Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
and black. Press X to swap the colors, if necessary, or just press D if for some reason
you don't see black and white.
3.
Paint directly on your image
.
Use the Brush tool (
Picking and Using a Basic Brush
; keyboard shortcut: B) to paint
on the image. Paint an area black to hide it or white to show it. Remember: Black con-
ceals and white reveals. (An easy way to switch between your foreground and back-
ground colors is to press X.)
You can also use the selection tools the same way you would on any other selection to
change the mask's area. (See
Chapter 5
if you need help making selections.) If you
watch the layer mask's thumbnail in the Layers panel, you'll see that it changes to
show where you've painted. This mask thumbnail is the only place where you actu-
ally see black or white paint appear. In your image itself, you just see more or less of
what's in the photo, depending on which color paint you're using. (If you
do
see black
or white paint appearing in your image, press Ctrl+Z/
⌘
-Z to undo it and go back to
step 2 again.)
TIP
You can use shades of gray to adjust a layer mask's transparency. Simply paint on the
mask with gray to change the opacity of the area revealed on the layer. The darker the
gray, the less of what you paint over shows through the mask; the lighter the gray, the
more of what you're painting shows through. Paint with dark gray, for example, for a
faint, ghosted effect, the sort of thing you might use to create a background for stationery.
To make a layer mask visible in the main image window (rather than just as a thumbnail in
the Layers panel), you simply click it in the Layers panel while holding down certain key
combinations. Elements gives you a choice of two different ways to see the masked area, as
shown in
Figure 6-19
. If you Alt-click/Option-click the mask's thumbnail, you see the black-
and-white layer mask (instead of your photo) in the image window. Add the Shift key when
you click to see a red overlay on the photo instead. Press the same keys again while clicking
the mask's thumbnail (or just click the thumbnail of the layer the mask is attached to) to get
back to a regular view of your image.
The black-and-white mask view shows only the mask itself, not your photo beneath it. This
is a good choice when you want to check how clean the edges of your selection are. But if
