Hello and Welcome to complete beginners guide to Adobe Photoshop
Now as you create in Photoshop in order to craft your images and your composition you will often experience the challenging task of extracting various parts out of an image or removing parts away. In Photoshop there are various methods you can use to modify an image, to cut a specific part out or remove away the parts you do not wish to include in your design. In this tutorial I'm going to demonstrate a number of ways you can do this. And later in this article I'll be recommending the best practice for such a task. I will also be referencing some additional training article I have created previously. These articles will go into more depth on some of the topics I will cover in this article. So to follow along with this article you will need to open this document I have prepared especially for this tutorial. This document can be found in the Essential Practice folder in the project folder. Now you can download this project folder for free. The download link is in the description. So with the project folder open click ESSENTIAL PRACTICE open the ERASER TOOLS folder and open the ERASER PSD. Then you should have something that looks like this. Along the way I will be mentioning some useful shortcut keys which you can find in the description in the Shortcut key page in the project PDF, which you can also download in the description. So what I'm going to do here is use this document to demonstrate and test some erasing techniques. So before I begin it's important to mention that in Photoshop there are two main ways of removing parts of an image. You can use the Eraser Tools or you can use Layer Masks. If you're new to Photoshop you may be unfamiliar with either of these. Basically when you use the Eraser Tools you physically remove pixels from an image. Now this is, well it's bad practice. This method is destructive.
By removing and deleting physical pixels you will be unable to retrieve them in future. In Photoshop there is a nondestructive way to remove parts of an image and that is to use Layer Masks. Layer Masks are a clever way to remove parts of an image. When using Layer Masks instead of deleting physical pixels you hide them. This is great because you do not delete any part of an image and you have the flexibility to modify them in future. In this video we will be looking at both of these techniques so you are familiar with them. So first I will start with the Eraser Tools. So there are many ways you can go about deleting pixels physically from an image in your composition. The first technique I'm going to demonstrate is to use the Lasso Tool. In Photoshop with a particular layer selected you can draw a selection and then simply by pressing backspace on the keyboard you can delete that selection away. So let's see that in action. So here on the left I have this origami bird. Currently we can see it's sitting on a blue background. This bird and the blue background is a single layer and we know this if we look carefully in the Layers panel. We can see in the Layer folder labeled ERASER TOOL we have this layer called RED BIRD. at the bottom of the Layers panel is a white background. If we toggle the visibility of the bird layer we can see the white background below. So with the Polygonal Lasso Tool which I'll select here from the menu I'm going to click to draw a selection around the bird like so. Once I get to the end I will create a selection around it. And I can see my current selection with the dashed line around it. So with this selection active I will make sure I have the correct layer selected I wish to modify in the Layers panel. With the bird layer selected I will press backspace. Upon click I have now deleted whatever was inside the selection area on the layer. I'll press cmd+D to deselect. Notice I can now see the white background through the new transparent space in the layer. Okay so using the Lasso Tool I created a selection and deleted the area. Now I'll just press cmd+alt+Z to undo that. Now this time instead of deleting the bird I want to delete the area around the bird. The blue sky. I want to remove the area around the bird and not the bird. Now in this instance there are two ways I can do this. Because the area around the bird is a solid color if I press W to activate the Magic Wand I can simply click into the blue area and make a selection of the blue area. With the area selected I could simply press backspace to delete the blue like so, pretty easy right! But let's say there is an image set on a really complex background where the Magic Wand Tool just simply won't work. So just like before I'll use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to draw a selection around the part of the image I want to cut out around the bird again. Once I have the selection instead of pressing backspace straight away I can do one of two things. I can either come up to the main menu click Select, scroll down and select Inverse or I can press cmd+shift+I on the keyboard. By clicking Inverse or pressing cmd+shift+I I have inverted the selection. Now instead of the bird being selected I now have everything selected around the bird. If I press backspace to delete the pixels I now have the origami bird on the white background, simple! So by using the Lasso Tools, the Magic Wand Tool and the Marquee Tools we can draw and create a selection and with the layer selected in the Layers panel we can delete the pixels away by pressing backspace. Now the next technique to delete pixels away from your image is to use the Eraser Tools. You can find the Eraser Tool located about half the way down in the menu. This represented by a rubber icon. Now you can either select the Eraser Tool from the menu or use the keyboard shortcut E. By pressing E on the keyboard you can activate the Eraser Tool. Now using the Eraser Tool is very much like using the Brush Tool. In the last video we learned how the Brush Tool works and looked at some useful techniques. The Eraser Tool works and behaves just like the Brush. Just like drawing strokes with the Brush Tool you can erase and remove pixels in strokes with the Eraser Tool. All the tips and techniques demonstrated in the previous video for the Brush Tool also apply for the Eraser Tool. All the Brushes available to you to create brushstrokes are also available to use with the Eraser Tool as well. So on this occasion, let's say I want to feather the edges of the blue area around the bird here. First I'll make sure I have the layer selected I wish to modify. I'll select the RED BIRD layer here in the ERASER TOOL Layer folder. I'm going to press E to activate the Eraser Tool. I'm going to come up to the Control panel. I'm going to click on the Brush Presets toggle. I'm going to select a feathered brush. I'm going to change the brush size to 400 and press enter. I'm going to make sure the Opacity is set to 100%. And then I'm going to come over and erase the edge of the blue area to feather the edge like so. Soon I will have something that looks like this. So those are a few techniques you can use to cut out and erase parts of your images. So the next way to remove parts of your image in Photoshop is to use a Layer Mask. So here we are going to come and focus on the example on the right. So here we have the same image as on the left. But in this instance the bird appears to be already cut out against the white background. Now if we look closely at this layer in the Layers panel. Here in the LAYER MASK folder we will notice something different. Here on the RED BIRD MASK layer we have what looks like a black and white thumbnail on the layer. Now this is a representation of the Layer Mask area. So I'm going to place my mouse cursor over this back and white thumbnail right click and choose Disable Mask. Upon click we will suddenly see the blue background around the bird. Also notice a red cross in the thumbnail. This means that this Layer Mask is currently off. If I simply click on the thumbnail again this will activate the mask and the bird will be cut out set on the white background again. So in this instance no pixels are being deleted. They are simply being masked away. So let's see how we can create such a mask. So I'll right click on this Mask thumbnail and I'll chose Delete Mask. By choosing this option we will remove the Mask completely and now we are back to the image we started from. Now there are a number of ways you can create a mask. For the first technique I'll use the Polygonal Lasso Tool. I'm going to mask out the blue area to create transparency around the bird so I can see the white background on the layer below. So just like earlier I'm going to use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to draw an area around the bird like so. So now I have a selection around my bird. Now I'm going to use this selection to create a Layer Mask. To create a Layer Mask I will first need to make sure I have the layer I wish to apply the mask to selected. So I'll choose my RED BIRD mask layer here in the Layers panel. But now I'm going to come and focus on the bottom of the Layers panel. At the bottom of the Layers panel we have a set of buttons.
Now third from the left is the Layer Mask button. So with the layer selected and the selection ready in my canvas area I will click this Add layer mask button, once! Upon click we will now hide away the blue area around the bird and reveal the background below. Nice! So let's now take a closer look at the layer thumbnail that exists on the layer. A Layer Mask thumbnail will always be represented in black and white in the Layers panel. The way that a Layer Mask works is whatever is black is hidden and whatever is white is revealed. So on this occasion we can see that on this thumbnail we have a white area in the middle in the share of the bird and the rest is black. Now a good tip to keep in mind if you want to see your mask on the canvas area in more detail by pressing and holding alt on the keyboard and clicking directly on the mask thumbnail in the layer this will show you exactly how the mask looks. And here we can see that everything is black apart from the white bird shape. To go back to normal view simply click back on the image thumbnail on the layer. Easy! Now it's important to mention at this point that when you create a Layer Mask you will want to pay close attention to Properties panel. For the sake of this tutorial I'll drag my Properties panel out from my panel set. If you do not see your Properties panel you can come to Window and activate it there. So once you have applied a Layer Mask to a layer with the Layer Mask thumbnail selected on the layer you will notice some options available in the Properties panel. Starting from the top we have Density. Now this is similar to Opacity. If I toggle this you can tweak this and begin to reveal the masked area back in. Next we have Feather. Should you wish to feather the edge of your mask you can tweak this like so. Down below we have some option buttons. If we click Mask Edge here we can tweak some various options to edit the edge of the mask. If I tweak Smooth and Contrast notice how its rounding off the hard corners of my mask there. I'll cancel. Next we have Color Range. So in this option you can completely customize your mask to only reveal certain colors. If I click some of the colors from the reference image to the left here using the Eyedropper Tool we can see the effect that is having. I'll just click cancel. And finally we have Invert. Clicking that will simply invert the mask. So when applying a mask keep in mind you can make modifications using the Properties panel. So I suggest you have a little play around with the Properties panel when using your mask just to see some of the extra effects you can get when toggling the Density, Feather, and the Edge options. Now once you have created a Layer Mask you can also edit the mask using the Brush Tools. Now it's important to mention that before we attempt to edit a mask we must first have the mask selected in the Layers panel. When a Layer Mask is applied to a layer we have the option to click on the image thumbnail and on the Layer Mask thumbnail. This is here to tell Photoshop what we want to work on. Now keep in mind on a Layer Mask whatever is black is hidden and whatever is white is revealed. So I'm going to make sure I have the Layer Mask thumbnail selected in the Layers panel on the layer. I'm going to press B to activate the Brush Tool. I'm going to selected my foreground color to Black. Up in the Control panel I'm going to click in the Brush Preset to choose a solid brush and make sure the Opacity it set to 100%. So with my brush set up I'm going to click on the canvas area on the bird. Notice as I click I'm beginning to remove the bird away like so. This is because I'm using a black brush on the mask layer which will mask away the image. I'll press X on the keyboard to switch the black foreground to white in the menu. This time I will click and draw with the Brush Tool. This time as I draw I will reveal back parts of the image. When editing the Layer Mask we can use whatever brush we like. For example I'll come in and select a chalk brush. By clicking around the bird with a white brush I can reveal parts of the image back and create this nice effect around the bird like so. By pressing X I will again swap the foreground color so now I am back to black and I can then click to remove parts away again like so to tweak and refine my effect. So as you can see by using a mask we have the flexibility to hide and reveal parts of the image back. By using a mask we can refine images much more precisely without fear of losing any of the image permanently. So that is one way you can use a mask to hide pixels instead of deleting them. Now there are other ways you can create a mask. You can use the Pen Tool to create a mask or use the Brush Tool to create a very accurate mask around a complex shape. If you're interested to learn more about these techniques there are some additional training articles you can watch. This is essential training for any beginner to Photoshop so I highly recommend you watch these videos. After watching these videos you will know everything there is to know about layer masking. Simply click a screen here or locate the links in the course PDF. If you have not already downloaded the course PDF you can find the link in the description. So that is how to erase and mask away images (soft music) in Adobe Photoshop. In the next article we will be looking at the Shape Builder Tool and how to use it.
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