hey there this is a quick bonus video for you on the topic of layers one other area that I want to throw in there that you probably used that want to make sure that you're aware of it and it's called clipping masks it's a very interesting way of kind of an alternative to masking that has its own pros and cons but in some cases you khun do things and create an effect you want much more easily with the clipping mask so let's take a look at how it works let's say for the sake of argument that I have this photograph and I want to add some text it's a little big to make it a little bit smaller so it fits and what I really like to have happen is I like the word grass to be filled with the photograph of the grass now in typical photoshopped fashion again there's probably a number of ways of doing that but one of the simplest ways is to unlock the background layer and then we're gonna drag it up on top so initially the entire photograph is covering up our type player what a layer clipping mask...

does is and you can create this is we'll see in number different ways and says take this top layer and clip it or in a sense mask it based on the shape of the layer below so in this case because the shape is text now you see the tex looks like it's filled with grass I'm gonna add a new layer at the bottom here so you can see what it might look like and we could even do things like ad drop shadows and other layer styles to really get the effect that we want but the other nice part about doing it this way rather than like copying and pasting in or something is this layer is still completely active so I can move it around inside and try and figure out what part looks the way that I want and this is still a type player so we can change it and the same effect applies so that's an example of one example of how a clipping mass works let's undo a few steps probably should have left that white layer let's just put back again hold on one second while we add a layer and fill it with white okay so here again is back to our setup where I've got the photograph on top and this is the part about clipping mass that usually throws people off is you put the photograph you want clipped on top and then right above immediately above the layer that you want to do the clipping so in this case I got my photograph on top and the type player merely underneath as I showed you I could go to the tight menu and choose create clipping mask and as the keyboard shortcut command option g or control all g and the other option is to in your layers panel position your mouse right between the two layers pulled down option or auld and click on this little button and it does the same thing so any time you see this where the name of this layers underlying and the layer meet lee above it is in debt and has that little indicator that means together this thing is like the clipping mask group if you will now where it gets interesting is if I add another layer on top let's just say for the sake of argument that I want to put a circle on there and we're gonna fill it with some color right now is an independent circle that I can move anywhere that I want but if I add it to this clipping mask now it acts the same way in his on lee of visible inside the shape of this layer it's important note that this could be anything at all in this case it happens to be type it could be a rectangle or over or any shape it's the pixels on this layer the shape on this layer that's doing the clipping not anything else now one things that happened in photo shop cia six for the first time is it now you can have a clipping mask with a group so in this case I have four separate layers if I wanted to clip that photograph inside here in the past I would have had to make one two three four separate clipping masks now I just take my grass layer dragged into this documents to get right at the top and I take these layers and choose a new group from layers and now I can do that same clipping mask so you see it has that effect where it's clipping everything inside there and again the same rules apply I can still move it around to kind of find the place that I want and also knew as a photo shop see essex is now you can add styles to groups as we mentioned so now I could add a drop shadow to all of the things in that group very very quickly so one of the ways that I use this all the time is when I want to create some kind of border effect for a photograph but I want it to be flexible I want to be able to change my mind and potentially re use it so in this case I've got a camera smart object that I have opened up and I want to add some border effect well normally we could do that for example by making a selection and then adding a mask and then doing something to this uh shape but it was at that point it becomes fairly permanent because for example I'm painting on the mask so on alternative option would be to add a new layer below hold on commander control adds a layer below and on here we're going to fill this with any color at all doesn't really matter and then if we create that clipping mask you see now we have it clipped to that shape which is kind of boring let's first of all ad white below I was liketo add white below too so we can simulate what's going on living on paper but if we go back to this object I could now convert this to a smart object which means any filter that I do will be applied in a way that that I can adjust it and try different things so for example one of the filters I might try is displace and I'm gonna put pretty high numbers and we talk more about the displaced filter you'll find that it's one of those things where you have to pretty much guess what numbers to type in but because it's a smart falter at least weaken try something now the other part of a displace filter is it needs tto have some graphic to use as his thing called a displacement map now I'm going to pick one that on him and really know what it is it's just something that I use before and you'll see that's created this nice effect that I've been really I kind of do know what that map was but it was just a brick wall that I had previously but could be any psd file and the nice thing about this is everything about this again is editable so if I try what if I try forty and fifty and then apply that same map and open now it's even more like that even better that's really cool and this ultimately is still a shape so I could do a free transform the filter disappears for a moment now I can make this a little larger hit enter and then it re applies well I'm liking that a lot and remember this is independent of the photograph so I can move this clipping mask around I think maybe I'd make it just a hair smaller like that now the other nice thing about doing it this way is if I had some other photograph I could open that and then all I have to do is take let's take both of these two layers drag them over and I just have to reorganize myself but this up at the top clip this now that one's got a similar bore I don't want to look exactly the same so let's go back to a some other set of numbers in fact let's just for the heck of it try a different map on I'm sure but this one is I have a habit of calling that wasn't good choice I have a habit of calling things map when I'm in the middle of demonstrating it so sometimes don't even know what it is so let's go back to the other one it could be any psd file by the way but I'm just using this brick wall one as an example there we go so that's kind of the idea of a clipping mask is it's another way too choose how to display things and in some cases in this case it's actually I like it better than using a layer mask was with a layer mask you can't apply a filter like a smart filter specifically to a layer mass for is here you can do that because it's just a shape in the shape it's what's creating the masks there you go quick little bonus for you on clipping masks

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

30 Days of Photoshop - Bonus PDF Supplements

Homework Files

Q&A Check In with Dave Cross

buy this class

$00

Buy Class

Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2000+ more >

79.7K Students

99% Recommend this Class

00 Student Work

0 Video lessons in HD
00h 00m of class content
Exclusive bonus content
Lifetime access, anywhere, anytime
Streaming access on desktop and mobile browsers
Download and offline access with class purchase
Offline sync with our iPhone & iPad apps
100% satisfaction guarantee

Dave Cross

For 25 years, Dave Cross has been helping photographers and creative professionals get the most out of their Adobe software. Since 1987, Dave has taught Adobe Photoshop®, Adobe Illustrator® and Adobe InDesign® to thousands of users around the world. He has a Bachelor of

SEE INSTRUCTOR'S CLASSES

topics covered in this class

Adobe Photoshop Photo Editing

Ratings and Reviews

Melinda Wong

Very good teaching. I really liked how clear Dave was with everything, the order he taught the material, and I thought the stories were very helpful. I REALLY wanted to understand photoshop and extremely thankful for his wisdom and knowledge. Thank you so much! This is what was holding me back from getting my photography started! :) It just seemed so intimidating and now I have a greater understanding.

a Creativelive Student

I'm a beginner and have found that the information Dave gives is great, although a little to fast at times. I'd like to buy the course but am curious. If I purchase can I watch it and pause it and rewind it? That would be extremely important to me. Thanks for a great service CreativeLive...

a Creativelive Student

Lots of information! Initially I thought I'd just watch the free version as I already have several Creativelive videos on Photoshop but I really like how the classes are broken into subjects and shorter, 1 hour sessions-it will make reviewing much easier! I love Dave's teaching style-he covers everything very well. (Plus the fact that he's Canadian, eh?) :D Thanks for offering such a great course! I'd would love to see Dave do a similar one on Illustrator.

2,000+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

Bonus Video: "Layers"

Bonus Video: "Layers"

Lesson Info

16. Bonus Video: "Layers"

Lessons

Class Introduction

Overview of Days 1-15

Overview of Days 16-30

Preview of Content, Part 1 - Layers, Comps, Styles, Masks

Preview of Content, Part 2 - Smart Objects and Paths

Day 1 Introduction

Day 1 Exploring Photoshop

Day 1 Realistic Expectations

Day 2: Best Practices I Part One

Day 2 Best Practices I Part 2

Day 3: Lay of the Land

Day 4: Best Practices II – Working Non-Destructively

Day 5: Layers I

Day 6: Layers II

Day 7: Layers III - Masks