Often new photo processing editors make a mistake of removing an entire background and then say, "Oh my god’, that part of the background was needed’! Well sometimes even experienced ones face this issue when they are busy removing one background and replacing it with another one with image masking. When one has a clear understanding of a layer mask and a vector mask, the chances of making such mistakes are reduced. The Photoshop software keeps upgrading regularly, but there are at least two tools that can be used from any edition successfully to make masks. We all know the need to hide ‘unwanted portions’. So is the case with photographs. These unwanted portions could be masked. Creating the layer is the fundamental way to hide or mask something that is no longer required in the final photo. It could be a person, or a background, or a shop, just about anything. This is referred as the alpha channel. Once this is applied then the ‘piece’ remains hidden till it is needed. This will be useful to access when the original unmasked portion is required. Some editors may prefer using the eraser tool to rub off the unwanted pieces.

A background copy is created. The icon with the eye is used to hide the background from the original photo. A blank layer is created. After this the brush tool is used. BY using B from the keyboard it is activated. The editor then adjusts the brush to hard or soft setting depending on the requirement of the masking. Keeping an eye on the hues of the fore ground, the hardness should be adjusted. By pressing D on the keyboard a B & W source is created for the layer for masking. In advanced image masking, keeping alpha channels is important. The goal is to ‘hide’ not ‘destroy’ the unwanted portions. What they are needed again? The brush tool is used to paint the blank portions.

A professional and advanced editor will go beyond the simple layer technique. He will not rest with the blanking out of the unwanted portions. He will now use a vector mask that will be much better. He uses a pen tool to do the same removal of background and make the final picture look more real. The alpha channel is created using the vector tools. Remember with vectorization there is no question of pixels. So scaling is not an issue. There will be no distortion either. A working path is created for the mask. A copy of the background is made as mentioned earlier. The pen is used for creating the shape that is to be removed. This way the editor joins all the dots from one perimeter to the other. This closes the entire object. In the advanced software layer vector mask is chosen to continue working on the path. The background can be anything funky, natural, simple or complex. With advanced vector graphics, the thoughts to create layers and masks with image masking are unlimited.