Photoshop Ninja
Expert Photoshop tips and tricks for designers and photographers since 2005
Showing, hiding and editing layer masks quickly
Layer masks are the Photoshop users best friend – learn them well young ninja!
When you are working on a layer mask, rather than just brush randomly – it is often useful to actually see the channel/greyscale image that is making up the layer mask. When you select a layer that has a layer mask in, you will see it revealed as a temporary channel in the channels palette. Just as you can with any other channel, you can toggle its visibility here by clicking on the ‘eye’ next to it – by default it will be off. This overlays the layer mask ontop of oyur other layers. But of-course there is an easier and quicker way than keep on mousing over to the channels palette, which interupts the flow of your layer mask editing.
Simply hit the / key on your keyboard, which basically performs the same action as making the layer mask visible in the channels palette. If you hit it again, it hides the actual layer mask ‘channel’ visibility.
If you find the default red colour unsuitable for your work, or you want to alter the opacity of the overlayed visible layer mask, just double click on the layer mask in the channels palette. You will now have the option to change its colour when made visible. You can also alter the opacity – by turning the opacity up to 100% you can perform a final check on your layer mask so you can catch whispy light detail or any stray bits of your layer mask.
BONUS TIP
Its easy to save a layer mask, either as a working stage or as a backup. When it is visible in the channels palette, just drag the channel down onto the new channel icon and it will save it as an alpha channel.
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Written by Jonny Allbut - freelance graphic designer
Last modified: 16 March, 2009 (13:27) | First published: 7 June, 2005
Filed under Photoshop Top Tips, Shortcuts - Other, Techniques - Layer 3 Comments »
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Comment by Maria
August 20, 2009 @ 4:51 am
Hi, is this a Mac tip? I have CS4 on a PC and all the / key appears to do is lock the layer I was on (in the layers pallet) and does nothing when I have layer mask channel highlighted. I am unsure if I have missed something.
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
September 28, 2009 @ 1:58 pm
Yes, this the keyboard shortcuts are for Mac. I can’t comment on CS4 as I (and none of my clients!) have upgraded so neither have I!
Comment by zerofirefox
May 19, 2010 @ 8:30 pm
PC shortcut is “\” ironic isn’t it