What's new
By:
Photoshop Gurus Forum

Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

layer mask not working


W

waltl

Member
Messages
10
Likes
1
Dear Folks,
This is an odd one. When I create a new layer via Merge Visible/ option(alt) and add a layer mask. masking isn't visible on the layer. The layer mask works fine on the other layers in the image. I use Merge Visible/ option(alt) as a "snapshot" to collect all the work I've done so far without losing all the stuff I did before. any ideas? Thanks for your help!
 
It would help if you posted your PSD file so that others could see what the problem is. But... what you seem to be describing is that you have created a top layer that contains a snapshot of all other layers below it. In that case, there is nothing to mask. If you mask-away anything from your top layer, then what's revealed below is precisely the same image that you created from all your other layers. The mask "works", but it has no effect on what you see.

If your intention is to compare the new snapshot layer to the original background layer, then you would need to turn off the layer visibility of all the intermediate layers. At that point, a mask on the top layer should work as you would expect.

Perhaps I've completely misunderstood your problem, in which case ignore me (except for the part about attaching your PSD file).

Rich
 
Rich54 said:
It would help if you posted your PSD file so that others could see what the problem is. But... what you seem to be describing is that you have created a top layer that contains a snapshot of all other layers below it. In that case, there is nothing to mask. If you mask-away anything from your top layer, then what's revealed below is precisely the same image that you created from all your other layers. The mask "works", but it has no effect on what you see.

If your intention is to compare the new snapshot layer to the original background layer, then you would need to turn off the layer visibility of all the intermediate layers. At that point, a mask on the top layer should work as you would expect.

Perhaps I've completely misunderstood your problem, in which case ignore me (except for the part about attaching your PSD file).

Rich
Click to expand...
Dear Rich,
I think you've hit the nail on the head. That makes sense. Thank you!!
 
Glad I could help. Just so you know, there is another way to accomplish what you want instead of creating a "snapshot" layer. Select all of your layers, but exclude the Background layer. Then create a layer group of the selected layers by clicking on Layers>Group Layers. Once the layer group is created, you can apply a mask to that. The mask will affect all layers within the layer group.
 
Back
Top