BEFORE YOU GET STARTED

This training is mainly a THEORY class. So, the FOCUS is NOT to create fancy compositions with refined selections that would take too long to create and distract from the concepts being taught.

Instead, emphasis in this training will be placed on the following:

• HOW masks are CREATED and
• WHEN they are to be USED

If you would like to follow along, download the exercise files.

Remember, you learn more from doing—not just reviewing.

LESSON GOAL

In this lesson, you will learn that you don’t have to use a mask to create the SAME effect that you can get WHEN USING A MASK. You can simply just ERASE or DELETE what you don’t need. However, you will NOT be able to RETURN to your original image again if you save the file and reopen it.­­

THE POWER OF THE MASK

You will see in the upcoming lessons how you can use various types of masks that will NEVER ALTER the ORIGINAL IMAGE. For geeks, this technique is called NON-DESTRUCTIVE EDITING, and it is one of the essential concepts that you should master as a Photoshop user.