Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Clipping Masks

When you create a Clipping Mask, Photoshop will change the active layer so that it shows up only where there is information on the layer directly below it. Then, to show you that something special is going on with the layer you were working on, it indents the layer preview thumbnail in the Layers palette and adds a small down pointing arrow to indicate that this layer now relates to the layer directly below it (Figures 15.2 and 15.3). The underlying layer is the Clipping Mask, and the layer with the arrow next to it is the one being clipped by that mask. You can have a Clipping Mask apply to multiple layers, effectively making multiple layers show up only where there is information on one layer. The arrows indicate which layer ...