Advertisements



« | Main | »

Layer Mask from Grayscale Image

July 25, 2004 | Posted by Cari Jansen

Digitip 025 – Adobe Photoshop CS

(revision 1.1)

During a Saturday training session, one of the trainees asked a question about creating a layer mask based on an existing greyscale image. A solution was found, that seemed too much like a work around. The following tip uses a copy-’n-paste approach.

The images

Start by opening both images. The image that will be masked and the greyscale image.

sydney pic

The destination image.

grayscale image

The greyscale image (grayscale if you’re in the U.S.).

If your image is inversed then use the Image> Adjustment>Inverse command to swap the black and white colours around.

Converting Background to Layer.

double click background

Next, convert the Background into a layer by double clicking the Background icon. The New Layer dialog box will appear.

make new layer from background

Either enter a new layer name, or keep the default “Layer 0″. Don’t amend any other settings. Click OK to convert the Background to Layer 0.

Creating a layer mask.

layer mask button click

With Layer 0 selected, click the “new layer mask” button at the bottom of the layers palette . A blank mask is added to the image. Click the mask icon in the layers palette to select the mask. Then access the channels palette. The mask channel is automatically selected.

layer mask channel show

With the layer mask selected click the view mask icon, then paste the copied greyscale image. (Edit > Paste).

layer mask channel hidden

To view the image without the “red” maske overlay deselect the view Layer 0 Mask icon again.

image with layer mask

The finished result provides transparency for black maske areas and semi transparency (opacity) for grey areas in the mask. Use the painting tools to expand the mask if required (when placing over larger image files), and move the mask to preferred position over the image (remember to UNLINK first when doing this, as you’d be moving both image and mask simultaneously otherwise.)

Save the file as a native Photoshop file (retain layers) then place it into your favourite page layout appliation … InDesign CS :-)

final result in indesign

Ta-daaaaaah!

There are a number of methods to create the above generated affect, and this tip merely outlines one of the many methods available in Photoshop. Thanks for asking the question Josh!

Topics: Adobe, Photoshop | 13 Comments »

13 Responses to “Layer Mask from Grayscale Image”

  1. Riikka says:
    July 22nd, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    Many thanks for this tip, it is still valid and works perfectly, five years on.

  2. Cari Jansen says:
    July 22nd, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    @Riikka: Glad it was of help :-) Always nice to get feedback from readers :-)

    I’ve been thinking I should re-record some of the older tutorials one day in the latest version :-) but never seem to have enough free time to do that and end up recording other stuff instead :-)

    Cheers,

    Cari

  3. “Secret” lighting correction technique in Photoshop « TurboManage says:
    October 15th, 2009 at 1:21 am

    [...] The desaturated negative also makes a great mask for other types of adjustment layers, like Brightness / Contrast and Exposure. It is not intuitive, but I found instructions here. [...]

  4. gabrielkfl says:
    June 27th, 2010 at 11:14 pm

    Thank you very much. Works great.

    Much easier to create layer masks this way. I get to work on it with as much detail as I want and can make shades out of images.

    Really good. Saved my life. Thanks. ^^

  5. Cari Jansen says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 3:46 pm

    @gabriel

    thanks for the feedback. glad the tip was of help.

    Cari

  6. fred eric says:
    November 26th, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    was looking for this for ages. and it’s so easy!!
    thanks

  7. dollarbindot says:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 6:57 pm

    first google result for “convert layer to mask”, I knew there must be a way! Clear and concise, gradient blur amongst others will be much more accurate in future

  8. sd says:
    March 11th, 2011 at 3:36 pm

    Thanks a lot for this tip because I had been looking for it for ages! I’ve been using it for a while now and just discovered this extra bit, so I thought I’d share: without going into channels, alt clicking on the layer mask and pasting seems to work as well (I’m using CS5 ext and windows).

  9. Cari Jansen says:
    March 14th, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    thanks @sd :-)

    yeah, masking certainly has changed in recent versions of Photoshop. I should rewrite some of these older posts when I have some free time :)

  10. Steve T. says:
    June 25th, 2011 at 6:20 am

    Thanks, both methods – with channels and alt clicking work great !

    I wonder why such an obvious feature was not implemented in more intuitive way in Photoshop ?

  11. Patrick says:
    October 10th, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    Thanks for the guide. Very easy to follow!

  12. Cari Jansen says:
    October 14th, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    Thanks Patrick, glad it was helpful.

  13. FlashJog says:
    December 28th, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    thanks ,
    i’m using gimp but this article is really help me
    (it give me a clue about how i could do “create mask form image” in gimp)

Comments

Trademarks: Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Creative Suite, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Disclaimer: While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this web-site, the creator shall not have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information or instructions contained in this web-site, or by the computer software and hardware products described therein.