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Layers & Masks – A Camera Raw/Lightroom To Photoshop Two-Part Presentation
January 24 & February 21, 2023 - 7 pm on Zoom
By Tim Clifton
Have you been wanting to learn about using layers and masks in Photoshop, and felt it is a bit intimidating? If you have a Creative Cloud Subscription, you should have access to both Lightroom and Photoshop. Upon occasion, you may find yourself needing to do something that Lightroom may not have the capability of doing. Maybe you want to try compositing, or using other tools to help make your photos look the very best they can be.
Take your photos to a whole new level. Join us for an introduction to Layers and Masks using Camera Raw/Light Room and then using some layers and masks in Photoshop. This is not meant to change you from a Lightroom user to a Photoshop user, it's simply an additional set of tools or different methods of editing that may supplement your Lightroom workflow.
The introduction will show the basic use of layers and masks and hopefully remove your apprehension about using these tools in Photoshop, while still allowing you to work in Lightroom. This introduction  will assume you have Photoshop and are familiar with exporting an image into Photoshop and then back to Lightroom if you use Lightroom. If you use Photoshop and are a little uncomfortable using layers and masks, hopefully, this will supplement your Photoshop tools.
Layers and masks are very helpful for a wide variety of photo editing techniques: They help control what you want to do in certain areas while leaving other areas unaltered. Limiting exposure adjustments to specific areas is also a common editing necessity. For example:
 A very common situation is to darken your background so it does not distract from the subject and/or lighten the subject to make it more eye-catching. - Limit what areas of the photo you want to be sharpened and/or blurred.
- Apply more or less Topaz DeNoise to some areas and not others (to remove ISO noise).
- White balancing a photo that has a mix of both warm sun and blue shade.
- Easily create a vignette, feather the edges, and lower the opacity
 to control how light or dark the edges are with a layer adjustment mask. 
Unlike using the dodge and burn tools, making changes with Layer masks allows you to perform what is called "non-destructive editing", meaning you can always make further adjustments and undo some or all of the editing changes you make to your photo. You are not stuck with them, especially if you made a mistake--oops! We've all been there--done that!
If you have been wanting to learn all about layers and masks in Photoshop, I hope you will take this opportunity to join us for this two-part presentation.
Part 1 - January 24 at 7 pm on Zoom
Part 2 - February 21 at 7 pm on Zoom
Hope to see you on Zoom!
A Zoom link will be sent to all TPS members through the website email system prior to the presentation date. Just watch your email inbox. To see Tim Clifton's art Click Here
Tim has provided some PDF files showing the workflow for the images he will be working on at the Zoom Tutorial on Tuesday, January 24. This will allow you to give the tutorial your full attention and not have to worry about taking so many notes.
To download these 4 PDF files, click on the file names below:
If you are not a member and want to attend this Zoom meeting, please join the Tacoma Photographic Society by clicking here.
Using layer masks can make an amazing difference in many different areas of your photos from exposure to compositing, blurring, sharpening, and many other editing tasks. Photos are provided by Tim Clifton.
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