PROF VAUGHN: Okay, and this video is going to look at using a gradient as
a transparency mask.
So we think of layer masks as revealing or concealing using black or white paint,
and a range of grays.
We can use a gradient that is set from black to white to create a really subtle
blend inside of a layer mask.
This gives you a lot of blending opportunity.
So let's do a really obvious example first, I have a color photograph open,
I'm just gonna do a layer adjustment, adjustment layer, I'll do it black and
white so you can have a quick view of how this might work.
So of course we know our adjustment layers come with gradients.
This is the effect, this is the -- I'm sorry, they come with a layer mask.
That is the layer mask.
So if we wanted to use a gradient to blend in the layer mask as a method of
transparency blending, you could still use that gradient tool.
When you look at your gradients, you're gonna pick the black and white
version here.
So this is black and white.
Whether or not you reverse it is up to you, remember the way a gradient in a mask
with black and white will work; black is going to reveal,
white is going to conceal.
So, let's just do, um, let's do a radial gradient to see what this might look like.
I'm gonna click and drag, now remember I've made sure I'm on the layer
mask thumbnail.
So this is isolated, it's a pretty small gradient, let's make it a little bit bigger.
And it's pretty soft, but you can see I've got black and white now here in the middle
radiating out in my layer mask.
If you wanted to do a really weird, kind of, small spot, you could.
Let's look at a linear gradient, now I've sort of moved from black and white,
shifted it slowly into colour, because again the black and white in the layer mask is
revealing or concealing, so the white in this case is showing what's underneath.
So that is a a adjustment layer.
If we were thinking about using these, um, to perhaps make some actual editing
adjustments, we could think about not using them for creative purpose, but for
perhaps fixing an exposure issue.
So in this particular image, the land is well exposed, it has good contrast, but
the sky, because the sun is probably over here somewhere, is a little bit too bright.
It's a little bit blown out, we're losing our contrast.
You can very easily use, um, an adjustment layer in conjunction with a layer mask to
fix that.
So let's do a curve.
You could use your, um, line here, you can use your scrubby slider.
Let's try this scrubby slider, so I'm gonna come over here, I know this is the area I
want to adjust.
I'm just gonna pull it down, I'm pulling it down, I don't wanna go so far that I get
this banding, but I'm gonna just pull the sky a little but darker, and then
close that out.
So, before it was like that, now it's like this, so I'm really -- I'm happy with this
kind of blue happening over here and it's -- it's dimmed it down a bit.
But what I don't want to do is effect the landscape, so in this case I'm gonna
use a gradient inside the mask, and I'll use a linear gradient.
I'm gonna just move from the top to the bottom, I'm gonna click and drag.
I'm gonna actually start a little bit lower because I want most of the gradient
the sort of, white portion, to be up high, and I want it to start to blend.
So I'm gonna maybe somewhere in here, and let's go actually a little bit more,
a little bit more straight on down.
Okay, let's see how we're doing.
So if I turn it off and on, so I've still got my mount -- it's affecting these hills
a little bit much because of this angle, maybe I'll start it from about there.
It's still a bit too angled, that's a better angle here, so I turn it off and
on you can see there's a nice blend in the sky, it's still getting my mountains
because I don't have a perfectly straight horizon line, but that's okay, because I
know I can actually just grab my brush, make a bigger sized brush, and continue
to work inside this mask.
So I want to paint with black, reading this layer mask here, and let's open
that looks pretty good, so maybe I'll just come in and kind of get the mountain
out of the layer mask, so that would be a pretty easy fix.
You would want to zoom in and do a little bit more detailed work, but if I just kind
of quickly do this.
I need a slightly harder brush.
I will have edited, essentially, just the sky, and made a nice subtle kind
of difference.
Again, you would clean these edges up, but for purposes of demonstration this
gives you a good idea of how you can use a layer mask inside an adjustment
layer to adjust something in a more seamless fashion.