Photoshop Layer Mask Basics For Beginners

How To Use A Layer Mask In Photoshop

Setting Up The Document

To follow along with this tutorial, you'll need two images. Since our goal here is simply to understand how layer masks work, not to create a finished masterpiece, any two photos will do. Here's the first image I'll be using (dog in bath photo from Adobe Stock):

The first image. Photo credit: Adobe Stock.

And here's my second image (kitten with bubbles photo from Adobe Stock):

The second image. Photo credit: Adobe Stock.

Loading The Images Into Photoshop As Layers

We need to get both images into the same Photoshop document, with each photo on its own separate layer. To do that, go up to the File menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen, choose Scripts, and then choose Load Files into Stack:

Going to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack.

This opens the Load Layers dialog box. Make sure the Use option is set to Files, and then click the Browse button:

The Load Layers dialog box.

Clicking Browse opens a File Explorer window on a PC or a Finder window on a Mac (which is what I'm using here). Navigate to the location of your images on your computer. Select the two images you want to use, and then click OK in your File Explorer window or Open in your Finder window:

Selecting my images.

Back in the Load Layers dialog box, the names of the images you selected will appear. Click OK to close the dialog box and load the images into Photoshop:

Clicking OK to load the images.

Photoshop loads both images into the same document, and if we look in my Layers panel, we see each image on its own layer. Notice that in my case, the photo of the cat appears above the photo of the dog (which some might say is the natural order of things, but I'm sure my two dogs would disagree):

The Layers panel showing each photo on its own layer.

If we look in my document window, here's how the two images are being displayed. Since the cat photo is sitting above the dog photo in the Layers panel, it appears in front of the dog photo in the document. The dog photo is a bit wider than the cat photo, which is why we can see some of the dog photo sticking out on the far right:

The images as they appear after loading them into Photoshop.

Renaming The Layers (Optional)

If we look again in the Layers panel, we see that Photoshop has named the layers based on the file names of the images. I'm going to quickly rename my layers so that I don't have to keep typing out those long file names. You can skip this part if you like, but renaming layers is a very good habit to get into.

I'll start with the layer on top. To rename it, I'll double-click on its current name to highlight it. Then, I'll enter "Cat" on my keyboard for the new name. Unless your photo is also of a cat, you may want to name it something different:

Renaming the top layer.

I'll press the Tab key on my keyboard to jump down and highlight the name of the layer below it:

Pressing Tab to highlight the bottom layer's name.

Then I'll type in "Dog" for its new name. I'll press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) on my keyboard to accept the name changes, and now both layers have been renamed, with a "Cat" layer on top and a "Dog" layer on the bottom. Doesn't get much simpler than that:

Both layers have been renamed.

Repositioning The Images

One last thing I need to do before I start blending the images together is reposition them within the document. I need to move the cat photo over to the right and the dog photo over to the left.

To do that, I'll select Photoshop's Move Tool from the Toolbar along the left of the screen. I could also select the Move Tool by pressing the letter V on my keyboard:

Selecting the Move Tool.

I'll click on the "Cat" layer in the Layers panel to select it and make it the active layer:

Selecting the "Cat" layer.

Then, I'll click on the image in the document and drag it over to the right. As I drag, I'll press and hold the Shift key on my keyboard. Holding the Shift key limits the direction in which I can move the layer, making it easier to drag in a straight, horizontal line:

Holding Shift while dragging the "Cat" layer to the right.

Now that I've moved the cat photo to the right, I'll move the dog photo to the left. Since the cat photo is currently blocking most of the dog photo from view, I'll turn off the "Cat" layer for the moment by clicking on its visibility icon in the Layers panel:

Clicking the visibility icon for the "Cat" layer.

With the "Cat" layer turned off, I'll click on the "Dog" layer to select it:

Selecting the "Dog" layer.

Then, I'll click inside the document with my Move Tool, press and hold my Shift key, and drag the dog image over to the left. The checkerboard pattern we now see on the right side of the document is how Photoshop represents transparency on a layer. We're seeing it because I've moved the dog image so far over to the left that the right side of the layer is now blank, and there are no other layers below the "Dog" layer for anything else to show through. That's okay, though, because the cat photo will be covering up that empty area once I turn it back on:

Holding Shift while dragging the "Dog" layer to the left.

With both images now moved into place, I'll turn the "Cat" layer back on by clicking once again on its visibility icon (the empty square where the eyeball used to be) in the Layers panel:

Turning the "Cat" layer back on.

And now, both images are visible once again. The cat photo is still blocking much of the dog photo from view, but now that we've set up our document, let's learn how we can use a layer mask to blend our two images together:

The result after repositioning the images.