Page 59 - CC2018_PS_Look_Inside

13. Experiment with the various adjustments until you’re satisfied with the
selection edge.

We increased the Smooth value to 10 to reduce jagged effects at the selection edge.

14. Expand the Output Settings in the Properties panel and choose the Layer
Mask option in the Output To menu. Note:
This menu can be used to create a new layer or file (with or Decontaminate Colors
without a mask) from the selection. You want to mask the can be checked to remove
existing layer, so you are using the Layer Mask option. a certain percentage of

color from the edge of a
15. Click OK to accept your refined selection. selection.
When you pasted the feathered selection from the original Lightning.jpg file, you pasted
only the pixels inside the selection area; unselected pixels from the original image are not
a part of the composite file.
Rather than simply excluding or deleting pixels, a layer mask simply hides unwanted
pixels. The mask you just created is a raster-based pixel mask; unselected (masked) areas
are hidden but not deleted, so you can later edit the mask to change the visible part
of the image. This is a non-destructive way to hide certain elements of a layer without
permanently deleting pixels; you can edit or disable the layer mask at any time. Note:
A layer mask is basically
an Alpha channel that
is connected to a specific
layer.

The resulting layer
mask hides areas that
were not selected.

16. Control/right-click the mask thumbnail and choose Disable Layer Mask
from the contextual menu.
When you disable the mask, the background pixels are again visible. This is one of the
advantages of using masks — the background pixels are not permanently removed, they
are simply hidden.

When the mask is
disabled, the masked
pixels are visible.
A red X indicates that
the mask is disabled.

Click the thumbnail
to open the mask’s
contextual menu.

Project 1: Music CD Artwork 69