What is layer mask in photoshop

Masks, channels, and layers are the three obstacles in learning Photoshop. But I think the reason why beginners find them difficult may be that many people complicate simple problems when describing applications. For example, layer masking is originally a very simple problem, but many people don't understand it.

The layer mask can be understood as covering a layer of glass on the current layer. Such glass sheets are: transparent and black opaque. The former shows the whole thing and the latter hides part. Then use various drawing tools to paint on the mask (that is, on the glass piece) (you can only paint black, white and gray). The mask becomes opaque where you paint black, and the image of the current layer is invisible. Painting white makes the painted part invisible. Turning it transparent allows you to see the image on the current layer. The gray color makes the mask translucent. The degree of transparency is determined by the gray reading depth of the paint.

① It is a special selection, but its purpose is not to operate the selection. On the contrary, it is to protect the selection from being manipulated. At the same time, areas outside the mask range can be edited and processed.

②Although the mask is a kind of selection area, it is quite different from the regular selection area. The conventional selection shows an operation tendency, which is to process the selected area; the mask is the opposite, it protects the selected area from operation, and applies operations to the non-masked areas.

The method of making a mask is as follows:

(1) First make a selection → select/save the selection; directly click the "Save selection as channel" button in the channel control panel ;
(2) Use the "Channel" control panel to first create an Alpha channel, and then use drawing tools or other editing tools to edit on the channel to produce a mask;
(3) Make a layer mask Version;
(4) Use the quick mask display mode tool in the toolbox to generate a quick mask.

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