Hey all... this may just be symantecs or terminology, but why does anyone use masks? Doesnt creating a path layer with the pen tool away from the actual object layer allow you to do everything and anything with that path area? I.e., if you CNTRL+Click on that path layer, it will highlight the path area, and then you can go to any image layer you want and do whatever you want, from cropping, inverse cropping, create a layer of any color and opacity, or edit whatever is within that path area in any way PS allows you to...


So in other words, is masking just another way to achieve the same result, or is there something the "mask" feature allows that what I mentioned above cannot do? Personally it kinda annoys me for the masking process to highlight areas while I am pathing, but maybe I am not even on the right track here, dunno... any elucidation would be awesome, because for some reason I "hear" more about masking than simple pathing and go.

Paths and Masks are different things.

A path is an area that can be used for a fill, cutting something out etc etc. The path is hand drawn or converted from a selection, and can be edited to change it's shape. This shape can be used as a mask.

Masks, on the other hand, are rather more complex beasts. Masks can be areas defined by various things like certain colours, certain areas, channels, layers and selections.

Hello Jay,

Here is a link explaining about Masks with graphics showing what is being done. On the second page of the tutorial is an explanation of a mask and a selection.

Ok, I have used masking before to create faded backgrounds etc., which of course a simple selection area cannot do. I also just read (thank to your link) that it seems THE most important difference in what I see is that selections are done for me, mostly the pen tool and creating paths, and masks are done with brushes... so that means while brushing away or into am image I can save that work as a layer instead of having to do it again if there is a mistake etc.... Also another HUGE thing there was since we can use brushes to create masks, using unique brush shapes, wow that is big.

Am I on the right track now? Is there anything else, or any other huge points (somewhat like I have illustrated above) that I am missing hat masks can be useful for over pathed selections? I guess I have gotten so good at accurate pathing that I never really found the need for masks since I dont do a lot of creative work with images in that way... thats what working for bland retail does for you.

Thanks!