Just like in reality, there are masks or layer masks in Photoshop which you can use in order to mask a particular image, layer, text, or object in Photoshop. To understand masks, you need to know that there are two (2) primary types of masks in Photoshop namely: Layer masks and Clipping layer masks. You will know more of them in a little bit.
Even though we compared reality to Photoshop in the earlier part of this tutorial, the term mask is not actually far from what it really means. The term “mask” in graphic design is applying something to a very certain point of an image. Basically, it is adding something, whether it’d be a background, a design, an image, to an image.
Layer Masks
A layer mask is something that you apply or add in a particular image or layer to control the transparency of the layer. When you add a mask to a given layer, that mask covers the entire layer with an invisible grayscale canvas. Applying a mask to a layer does not really make any immediate visual changes unless you have a selection active at the time.
Clipping masks are, as a matter of fact, no different from layer masks the only difference is, they use another layer to determine the transparency of a new layer. In simpler terms, you have two image layers stacked to one another and by clipping them, the bottom layer determines the transparency of the top layer.
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