In this practice we will create a shilluete picture like picture above. Although layer masks are one of the most essential Photoshop features, they can be a bit perplexing. You know they can be used to modify and blend images for complex composites, but if you aren’t at ease with the basic utilities, you could hold yourself back from true image creativity and quick fixes for changing color.

Open “LAYERMASK.PSD” and select the pen tool. Click the Paths icon (not Shapes) in the Options bar and draw a path around the profile. Zoom in and do a little detail work around the eyebrows.

Select the Paths palette, then your work path. Drag the path to the Load path as a selection icon. Select the Head layer in the Layers palette and click the Add a mask icon at the bottom of the palette to mask everything in the image except your selection.

Choose a Soft Round 200-pixel brus (an airbrush works well, too), and set the brush Opacity to 20%. Make sure the Foreground Color is set to black and the layer mask thumbnail is selected, then paint on the face to begin to hide it. The more you click and paint, the more you fade the head image. The beauty of layer masks is their forgiving nature, so if you hide too much, switch the Foreground Color to white and paint to reveal the image. To adjust a mask later, be sure to save the file as a PSD or TIFF with the layers intact.

A layer mask is actually a Grayscale channel, and like any channel, you can copy and paste it from one document to another, then use it to apply color selectively. Option/Alt-click the profile mask thumbnail to view the mask by itself. Command/Ctrl-click the mask thumbnail, and copy it. Open another image for a background; I chose a beach scene.

Click the Create a new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, choose Hue/Saturation, and set a Hue to complement the image. Fill the layer mask with black. Option/Altclick the adjustment layer’s mask thumbnail and paste the copied mask into this mask. Your chosen hue appears only in the copied mask selection. And since it’s an adjustment layer, you can change the settings until you’re satisfied.

When you create an adjustment layer, you get a built-in layer mask. Use a Hue/Saturation layer mask to selectively change color. In the eye image, I wanted to replace the brown iris color with green. I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the image and shifted the Hue to green. (Don’t worry that the entire image changes color.) I clicked the mask thumbnail, filled it black, and painted with white to reveal only the green on the irises. The green isn’t visible elsewhere because of the black mask!

View mask = Option/Alt-click | Toggle mask visibility = Shift-click | Select mask = Command/Ctrl-click

Rich Harris served as Creative Director of Wacom Technology, and has more than 20 years’ experience in digital design, digital illustration, and prepress. He writes on software solutions for national publications and teaches classes in Photoshop. Rewrite by Mommy Hence Blogger Directory Other resource for vector graphics.