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How to Invert a Layer Mask in Photoshop

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CampFireJack

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I am working on a project in Adobe Photoshop where I need to use a lot of layer masks and sometimes I need to reverse them, or invert them. I can't seem to figure out how to do this. I am working with many photos in one file, if that matters. Any help would be appreciated. How do you invert a mask in Photoshop?
 
CaptainDan

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To invert a mask in Photoshop, it's a super simple process. I'll walk you through it right now.

First, I'll open a photo in Photoshop. That photo will be the only layer in the Layers panel. I'll click on the small lock icon in that layer to unlock it. I'll also right-click on the thumbnail in the layer and choose Large Thumbnails in the menu that appears. Here's what that looks like.

photoshop-layer-large-thumbnails.jpg

The reason I do this is because I like to see what I'm doing when I work with masks. If the thumbnail is too small, I can't see anything.

Okay, next, I'll head down to the bottom of the Layers panel and I'll click the Add Layer Mask button. Once I do that, the layer mask will appear in the layer right next to the photo thumbnail.

photoshop-layer-thumbnail.jpg

The mask is the white box to the right of the image thumbnail.

At this point, since I've got the mask in place, I can work with it. For this example, I'll use the Brush Tool to paint the middle of the picture black. I'll set the color picker to black before I do this, obviously. Also, before I paint, I'll make sure to click on the white mask box that's in the Layers panel.

Before I continue, I want to remind you of one thing. When you paint a mask black, whatever it is in the photo or layer that you're painting will disappear. In this case, it'll become translucent because I've got no other layers. If I had a layer of something underneath this one I'm currently working on, that bottom layer would show through. So by painting with black in a mask, it's almost as if you're erasing the layer you're working on. If I were to switch over to white and paint with that, whatever I just made disappear would reappear again. Black conceals and white reveals. The benefit of working with masks as opposed to using the Eraser Tool is that the Eraser Tool removes pixels permanently while masks don't. You can always get the pixels you hide back when working with masks. This is considered to be non-destructive. The Eraser Tool is destructive.

Moving on. I'll go ahead and paint with black over the mask. Check it out.

photoshop-black-mask.jpg

Let's see what that looks like in the Layers panel. You can see the black squiggly line in the white mask thumbnail.

mask-in-layer.jpg

Now for the good part. If I wanted to reverse this, or invert the mask, all I'd have to do is head up to the Image > Adjustments > Invert menu item and click. Again, the mask in the Layers panel will need to be active, so I'll click on that, just to make sure.

image-adjustments-invert.jpg

Let's take a look at the image now.

photoshop-inverted-mask.jpg

Do you see how it's been inverted? Let's also take a look at the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel.

inverted-mask-thumbnail.jpg

See how that's been inverted as well? It's that simple. And if you wanted to do this very quickly, you can use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+I. That's for Windows. I'm assuming the same shortcut is Command+I for Mac. If inverting the mask with the keyboard shortcut doesn't work for you, make sure the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel is selected. Otherwise, you'll be adding a blend mode to the image itself and that's not what you want.
 
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How to Quickly & Easily Invert a Layer Mask in Adobe Photoshop​

I have a real problem with remembering which way gradients are created. To this day, for some reason, I can’t memorize which color will end up on either side. I think it possibly might have to do with having twice the amount of variables that I usually have in these types of situations. I’ll explain what I mean below.

In today’s post, I’m going to give you one super helpful tip for flipping a gradient around inside of Adobe Photoshop, so it ends up being the opposite of what you initially drew. If you’re anything like me, you have your foreground and background colors all picked out and when you pull that little gradient snapper string and let go, you are disappointed. I’m willing to say that 50% of the time you get it right and the colors are where they’re supposed to be and the other 50% of the time you have it backwards. Below, I’ll show you how to quickly remedy that situation without having to draw a new gradients. After all, setting up the gradient perfectly is a challenge to begin with. Having to do it all over again just because the colors are backwards is a real pain in the side.

I’d like to stay true to form in this post, so to explain how you can flip a gradient, I’ll use a few example images. And to make things even better, the gradient will be in the way of a layer mask. You’re going to love it, so read on. There’s nothing better than squeezing multiple lessons into one.

Working Photos​

I thought I’d show you the photographs I’ll be working with for this post. Both of these photos are full size and I decided to post both of them below.

blue-background.jpg pink-flowers.jpg

Combining the Images into One Tab​

I’ve already gone ahead and opened up both photos into Photoshop. Currently, they are situated in their own tabs. I’v also resized both images so they have equal dimensions. This is important to do first because transforming one of them later on isn’t ideal.

To move one of the images into the other tab, I’ll click and drag the first image layer from the Layers panel up to the second image file’s tab. From there, I’ll wait just a second or two until the second tab’s contents appear and then I’ll continue to drag the layer down into the workspace. Once it’s there, I’ll drop the layer, which will create one tab with two layers inside of it. These two layers belong to each image. Here is the current setup.

layers-panel-1.jpg

Adding a Layer Mask​

My goal with this image is to make the top layer fade out so only half of it is showing on top of the bottom layer. I basically want a soft fade effect that blends both images together. Don’t worry so much about how the final outcome looks (what the actual photos themselves look like). Focus on the method here. You can use the method with for own projects, once it’s understood.

To add a layer mask, I’ll first click on the top layer in the Layers panel to select it as the one I’ll be adding the mask to. Then, I’ll head down to the bottom of the Layers panel and click on the Add Layer Mask icon. This will add the mask to the layer I selected earlier. You can see the mask in this next screenshot, sitting to the right of the layer thumbnail.

layer-mask.jpg

As you can see, the mask is currently white. That means that it will allow everything to be “revealed” in that layer. If I were to paint any area of the mask with black, the area of the photo I paint would be hidden. To illustrate, I’ll click on the white mask in the Layers panel. Then, I’ll use a large brush and paint an area of the photo black.

painted-mask.jpg

Take a look at the white mask thumbnail now. There’s a large black area in it. That black area contains the area of the associated layer that’s now hidden from view. With that area hidden, the layer beneath it should now show. Let’s take a look at the entire image.

masked-photo.jpg

Okay, I’d say that’s pretty clear.

The reason I bring this up is because, for some reason, masks are confusing. There are many editors out there who shy away from them because they find the concept challenging. Really though, once you play around with them for a while, they’re as easy as pie.

Now that we know that adding black to a mask can “hide” an area, we can transfer that same concept to the use of a gradient. If I make a black gradient that transitions into a white one, that should hide part of the photo and reveal the rest. Right? And the fact that I’m using a gradient should give me the soft transition I’m looking for.

Adding a Gradient Mask​

To fix the big black hole I just put in the image, I’m going to click on the mask thumbnail again, select the entire image with the Rectangular Marquee Tool (Ctrl+A), right-click inside of the selected area, choose Fill from the menu that appears and then select White from the Contents drop-down in the Fill dialog box that pops up. Doing that will fill the entire mask with white again and will give me a fresh start.

At this point, I’m ready to add the gradient. I’ll go down to the Foreground and Background color pickers and make sure that one is set to white and one is set to black.

color-pickers.jpg

Next, I’ll select the Gradient Tool, which is currently inside of a fly-out in the twelfth position down in the left vertical toolbar.

gradient-tool.jpg

The way the Gradient Tool works is like this; one point on the gradient is one color that I picked earlier. The other point on the gradient is the other color. The gradient itself is comprised of a blend of those two colors. With this in mind, we should see white, black and some gray blend.

After selecting the tool and after making sure the layer mask thumbnail is still selected, I can pick a spot on the left side of the photo, click, and drag to a symmetrical position on the right side of the photo. Once there, I can let go and the gradient will be created inside of the mask. Let’s see what things look like after I do this.

mask-gradient.jpg

If I look at the layer mask thumbnail, I can surely see the gradient. Now, let’s see what the image itself looks like.

reversed-gradient.jpg

I can see that the gradient itself has been properly created, but the only problem is that it’s backwards. I guess I should have clicked on the right side of the photo first and then dragged the tool over to the left side.

This error has brought up the entire point of this post. How was I supposed to know which color was going to end up where? Also, how was I supposed to know the gradient was going to end up like this? To fix this problem and to reverse the gradient, I guess I could swap the black and white colors down in the color picker. Or, perhaps I could draw the gradient in an opposite fashion than I just did above. Whichever way I choose, I’m still going to have to go into the History panel and undo my last action. Then, I’m going to have to perform the operation again and hope it’s as good as the last time I did it. What if I already had it perfect? This is a real bother.

Inverting a Layer Mask in Photoshop​

Good think there’s a much easier way to fix this mess and luckily, it’s super easy. To reverse a mask, all I need to do is to invert it. So, making sure the mask thumbnail is still selected over in the Layers panel, I can head up to the Image > Adjustments > Invert menu item and click.

image-adjustments-invert.jpg

After I do that, the gradient in the mask thumbnail will reverse itself and the gradient in the image will reverse itself as well. White will become black and vice versa. Let’s take a look at the photo now.

proper-gradient.jpg

There we go. Now it’s perfect. What is it? I have no idea. It was merely an example, but the tutorial was successful.

——

How was that? I think tips like this are helpful because they can be applied to a number of situations. Anyway, I hope I clearly explained how to invert a gradient mask in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

COMMENT: The way you know which will show versus hide is actually VERY easy. Think of black as hiding as in shadows hide. Think of white as light and light reveals. Hope that helps!
 
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