From the course: Photoshop 2024 Essential Training

Using clipping masks to hide and show layers - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop 2024 Essential Training

Start my 1-month free trial

Using clipping masks to hide and show layers

“

- [Instructor] Clipping masks are another way to mask the contents of a layer or of multiple layers to one another. In this example, we'll use a clipping mask to clip multiple photographs to the multiple shapes that make up the heart, and then we'll clip a single photograph to all three shapes. So I want to clip this waterfall photograph to this color fill layer on the left hand side. So I will make it visible as well as target it, and then choose layer and create clipping mask. Or we could use the keyboard shortcut, command option G on Mac or Ctrl+Alt+G on windows. Now, when a layer is clipped, the base layer has this underline and the top layer is indented, and it's got the small downward pointing arrow icon to the left of it. This is a very flexible way to have a photograph mask to a shape because I can select the photograph and with the move tool, I can reposition the photo or I can select the shape and then reposition the shape. Alright, I'll use command Z in order to undo that. Then I'll target the basalt columns and make them visible, and I want to clip them to the color fill three layer. Now, I could return to the layer menu, but it's easier if I hold down the option key on Mac and alt key on Windows and then I see the icon that looks like the square with the downward pointing arrow. Now you want to be careful because if you don't see that icon and you option click on a layer, you're going to zoom to the contents of that layer. So just make sure you see the icon and then click in order to have it clip and then I'll use the move tool to just reposition that. I'll do the same thing with the monolith. I'll make it visible, target it, hold down the option key, and then click in between. What I like about clipping groups is that they're very easy to change. If, for example, I want to move the basalt columns to the left and the waterfall to the right, it's very easy to option click again to release the clipping groups. Then I can reorder them so that the waterfall layer is above color three, and the basalt column comes down to just be above color fill one. We clip both of those and then I just need to move the basalt columns over to the left. But what if I want to display the waterfall photograph in the three shape layers? Well, I'm going to choose image and then duplicate and let's duplicate this so its own new document. I don't need the basalt columns and I don't need the monolith. So I will drag them down to the trash icon and I will release the clipping group from the waterfall to color fill three. I'll position that at the top of the layer stack, but I can only clip the waterfall to a single layer. So I can't clip it to all three of these shapes and I don't want to merge them onto one layer because that makes it a little bit more difficult to move the shapes around. So instead, I can select all three of these layers, drag 'em down to the group icon or the folder icon so that they're all in one group and then with the waterfall targeted, I'll hold down the option or alt key, and then I can group the photograph of the waterfall to group one so that the waterfall layer is only seen where there's contents in group one. So you can see by using clipping masks, we can easily clip an image so that it only appears where there's information, in this case, shapes on the layer or layers that it's clipped to.

Contents