The Photoshop Tip of the Week for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

For any of you who still travel on a frequent basis, you'll be very familiar with what I'm doing as I write this tip. I'm becoming a highly trained „waiter.‰ Not to be confused with someone who waits tables, rather someone who spends much of their time in airports doing a great deal of standing and sitting and waiting, followed by more waiting, followed by more standing and sitting. It's the latest irrefutable fact of life, and I'm taking it as a personal challenge to find ways to stay alert and productive while I practice this new art form. The good news is that the better I get at „waiting,‰ the more material you get to add to your arsenal of Photoshop tips. At the last corporate training event, someone asked about creating collages in Photoshop and that got my mind wandering to one of my favorite features--Layer Masks. We talked about them back in April, but I thought of a few new tips that I'd like to share with you. (If you're not familiar with Layer Masks, then be sure to check out my last installment of Layer Mask tips at www.digitalmastery.com/tips/041801tip.html)

When you first add a Layer Mask to a layer, the mask will be active, so any painting you do will affect the mask instead of the actual image data. But, if you make a different layer active and then switch back to the layer that has the mask applied to it, Photoshop will make the image active instead of the Layer Mask. That means you have to be careful anytime you switch between layers, otherwise you might unintentionally start messing with your image instead of the layer mask. You can use a little safety net by turning on the Lock Image Pixels icon at the top of the Layers palette (it's the checkbox to the left of the paintbrush icon). With that turned on, you will not be able to paint on the image, but you'll still be able to paint on the layer mask. That way, if you switch layers and don't realize that the image is active, you'll get a warning telling you that the image is locked, which should remind you to click on the Layer Mask instead.

When you add a Layer Mask to a layer, Photoshop automatically places a link symbol between the image thumbnail and the Layer Mask thumbnail in your Layers palette. That link causes the Layer Mask to move along with the layer anytime you use the Move tool. If you don't want them both to move at the same time, then click on the link symbol to turn it off. Once you've done that, the Move tool will only be able to move what's active--either the layer mask, or the image on that layer. A double border around the thumbnail image will indicate what's active.

When the Layer Mask is linked to the layer, the mask will cause parts of the layer to become hidden, and have an effect on where any Layer Styles show up (like drop shadows). The reason for this is that the Layer Style thinks the hidden areas are actually deleted areas and will therefore simply ignore those areas. If you'd rather not have the Layer Mask affect where the effects show up, then unlink the Layer Mask. When you do that, the effects will apply where they usually would and the Layer Mask will mask not only the image that's on that layer, but it will also make any effects disappear where the mask is filled with black.

If you'd rather not have the mask clip away the layer effects, then you'll need to keep the mask linked to the layer. But then how do you move the mask and leave the image stationary? All you have to do is choose Select>All and then use the Move tool. When you do that, the Move tool will only move what's active (image or mask).

Ok, one last Layer Mask tip: You can Command-click (Mac), or Ctrl-click (Win) in the middle of a Layer Mask and you'll end up with a selection based on the contents of the layer mask. The black areas of the mask will turn into a selection.

How would you like to have me spend the day at your office and show you and your cohorts some tips that are specific to your type of work? Or better yet, why not learn how Photoshop is organized and understand the logic behind things like color management, channels, resolution and more? How can you do that? Well, I'm available for corporate training events all over the world, point your browser to www.digitalmastery.com/mainsite/inhouse for details.

Talk to you next week.

-Ben Willmore