At the suggestion of *shadowbuilder7 I have decided to make a series of video tutorials that cover the many different approaches for masking in Photoshop.

First off to insure that we are all on the same sheet of music a mask, in the simplest terms, is a method of making a precise selection. Perhaps it can be argued that masking is this or that but when it all comes out in the wash it is still a selection but one that is as simple or complex as you wish it to be.

We all love the “WOW” effect that we can so often produce using Photoshop. With just a few clicks of the mouse and often very little effort we will see amazing results appear right before our eyes. This however is not the case with masking. Discussing the techniques of masking is about as appetizing as eating a bowl of sand. Regardless of the less than exciting nature of masking it is essential that anyone who hopes to master Photoshop learn to use and apply masking in all of it forms.

Though the creation of the mask and alpha channels them selves will by no means be the highlight of your Photoshop experience the end result when the mask is applied will often give you far more stunning results that than even the most well constructed Layer Style or extraction can do by it’s self. I try, and often fail, to make my movies fun. Please bear with me since these will most likely not be but I hope that by starting simple and gaining momentum by building on what we have already learned we will be able to move forward in our use of this wonderful application.

The Next issue that concerns me is that of files sizes and the length of the movies them selves. I want so much for anyone who has a desire to learn to have access to these tutorials. But I fear that many of them will be large and I don’t know how to avoid it. Even though the basic idea of masking is simple the applications are many and often complex.

Unlike a specific technique that we fallow masking is often more of a concept that a set routine. This makes recording them difficult. Those of you who have viewed my silly little movies know that I have a bad habit of getting off subject and often discuss related topics or even non related topics. I can’t afford to do this and since there is no “true” starting or ending point for a given subject.

I plan to start with the most basic use of layer mask. Most of this has been covered in other movies but added to a specific technique. Then I hope to get into the Quick Masking as well as manual masking with alpha channels, how to save selections as an alpha channel and apply them to a layer mask if so desired.

It will also be wise for any of you who intend to truly but masking to the test to place your Channels Pallet up front and not keep it tucked in behind the layers pallet. I have been messing around with mask for ages it seems but was never smart enough to do this until it was suggested by `justthorne earlier this year. Having you channels right in front of you at all time will help out a great deal when we start getting into masking with alpha channels for the last 3 or 4 movies in this series.

To round up the series I want to delve into the masking technique described by Deke McClelland in his Photoshop Bible series where will apply the High Pass Filter to a copy of the green channel and create a mask of unsurpassed detail to cut-out or hide a portion of an image.

With all of that said I will close out this long winded entry concerning my plans for the coming weeks.

Lastly I hope that all of my videos, movies or what ever you choose to call them will come in handy for those interested in learning the principles behind Photoshop. Many of us are visual learners and though these little movies simply can not compete with the videos that you would pay for due to the constrains of file size. Even so they are free for any and all to view and learn from and thanks to deviantART you can view them with out pop up windows or otherwise annoying adds

If you have are new to my user page and or have very little or no experience with Photoshop it you may wish to view the older movies in my gallery first. They tend to go much slower and cover simple themes. In the newer movies I tend to talk heavily concerning short-cuts and hot-key my way rather quickly.

Anyway please have a wonderful day all,

Barry