Quick Tip: How to edit your masks in Photoshop

On many of our tutorials, we have used the mask tool to develop beautiful illustrations and designs because it’s a great way to work over a single part of the design without affecting the rest, which is something that in the past was considerably hard to do. But what if we want our masks to actually affect a little bit the outbound parts of the chosen area?, well since the release of the Creative Suite 4, we are able to adjust the properties of the masks, including its sharpness and range, let’s see what this is about and how does it work.

For start, we have our initial background, just a random pattern with some filters, nothing special.

Duplicate the layer, switch its blending mode to multiply and add it a little blur, then add it a gradient overlay. This has nothing to do with the masks, it’s pure creativity.

We’re doing all of this to not just show you how to use the mask but how to use it in a creative way.

Now that we have the filling, proceed by making a random shape on the same layer.

Move to the paths menu and select the path, then right click over the path and choose “make selection”.

Having the selection, go back to the layers menu and select “add vector mask”.

And now we have the masked fill.

From this point we begin with the essential part of the tip. Make sure that you have the mask selected and you will see the mask menu showing up.

On this Masks menu you can edit a lot of things to adjust the mask according to your preferences.

And there you have it, now you know how to customize your masks in order to accomplish great results, leave us your comments and let us know which tips are you waiting for.

 

 

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Author: Juan Pablo Sarmiento Founder and curator of:
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