I was going throuh some of the tutorials here 9for photoshop) and one for a collage asked me to use the mask option on the layers palate. Am I missing something or is this not available in PSE2? If its not is there a way to get the same effect?

no youaren't missing anything pse doesn't have masks that's one if it's downlfalls but you can use an eraser you just have to undo redo a lot LOl

__________________

DH is finally home! God Bless the troops that replaced him

There is a way to mimic Masks in PSE. I have become addicted to collages and here's the technique I use.

1. Put your original picture on its own layer.
2. Create a new layer (CRTL+SHIFT+N) and drag the new layer below the layer of the picture you want to blend.
3. Make sure you are editing the original picture layer and hit CRTL+G. This groups the two layers together. Don't worry that your picture disappears after doing this step! It will reappear after the next two steps.
4. Select the outer edges of your original picture (Hold down the CRTL key while you click on the layer in the layer palette)
5. Now make sure that you are editing the mask layer. Fill the selection with black. You should see your original picture now!

Now whatever area you erase on the mask layer will hide the same area of your original picture. If you erase too much, you can just paint back over the area and see more of your picture. If you want to play with blending modes in your collage, you need to change the blending mode of the mask layer instead of the picture layer.

HTH!

__________________
Stacy
My Gallery

avatar photo by Marja Flick-Buijs downloaded at sxc.hu

I'm impressed Stacy!

__________________
Never put a question mark where God has put a period.
-Pastor Joel Osteen

Hi,

I'm new to this forum (I'll introduce myself soon). But, I need to know more...exactly what is a mask and what is it used for?

Thanks for your help,
Karen

I am glad you asked that, Karen! I wondered the same thing myself. I've been fumbling my way to make "collages." I just put each picture on a separate layer and erase the part I don't want. If I make a mistake, I undo. In order to see what is below, I temporarily reduce the opacity of the layer I am erasing. Is there an easier way?? I use Photoshop Elements, and I don't know much yet. thanks!

Basically Masks are a way to "erase" parts of your image without permantly removing the image information. If at a later date you want to have more of your original image showing you just change the mask. There's no worrying about if you an use the undo command, so you can do these days later.

If you follow my step-by-step directions above, you'll be able to do this in PSE. This is how I do all my collages. You just have to do this for each image you want to blend together. So you'll end up with a layer for each image grouped with a mask layer that controls how much of that image is displayed in your LO. Take a peek at my gallery and you'll see the kind of results you can get.

If you still have questions about how to do this in PSE, please post again or PM me.

__________________
Stacy
My Gallery

avatar photo by Marja Flick-Buijs downloaded at sxc.hu

Thanks so much! I'm so glad I found this web site. You are all so helpful and I have lots and lots of questions. I've been struggling to figure out PSE through a manual and books, and it's nice to know I can get helpful information here. I'm not a computer person and I'm certainly not an artist - I just have a passion for taking pictures of my daughter and preserving memories. I'll try that technique to mimic masks. Thanks!

__________________
Barbara