User Guide

105
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 2.0
User Guide
Editing a mask involves painting or erasing with
black, white, or shades of gray. When you select an
adjustment or fill layer in the Layers palette, the
color swatches in the toolbox are black and white.
To add to the mask, paint with black or erase with
white. The mask defines areas that aren’t affected
by an adjustment or fill layer. To subtract from
the mask, paint with white or erase with black.
Subtracting from the mask increases the area
affected by an adjustment or fill layer. Painting or
erasing in shades of gray will remove areas from
the mask and add areas to the mask in various
levels of transparency.
Adjustment layer with triangular mask added
To edit the layer mask for an adjustment or fill layer:
1 Select the adjustment layer or fill layer in the
Layers palette.
2 Select the paintbrush tool, or any painting or
editing tool.
3 Use the following methods to view the
layer mask:
• Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS)
the layer’s leftmost thumbnail to view only the
grayscale mask. Alt/Option-click the thumbnail
again to redisplay the other layers.
• Hold down Alt+Shift (Windows) or
Option+Shift (Mac OS), and click the layer’s
leftmost thumbnail to view the mask in a red
masking color. Hold down Alt/Option+Shift
and click the thumbnail again to turn off the red
display.
4 To constrain editing to part of the mask, make a
selection. (See “Selecting pixels” on page 114.)
5 Edit the layer mask:
• To remove areas of the adjustment effect or fill,
paint the layer mask with black.
• To add areas to the adjustment effect or fill,
paint the layer mask with white.
• To partially remove the adjustment effect or fill
so that it shows in various levels of transparency,
paint the layer mask with gray. (Double-click
the foreground color swatch in the toolbox to
choose a gray shade in the Color Picker.) The
extent to which the effect or fill is removed
depends on the tones of gray you use to paint.
Darker shades are more transparent; lighter
shades are more opaque.
Shift-click the mask thumbnail (the layer’s
rightmost thumbnail) in the Layers palette to
turn off the mask; click the thumbnail again to
turn on the mask.