ABCs OF MASKS
Notice that the sub-title of this tutorial is "Unmasking The Mystery Of The Mask" (singular) as opposed to "Unmasking The Mystery Of Masks" (plural). That because ANY mask (e.g., face mask, gas mask, masking tape, masquerade mask, Halloween mask, swim mask, make-up mask, password mask), regardless whether is it digital or not, they ALL can do three things:
- show what is under it
- hide what is under it
- protect what is under it
If you take a close look at Photoshop (as well as many other image editing programs), you will discover that three major concepts are all a form of a mask:
- A selection can be treated as a mask
- A layer can be treated as a mask
- A mask (obviously) is a mask
Having said that, let's see how they can all be viewed as a mask:
- A selection can be treated as a "transparent" mask. It shows, hides or protects pixels under it. You will see later that a selection can be “seen” as a mask by turning the Edit in Quick Mask mode on.
- A layer can be thought of as a mask if it has transparent or translucent areas so that the underlying pixels of the layer(s) below it can be seen.
- A mask regardless of its type (e.g., Layer/Vector, Clipping, Gradient, Filter) can show, hide or protect bitmap, vector, effect or layer properties associated with it.