Layer Masks Trick in Photoshop CC

Here is a layer masks trick I use in Photoshop all the time when dealing with textures. It’s quick way to make a tiling texture also and get rid of seams.

Layer masks are very powerful as they allow non-destructive workflow, you can just paint black and white values hiding and revealing the layer below. You can also go back always to further define your masks, something that is impossible to do if you use the cloning or healing brush method. It’s good to use brushes that are sharp and have relatively small falloff in order to avoid introducing softness to the image.

This is also good to use if you need to hide parts of an image. You can hide the part you like, and then simply move the underlying layer to replace the part. It’s also kind of mesmerising to see this happening a fun way to do this. This is something I use all the time when I deal with images or textures like this. The possibilities are amazing as you can combine parts of the image and see the effect instantly.

You can also apply effects to the layer masks since what they basically are is just black and white image. Grey values can also be used to indicate semi-transparency.

It’s also good idea to keep the original untouched layer in the stack just in case you want to return back to the original or use parts of the original one.

I hope you find this useful. Please feel free to share this with your friends.