Cool Tools

Smart people are really amazing. They somehow find the time to put together thoughts and processes that make life easier for everyone else. For some reason Adobe has chosen to keep one of the most useful tools from the hands of the Photoshop Elements user. This would be the layer mask. Now there is a work around in Elements (see the shot below) that creates a clipping mask that is simply a static levels adjustment layer.

Ok... So here comes the smoke and mirrors. I was looking over the twenty five or so blogs I peruse on a daily basis and stumbled on this wonderful tool on ProphotoLife's blog. The layer mask is actually located on another site (which seams to be a clearing house if cool tools), here is the link.

What you end up with after following the directions of the installation of the effect is the screen capture above. The white/black box (highlighted in yellow above). Simply activate the layer you want the mask applied to and double click on the layer mask effect. In order to see the mask selection in the effects pallet, "Show All" must be selected in the effects option window.

At that point you can paint on the mask with black to conceal the effect or leave it white to reveal the effect. Just like Elements heavy hitting brother Cs4.

I took a real quick example in the two images below and the result is the same with either of the two processes above (work around or layer mask). I mad an adjustment in using the Shadow/Highlights adjustment tool then using the mask to leave the water and sky alone.

Before (above) and after (below)

Well... It may not have been the best example but you get the idea (I hope). Anyhow, someone had to sit down and think really hard on how to code an effect for this to happen. Thank you Sue Chastain (oh smart one) for giving this to the Elements community.

That's going to do it for today. 

Cya... Doug