a mask of this subject
and you spent a lot of time to create that mask.
So first of all,
let's create a Curves adjustment layer,
click on the adjustment layer icon, and then choose "Curves"
we're going to click a point in the middle
and take it up.
We're just going to
brighten it.
Now let's say, we only want to apply it on certain areas of the subject.
So first of all, let's select the subject.
We already learned
how to apply the mask
to the selection, how to convert active selection to mask.
Now, let's
create a selection of the subject.
Now I'm going to do it pretty quickly.
Now you already know you can spend all the time in the world
to make an accurate selection of the subject.
And let's say you did.
Now once there is the selection,
you can click on the "Mask" right there
and fill that area with black.
Now, since adjustment layers already come with the mask,
we can not click on the mask button right now,
because there is already a mask right there.
If you click there right now,
it's going to create an additional vector mask
and that's for another course.
So with the mask selected,
black as the foreground color
press "Alt + Backspace" or
"Option + Delete"
That's going to fill that area
with black.
You want just the opposite of that?
Press "Ctrl + D" or "Command + D" first
to de-select that.
Select the mask and then press
"Ctrl + I" or "Command + I"
Now let's say,
you only wanted to brighten certain areas.
Maybe,
the left side of the face,
the left side of the hand,
or the right side of it.
Just certain areas.
So you have 2 options.
You can select this mask,
take the brush,
black is the foreground color
and start
just erasing it from certain areas.
This will leave the brightness only in certain areas.
Pretty good.
Now we have a problem, my friend.
What if you want to bring the brightness back?
What if you want to bring the brightness back in certain areas
where you already have the mask?
So you might think,
let's change the color to white
and just start painting back in.
But right now,
it's leaking outside the subject.
It's leaking because we already erased
parts of the subject mask.
So that is when we need
double masking.
So what is double masking?
Let's go back.
Let's go back to the time when we had
the perfect mask of the subject.
Okay.
Now we have a good mask.
We don't want to disturb this mask, that you spend a lot of time to create.
Not at all.
Or even if you didn't spend time to create it like we did
with the select subject,
you don't want to go through the entire process
and get back to it.
It can get messy.
Anyway,
double masking is simply putting that one layer
inside a group
by selecting that layer
and then pressing "Ctrl + G" or "Command + G"
a group can have one layer.
Keep in mind.
Now here's the great part about a group.
A group can also have a mask.
Doesn't that sound exciting?
So with the group selected,
if we click on the "Mask" button,
now we have two masks
for the same layer
by putting that layer inside a group.
And only those areas are going to show up,
which have white in common.
So right now all of the areas of the mask of group 1
is white.
So therefore,
all of the mask area
in the layer shows up.
If we select the group mask,
and then if we try erasing certain areas by painting with black,
and we want that area back,
we can paint that area
back with white.
And it's not leaking anymore
because right now we are working with
2 masks.
So let's say, now you wanted to erase certain areas
with black.
You can easily do that
with no problem at all.
You see that?
And if you want to get back certain areas,
you can change the color to white by pressing "X"
and then
you can paint back in certain areas,
no problem at all.
And
you still have the mask intact.
Having a look right here.
You still have the mask intact.
And if you want, we can also create a softe gradient.
So,
let's erase everything.
And with white, as the foreground color,
we just dab from the left hand side,
very interesting
gradient.
If you want,
you can also decrease the overall opacity.
This just adds a little more dimension
to the photo.
So we're going to keep it at about 40%
and the hand looks too bright.
So we're going to take it away from the hand by painting
black in right there.
So here's the before, here's the after.
Just a little more dimension,
but this was just to make you understand about the concept of
double masking.
It's very useful.
So when it comes to layer masks in Photoshop, my friend,
we just need to keep one thing in mind.
"Black conceals and white reveals"
And that pretty much wraps up
the entire concept.
I hope this lesson helped you.
And the next lesson is going to be something
which we all need to nail
in order to master, not just Photoshop,
but any imaging application.
And that is Resolution.
Don't miss it.
It's one of the most important lessons that we all need to watch.
I hope this lesson on Layer Masks helped you.
I'll see you on the next one.
Till then, stay tuned and make sure that you
keep creating.