layer mask question

DeanSDeanS Registered Users Posts: 21 Big grins
edited July 15, 2009 in Finishing School
I have a photo that I and I want to select only part ot it to appear on a new layer but I'm not doing something quite right. If someone sees what I'm doing wrong could you let me know. Here are the steps:

open photo
layer->new layer
layer->layer mask->hide all
then I paint with white over that parts that I want to keep

I see the white appearing on the black mask okay. I was expecting that the parts that I painted over would now appear on the new layer but I'm not getting that.

Comments

  • TonyCooperTonyCooper Registered Users Posts: 2,276 Major grins
    edited July 13, 2009
    DeanS wrote:
    I have a photo that I and I want to select only part ot it to appear on a new layer but I'm not doing something quite right. If someone sees what I'm doing wrong could you let me know. Here are the steps:

    open photo
    layer->new layer
    layer->layer mask->hide all
    then I paint with white over that parts that I want to keep

    I see the white appearing on the black mask okay. I was expecting that the parts that I painted over would now appear on the new layer but I'm not getting that.

    I'm not quite sure what you're doing, but when I use a layer mask to make a selection of one part of it, I:

    1. Duplicate background layer
    2. Add new layer and move that layer between the background layer and the background copy layer.
    3. Turn off visibility of background layer.
    4. Make the background layer copy a layer mask.
    5. Paint, with the brush tool, on the background layer copy with black as the foreground color to remove the parts of the image that are not in the selection. The brush is acting as an eraser, but keying "x" will make the brush white and reverse the eraser if you make a mistake.

    (You can paint what you want to keep if you hold down Alt when creating the layer mask and use the "all hidden" black mask, but I think that's more difficult to work with. That's what you seem to be doing.)

    The new layer in step 2 is blank (checkerboard) and allows you to see where you've painted. The original - the background layer - is sitting there unseen and unchanged.
    Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
    http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/
  • peedeepeedee Registered Users Posts: 7 Beginner grinner
    edited July 14, 2009
    DeanS wrote:
    I have a photo that I and I want to select only part ot it to appear on a new layer but I'm not doing something quite right. If someone sees what I'm doing wrong could you let me know. Here are the steps:

    open photo
    layer->new layer
    layer->layer mask->hide all
    then I paint with white over that parts that I want to keep

    I see the white appearing on the black mask okay. I was expecting that the parts that I painted over would now appear on the new layer but I'm not getting that.

    Replace your second step with layer->duplicate layer
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,703 moderator
    edited July 14, 2009
    DeanS wrote:
    I have a photo that I and I want to select only part ot it to appear on a new layer but I'm not doing something quite right. If someone sees what I'm doing wrong could you let me know. Here are the steps:

    open photo
    layer->new layer
    layer->layer mask->hide all
    then I paint with white over that parts that I want to keep

    I see the white appearing on the black mask okay. I was expecting that the parts that I painted over would now appear on the new layer but I'm not getting that.

    "Black conceals and white reveals"

    If I have an image, and I select a portion of that image with any of the selection tools, magic wand, quick selection tool, or even quick mask, -- once I have the selection outlined with marching ants, hitting ctrl-J will create a new layer with just the selected area in it. Once you have the selection on a new layer, the blending mode can be used to control how it blends with the original layer.
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • DeanSDeanS Registered Users Posts: 21 Big grins
    edited July 15, 2009
    yes
    The first and third suggest are getting close to what I imagined. Actually if you look on page 424 of "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book" by Martin Evening you will see several checker board layers with bits of the image in it, aw well as a layer with a black mask and a layer with a white mask. He seems to be using all of the techniques that people have been suggesting.
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