Adobe Photoshop, 2nd Edition, 2nd Edition

Lesson B: Selections & Masking

Selections are a big part of Photoshop. They’re how we tell the application which pixels we want to affect. Masks are a means of hiding pixels, areas of an image we don’t want to see. We could delete those pixels, but we might regret it. I make mistakes and change my mind sometimes, and so do my clients. You too? Hiding areas with a mask means we can reveal those pixels if minds change or errors are discovered. That’s why masking is considered a best practice.

Masking Metaphor

Let’s borrow a visual from the “Selections & Masks” chapter of the Compendium. You really should check out “A Metaphor and Example” (page 289) for the full story. But in brief, a mask acts like a kind of light-block that prevents the entire ...