How do you turn any picture/image into a layer mask in PS?

[dolphincrazy1]

Hi

Is there a way on turning any picture/image into a layer mask in PS?

Help, thanks in advance!

Julie

 

[IamSam]

Julie, I cleaned up this thread and edited your question.

You need to be a little more specific in what your asking about and maybe provide us with some screenshots.

 

[dolphincrazy1]

Thank you so much for your reply & help, its much appreciated!

Ok this is the picture I took myself & I would like to turn it into a mask to use in Photoshop as follows:


Do I just make it greyscale & then save it as a jpg to then use as a mask?
Although I now understand that if I greyscale it I'd would lose quality out of the picture I took so would I just use as is?
I know this picture above is quite grey but say I was to use a bright colour picture I took would it still be the same technique?

Eg
On layer 1 (bottom layer) colour say dark blue as example.
Layer 2 (top layer) colour light blue as example.
Then add a layer mask to layer 2 by using the icon at bottom of layer palette (camera icon) to get white area etc?

Thanks & I will await your reply!

Julie

 

[IamSam]

OK, I'm not sure I'm understanding what your goal is here! Are you just wanting to add multiple colors to the image?

Like this? (exaggerated of course)

Then add a layer mask to layer 2 by using the icon at bottom of layer palette (camera icon) to get white area etc?

The white can be restored either by a blending mode change or the Brush Tool on a layer mask added to the color fill layer.

 

[dolphincrazy1]

Hi IamSam

Yes I would like to do this & change the colours, can you help me learn how to do this.

I am very new to Photoshop so easy instructions would be great.

Thank you so much for your kindness/help!

Julie

 

[IamSam]

Thank you so much for your kindness/help!

Not a problem so please don't worry about that.

Changing the color of an object which appears in an image is about selecting the object.

So if we have some objects in an image.......


.......and we want o make the box blue, we would have to select the box.

I used the Pen Tool set to path to create a path outlining the box.


I then right clicked within the path and chose "make a selection".


Next I went to the half moon icon located at the bottom of the layers panel, and chose "solid color".
This opens a solid color fill adjustment layer with it's own layer mask. It also open the color picker to allow your to choose a color.
The selection is transferred to the layer mask.

Set the solid color fill layer to the blending mode of choice, here I used multiply, and lowered the opacity.


Now the box is blue.


If I want to change the color of the box, all I need to do is double click the solid color adjustment layer fills thumbnail, this opens the color picker again, and then choose a new color.

 

[IamSam]

The same principle applies to your lake photo.

Make a selection of the water....


Then add a color fill adjustment layer. This time I set it's blending mode to color.


And we have added color to the water. (exaggerated on purpose)

 

[IamSam]

You can also use a Hue & Saturation adjustment layer as well.

 

[IamSam]

You would use the same procedure as I described in post #6 and #7 to do the sky.

I used the Quick Selection Tool to select the sky...


Then add a color fill adjustment layer. I set it's blending mode to color.