Comments on: Spot Sharpening with a Faux Layer Mask in Photoshop Elements

By: Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:14:34 +0000

@spodeworld, Ok, so far so good. Now look in the Layers Palette and see if the white mask box has turned black, if it has you’ve done exactly what you needed to do. The black fill in the mask hides the sharpening effect from the image. It might be difficult to see that this has happened but it has. You’re now ready to move forward a step and paint the sharpening back onto the image where it needs to be added – the eyes.

By: Spodeworld

Spodeworld — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:22:52 +0000

Thank you. I believe that that is what I have been doing. I clicked on the white box making sure the mask is active, and then used then selected the bucket and the black box at the bottom left of the tools (foreground and background) to bring it forward. Then I place the bucket over the picture and click, but nothing happens. I’m sure I am just making a simple mistake, but at this point I’m just left scratching my head….thank you for your help.

By: Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:17:02 +0000

@spodeworld You are nearly there. You have to select the Adjustment Layer as you have done, then click on the Adjustment layer mask which is the white box on the right hand side of the layer. Then you can fill the image with black and, because you have the adjustment layer selected, the mask will fill with black rather than the image itself.

By: Spodeworld

Spodeworld — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:07:23 +0000

I must be missing something, but in Step 5 (”Fill this mask using the paint bucket tool with black), I can’t seem to fill the mask. I have the mask layer selected (the adjustment layer itself). But, when I try to fill it with the Bucket, nothing happens. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Thanks!

By: Mick

Mick — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:45:22 +0000

Excellent article. Unlike so many of the online tutorials I have read, this one was very easy to follow and gave me just the results I was wanting, thank you very much!!

By: BenC

BenC — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:51:51 +0000

Everything worked but I cant figure out how to fill the adjustment layer with black. I did what Jen did but nothing worked. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong??

By: Igor

Igor — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:12:18 +0000

Excellent article. Well explained and easy to follow. This technique has helped me enormously to understand how layer masks work. It has also shown me how to sharpen in a very controlled way. Thankyou.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:53:25 +0000

One thing never mentioned in using the faux mask – make sure you have your image exactly where you want it, once you paint over you can’t, or at least I haven’t found a way to move it intact.

By: Jen

Jen — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:54:44 +0000

I figured it out.

By: Jen

Jen — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:50:56 +0000

I got everything to work except filling the adjustment layer with black (step 5). I clicked on the layer and selected the paint bucket (with black as the topcolor) and clicked on the white box, but nothing happened. Am I missing something?