Photoshop Tutorials

Making a mask from a selection -         Draw some brushstrokes on an empty layer -         Make a new layer and fill it with lots of color -         Ctrl click the first layers thumbnail and then the vector mask button -         Turn off the first layer to see that the new layer has a vector mask identicial to the shape and opacity of the first layer

Selections Some useful things you might not know about selection If you want to select an area the same shape as a layer, hold CTRL and click on the layer thumbnail. The selection tool is not restricted to a binary choice between an area that is selected and an area that is not. You can have semi-transparent selections: -         On an empty layer make a gradient from opaque to transparent. -         Use free transform ( Ctrl+T )     shrink it. Hold Shift when resizing to maintain the proporthion. If you haven’t used   free transform yet, it lets you resize, skew and distort the selected layer.  Click and drag a corner point to resize, Ctrl click and drag a corner point to affect just that corner, Ctrl click and drag on any side to skew the whole layer. Move the cursor near a corner and you get a rotate option. Hold SHIFT when rotating to snap ...