Layers, Masking, Layer Comps in Photoshop 17 July 2009

Posted by Ryan in 1.
Tags: Architecture, Graphic Design, Layer Comps, Photoshop, Photoshop layer mask tutorial, RAD, Ryan Andrews Design
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Here’s what we’ll be working with for the second bit of tutorial.  We’ve got a nice photo of some changing rooms.  

I’ve created two separate masks (one positive, one negative).  Creating the mask was fairly easy: 

First duplicate your background layer by double clicking the layer thumb.  This brings a dialogue box to rename the layer.  Press OK.  I usually never rename any layer unless I’ve got more than ten or so things to keep straight.  Next, drag the layer thumb down to the create a new layer tab.  (Next to the trash can.)  This will duplicate your layer.

Use the select color range tool to select most of the blue sky.  I added the rest of the clouds to the selection with the magic wand tool (W).  Press and hold down the Shift key to add to the current selection.  A little plus sign appears next to the wand.  To subtract, hold down the Alt or Option Key and a minus sign should appear.  There is a tolerance setting that should be changed to a much lower value than 100, but this depends on your selection needs.

Note that the Shift and Option (Plus & Minus to selection) keys work with all of the selection tools.  Like the Lasso (L) or the Marquee (M) Select.  Use whatever selection tool is going to best suit your needs to select what you need.  I would suggest using the select color range and the magic wand tool to start.

Remember that sometimes selections can take a while if they are complicated and if you accidentally deselect everything, you can always Undo or Step Backward to get back what you had selected.

Once you’ve got everything that you want in color/greyscale selected, and the ants are marching all over your screen, go to Select>Save Selection.

Name the selection something and press OK.

Hold down Option key and click on your mask thumb to open it.

Go to Select>Load selection.  Change the Channel pulldown menu to what you just named it.

Fill the selection Black either by Edit>Fill, or by using the shortcuts: (D) then (X) then ( + delete).

Edit>Select All ( + a)

Edit>Copy ( + c)

Switch to the other layer mask

Edit>Paste ( + v)

Image>Adjustments>Invert

And here is what your two masks should look like:

If you hide one of the layers, then this is what each one should look like:

What’s cool about this is now we can edit each part of the image separately.  You can literally do whatever you want to the other half of the image with effects and color adjustments.

If you have a keen eye, you may have noticed that the file size is starting to get quite large.  Let’s go ahead and apply the layer mask to each layer.  This will reduce the file size quite a bit.  To do this, right click on the layer mask.  Select apply layer mask.  

The next step is to create several copies of each layer and have a bit of fun to see what you can get.  You don’t have to do this, but I would recommend it just as a quick way of comparing a few different design alternatives.

This is where layer comps comes in handy.  On the top menu, go to Window>Layer Comps.  When you find the winning combination of two layers (or more) turned on, Click on create new layer comp tab on the bottom.  

With Layer Comps, you have the ability to save and review your layer states and composition.  Layer comps will save visibility, position, and your layer style.  

I’ve created a few different layer comps with the six layers that I was working with.  You can scroll through you compositions by using the arrows on the bottom of the panel.

If you were making a poster, you could create several different options with the same file.  Before I knew about this feature, I was constantly saving as… for each new version and it was first of all slow, and always difficult to keep track of which version was what.  Now you know exactly where all of your project revisions are at the click of a button.

Stay tuned for more tips on how to improve your Photoshopping skills.