Saving a Selection as a Mask in Photoshop CS3

Quick masks are temporary. They disappear as soon as you deselect. However, you can save a selection as an alpha-channel mask so that your time-consuming work won't be lost, and you can reuse the selection in this work session or a later one. You can even use alpha channels in other Photoshop image files.

To avoid confusing channels and layers, think of channels as containing an image's color and selection information; think of layers as containing painting and effects.

1.  With the (Standard mode) statue selection still active in the image window, click the Save Selection As Channel button at the bottom of the Channels palette.

A new channel, Alpha 1, appears at the bottom of the Channels palette.

2.  Double-click the Alpha 1 channel, type Statue to rename it, and press Enter or Return.

When you select the channel, Photoshop displays a black-and-white representation of the selection in the image window, and it hides all the color channels.

3.  Choose Select > Deselect to deselect the statue.

4.  Choose File > Save to save your work.

Masking Tips and Shortcuts

Here's some useful information about masks and masking.

• Masks are nondestructive, which means that you can go back and reedit the masks later without losing the pixels that they hide.
• When editing a mask, be aware of the color selected in the toolbox. Black hides, white reveals, and shades of gray partially hide or reveal. The darker the gray, the more is hidden in the mask.
• To reveal a layer's content without masking effects, turn off the mask by Shift-clicking the layer mask thumbnail or choose Layer > Layer Mask > Disable. A red X appears over the mask thumbnail in the Layers palette when the mask is disabled.
• To turn a layer mask back on, Shift-click the layer mask thumbnail with the red X in the Layers palette or choose Layer > Layer Mask > Enable. If the mask doesn't show up in the Layers palette, choose Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All to display it.
• Unlink layers and masks to move the two independently and shift the masks' boundaries separately from the layer. To unlink a layer or group to its layer mask or vector mask, click the link icon between the thumbnails in the Layers palette. To relink them, click the blank space between the two thumbnails.
• To convert a vector mask to a layer mask, select the layer containing the vector mask you want to convert, and choose Layer > Rasterize > Vector Mask. Note, however, that once you rasterize a vector mask, you can't change it back into a vector object.