How to make a mask from a color channel in Photoshop

This was really bugging me because I remember seeing it in my Photoshop training course but because I only used it once I forgot! What do I do when I forget something. I make a How to article on it so that if I do forget I can always search my website for it.

I plan on writing an article later why you might want to do this but since you are here you most likely already know why one would want to to create a mask from a color channel.

Quick Answer:

You can hold down the CTRL and clicking on the Color Channel. Go back to the Image and make a mask from the selection.

In depth tutorial

Anyways let’s get down to it:

1. Open Photoshop and the photo you want work on.
2. You want to make sure layers is visible. If you don’t see it in the sidebar hit “F7”.
3. Make sure you only have one layer.
4. Make a copy of that layer by hitting “ctrl+J”.
5. In the layer you just made click the channels tab. Currently you should be on the layers tab.
6. You will most likely see 4 channels. RGB, Red, Green and Blue. Each Channel can be selected by the displayed shortcut. For example red is: “Ctrl+3”
7. You will notice the picture turn to grey scale.
8. Holding down the “Ctrl” key click on the Red Channel. This will make a selection of ONLY the red channel.
9. You will need to go back to the Layers Tab from the current Channel tab. Click it now.
10. At the bottom of the layers box there are a few different Icons. There is a “link” then “FX” and then a “Circle in a box” icon. This is the “add layer mask” button. Click it.
11. You picture will no longer be grey. You should now have a mask that looked identical to the grey scale image.

Tags: How To

This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 7:37 am and is filed under Adobe Photoshop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.