Using A Photo To Mask Itself In Photoshop
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Written By Steve Patterson
In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to learn how to use a photo as a layer mask, essentially using the image to mask itself, something that Photoshop doesn't normally allow us to do.
We'll be using it to give the image a nice soft glow effect, but if you experiment on your own, you'll find lots of creative ways to use this technique.
Here's the photo I'll be using for this tutorial:
And here's the finished result:
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Let's get started.
Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer
As always, the first thing we're going to do is duplicate the Background layer so we're not touching our original pixel information. To do that, use the quick keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac), and Photoshop will go ahead and give us a copy of our Background layer, which it names "Layer 1":
Step 2: Add A New Layer Below The Duplicate Background Layer
We're going to add a new layer between the Background layer and "Layer 1". Normally Photoshop adds new layers above the currently selected layer in the Layers palette, but we can tell Photoshop to add the new layer below it instead by holding down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) and then clicking the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
We now have a new blank layer between the Background layer and "Layer 1":
Step 3: Fill The New Layer With White
Press D on your keyboard to reset your Foreground color to black and your Background color to white. Then, with the new blank layer selected, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the layer with the Background color, which in this case is white. You won't see anything happen in the Document Window since "Layer 1" is blocking the new layer from view, but if you look in the Layers palette, you'll see the layer's thumbnail preview area now filled with white:
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