Isolating transparency of a layer by using another layers visibility

You don’t always need layer masks – sometimes just a layer is enough!

Layer masks are fantastic and offer the ultimate way to create editable transparency, but sometimes you don’t need them to mask off a layer. A good example of this is a gradient on a layer above to shade a layer below, or a label on a product visual, where you have the product visual cut out on to transparent on a layer below the label layer above it.

The long way of doing this would be to create a selection of the item below, then either create a layer mask on the layer above-or dread the thought-actually delete the image data from the layer above-this one is obviously not advisable!

Save yourself some time, scratch disk and file size by simply alt-clicking between the two layers-your cursor will change as you move between the two layers. This masks off the layer above according to transparency on the layer below. The way this is indicated by the layers palette is by the layer thumbnail above shifting to the right, and a little arrow apearing to the left pointing down to the layer below.

BONUS TIP
Your can perform this on multiple layers and its especially usefull with adjustment layers-great for isolating colour corrections to a single layer!