Step up your Photoshop game – Mask It Like a Pro!
Example from the course Mask It Like a Pro!: Selective editing using a set of complex layer masks.
Layer masking is undoubtedly one of the most fundamental skills you need in order to master Photoshop. If you don’t know how to create and use layer masks properly, the power of Photoshop shrinks down to a fraction of its true potential because the whole concept of layers becomes more or less useless. Layer masks allow you to reveal certain parts of a layer and hide others, and this paves the way to selective editing techniques and compositing methods that allow you to change and compose your images in ways that are only limited by your imagination.
Layer masking is an art and a craft
But really mastering layer masking requires more than a few clicks. In fact, this is an art form by itself. There is a whole set of masking tools that the average Photoshop user doesn’t even know and that allow you to create precise masks quickly. There are very efficient workflows that allow you to build your masks, to combine them and to piece them together to make even more complex masks. There are ways of working non-destructively with your masks and retain full control at any stage of your editing workflow. This is vital if you are developing your own vision of an image while you are working on it as it allows you to change the composition of your images quickly.
The fundamental knowledge that you need to step up your layer masking game to a professional level is actually a whole set of tools, techniques and workflows that you can combine in many ways.
Step up your game!
Mask It Like a Pro! is our 6-hour video course that teaches you these skills from the ground up. It was designed for beginners and advanced Photoshop users alike. Watch the the video below to get an overview of the course and each individual chapter.
In the 21 lessons of the course, we start by looking at the basics of layer masks and selections and then we proceed to highly advanced techniques like channel-based masks, paths, vector masks, luminosity masking and freehand masking. At the end of this course you will be able to create even the most complex masks efficiently.
The course comes with 20+ resources including the original source photos, Photoshop projects, actions and even a new Photoshop masking extension. It is built on our new PCS Video platform that integrates all of these components in a convenient learning environment that allows you to learn very effectively.
Visit the course page for more information and a lesson-by-lesson break-down of the contents.
Save up to 20% with our discountdown special
For the launch of this course, we are running a special 6-day discountdown sale.
If you buy on July 10th-11th, you will get 20% off the regular price. On July 12th-13th you will get 15% discount. And finally, on July 14th -15th you will still get a 10% discount.
After July 15th, we will restore the regular price for this course again. So, make sure you snatch your discount now!
I purchased the “mask it like a pro” tutorials last week. I watched two of them immediately, but now I’m having trouble launching them again. I have all the files, but I’m not sure how to open them in Chrome. Any suggestions.
Thanks for such a great tutorial series. I really like your work.
Eric Anderson
Hi Eric,
To start the PCS Player again, navigate to the directory where you installed the course. The default would be called “The Photo Cookbook Series”. In that directory, you should find a file called “start now.html”. Note that the extension will be hidden on some systems. Simply open this HTML file in Chrome: E.g. on Windows, right-click, choose “Open in…” and the Chrome.
Make sure you bookmark the page to have it available quicker for the next start. It’s basically a web page like any other.
Regards
Klaus