Layer masking tutorial for Photoshop
This is a tutorial about layer masking, as requested with this post at my journal by 
library_of_sex.
Going from these red carpet shots
to this 
in five steps.
It explains the basics of layer masking and although I'm assuming you know at least a little about Photoshop, it's very beginner-friendly. It was made in PS CS3, but I know nothing about other programs, sorry.
I took this icon as an opportunity to explain about layer masking. It's just an example, so please don't try and recreate the exact same icon. I'm sure you can do better than me. ;)
The basics of this icon are really simple: it’s a layer mask. But knowing from experience that layer masking might take some time to get used to when you’re starting to use Photoshop, let’s break it down for you.
I wanted to incorporate two great shots of Ed Westwick that I’d made into icons, so I resized them and placed them in a new 100x100 canvas. (If you want to know about the colouring of these images, feel free to ask me about it and I’ll show you.)
To create a layer mask, first create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer) and fill it with white.
Then add a layer mask by clicking the layer mask button on the bottom of your layers window.
Make sure that when you do this, your foreground colour is white and your background colour is black. If you look at your colour palette when you create a layer mask, you’ll see the background colour and the foreground colour switch.
If you use your brush right now, it will erase the white of the layer mask, revealing what’s underneath. If you don’t like it or made a mistake, just switch the colours back so that white is your foreground colour and this will work as a cover up again.
That is the basis of layer masking.
So how does it work with the Polaroid shapes? It’s a brush – there are many available at Livejournal and DeviantArt and mine was made byewanism.
You select your brush and place the Polaroid shapes wherever on your icon you want them. (I’m going to assume you know how to load a custom brush in Photoshop, but if you don’t, feel free to ask me and I’ll show you/write you a tutorial about it.)
I focused on the Polaroid shapes and then moved the images of Ed Westwick underneath around until I was satisfied with the way it looked.
I showed you how layer masking worked, but instead of a layer filled with white, I used this texture
by erniemay. With layer masking, like with most of Photoshop’s features, it can take experimenting and getting used to, but it can come in very handy.
Because I thought the background was a little too bright and clean, I customized this texture
by 
whoredom_bases and set it to darken. I also used some grey brushes to ‘roughen up’ the background a bit.
Lastly, I added some text. Actually, I tried many different lines and fonts until I finally settled on this outcome:
I entered it atxgossipgirl_ic, which is a fun icon challenge community, you should check it out.
That's it. Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask and/or show me your result, I'd love to know what you think and came up with! :)
library_of_sex.Going from these red carpet shots
to this 
in five steps.It explains the basics of layer masking and although I'm assuming you know at least a little about Photoshop, it's very beginner-friendly. It was made in PS CS3, but I know nothing about other programs, sorry.
I took this icon as an opportunity to explain about layer masking. It's just an example, so please don't try and recreate the exact same icon. I'm sure you can do better than me. ;)
The basics of this icon are really simple: it’s a layer mask. But knowing from experience that layer masking might take some time to get used to when you’re starting to use Photoshop, let’s break it down for you.
I wanted to incorporate two great shots of Ed Westwick that I’d made into icons, so I resized them and placed them in a new 100x100 canvas. (If you want to know about the colouring of these images, feel free to ask me about it and I’ll show you.)
To create a layer mask, first create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer) and fill it with white.
Then add a layer mask by clicking the layer mask button on the bottom of your layers window.
Make sure that when you do this, your foreground colour is white and your background colour is black. If you look at your colour palette when you create a layer mask, you’ll see the background colour and the foreground colour switch.
If you use your brush right now, it will erase the white of the layer mask, revealing what’s underneath. If you don’t like it or made a mistake, just switch the colours back so that white is your foreground colour and this will work as a cover up again.
That is the basis of layer masking.
So how does it work with the Polaroid shapes? It’s a brush – there are many available at Livejournal and DeviantArt and mine was made by
ewanism.You select your brush and place the Polaroid shapes wherever on your icon you want them. (I’m going to assume you know how to load a custom brush in Photoshop, but if you don’t, feel free to ask me and I’ll show you/write you a tutorial about it.)
I focused on the Polaroid shapes and then moved the images of Ed Westwick underneath around until I was satisfied with the way it looked.
I showed you how layer masking worked, but instead of a layer filled with white, I used this texture
by erniemay. With layer masking, like with most of Photoshop’s features, it can take experimenting and getting used to, but it can come in very handy.Because I thought the background was a little too bright and clean, I customized this texture
by whoredom_bases and set it to darken. I also used some grey brushes to ‘roughen up’ the background a bit.Lastly, I added some text. Actually, I tried many different lines and fonts until I finally settled on this outcome:
I entered it at
xgossipgirl_ic, which is a fun icon challenge community, you should check it out.That's it. Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask and/or show me your result, I'd love to know what you think and came up with! :)