February 20th, 2010 Photoshop Instructors
Adjustment and Fill layers have a “mask” attached to them. By painting on the mask, you can limit what areas of your image are affected by the Adjustment or Fill layer. Consider this example, where a Fill layer and an Adjustment layer are added to a 4-layer image.


Here is the Layers palette for this image.
Notice that the Adjustment layer and the Fill layer have two thumbnails. The leftmost thumbnail indicates the adjustment or fill itself and the thumbnail on its right indicates the mask. You can paint on the mask with black, white, or gray to control where the adjustment or fill is applied to the layers below. In this example, the outer edges of the mask on the Fill layer are painted black, making those areas of the layer transparent. That’s why the burnt orange color of the layer is applied only in the center of the layer, where the mask is white.
TIP: If you make a selection before adding an Adjustment layer or Fill layer, the areas outside the selection will be masked. In other words, an adjustment or fill will be applied only within the selected area.
You can make use of this method to correct a backlit photo. Select the central figure, which is too dark, then add a Levels adjustment layer and use it to brighten the figure. If the background is also too bright, select the figure again, invert the selection, then add another Levels adjustment layer and use it to darken the background.
Let’s try it!
- Open a new image (Ctrl+N) 500×500, Background contents: White.
- Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N)
Activate the Paint Bucket tool (K).
Put a check mark in the Pattern box and choose a pattern to fill the new layer with.
Click on the canvas to complete the process.
- Let’s add an adjustment layer just for fun. Click the Adjustment Layer icon and choose Brightness/Contrast from the drop down menu.

- When the dialog pops up, play with the sliders to see what they do. (Please note: I made a copy of the image to show you the difference. The screen capture below shows a bit both images. This is not what you will see)

Choose the Custom Shape tool (U) and choose shape that has an outline, not solid. The one I used is in the Frames library.
Draw the frame out on your canvas.
TIP: You can move it around on the canvas with the Move tool (V) if it isn’t sitting where you want it.
- Activate the Horizontal Type tool (T) and type the text you want on your image. Center it inside the frame with the Move tool (V) if necessary.
Create a new Adjustment Layer and choose Solid Color from the drop down menu.
Pick a color for your layer when the Pick a solid color dialog pops up.
I chose a burnt orange color.
Click OK. Your image will fill with the color that you chose. Don’t panic. We’ll fix this in a second.
**Here is what your Layers palette should look like now:

- We’re going to move this Color Fill 1 layer down in the palette so that it is below the Shape 1 layer. Click on the Color Fill 1 layer in the Layers palette and drag it down. Let go when the layer is below the Shape 1 layer. Your Layers palette should now look like this.

Your text and frame will now appear on top of the color.
- Now we’ll get rid of the color outside the frame, leaving it only inside that area.
- Change your foreground and background colors to the default black and white (Shift+D)
- Activate the Brush tool (B)
- Paint with Black outside the frame. As you paint, you’ll see the background pattern appear.
**Don’t worry if you go overtop of the frame a bit because the color is actually below the frame so any imperfections will not show up. You are painting on a Mask here. Using black allows anything below to show through. White hides what is below.
**If you make a boo boo and accidentally paint black inside the frame, just switch to white (X) and paint over that boo boo part to hide it again. Then switch back to black and continue.
**Don’t forget that you can adjust the size of your brush with the square bracket keys. Make it smaller as you go along the edge of the mask to get into and little crevices.
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. Please join us for Photoshop Elements classes here at LVS.
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