Planet Photoshop

Inverting A Mask As You Move It

This isn’t a hard tip, but it’s the kind of thing that only advanced users would want to do. It’s the hidden shortcut for inverting a layer mask as you duplicate it (see what I mean)? Well, anyway, here’s the tip: First hold the Shift key, then click-and-drag the layer mask thumbnail to the layer you want it to appear on. If you want to invert and duplicate the mask (rather than move it), hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) as well—so the shortcut is Option-Shift (PC: Alt-Shift) to duplicate and invert.

Posted by Corey Barker

Corey is the newest education and curriculum developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. He is a graduate of the Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, Fl, with a degree in Illustration. Over the years, Corey has worked as a graphic artist in a variety of disciplines such as illustration, commercial design, large format printing, motion graphics, web design and photography. His expertise in Photoshop and Illustrator have earned him numerous awards in illustration, graphic design and photography. Using Photoshop since Version 2, his expertise and creativity have evolved exponentially with every new version, which makes Corey an invaluable addition to the NAPP team.