Layer masks - Show all/hide all

[Craikeybaby]

I'm a long time Lightroom fan and haven't really spent much time working with layers, but am just starting to experiment.

I've been using layer masks to blend different images and have been wondering if it is best to have the background at the bottom and brush in the details (have the layer masks as hide all) or have the background at the top and go through to show the details (show all).

 

[garryknight]

Doesn't matter much either way. It seems more intuitive to me to have the background as the base layer and add layers and masks above it. That's also the way I've seen it done in most tutorials.

But whether you use Show All or Hide All doesn't have all that much to do with your layer stacking order most of the time, at least in my experience. It depends more on which is less time-consuming, and which works best in the situation.

For example, if you want to cover up something on the lower layers, it's usually something small, so using a Show All mask and a black brush gets the job done quicker. On the other hand, if you've brought another photo in on top of your background layer and you want to mask out the background of the new photo just leaving the subject, then Hide All and a white brush is usually quicker. Though having said that, it's more usual to select the outline of the subject, feather it, then transfer the result onto the mask (I think the keypress is Ctrl+I, but I'm in Linux and can't check that at the moment). I hope all this makes sense. If not, it will with practice.

 

[swanseamale47]

I tend to do it the same way as Gerry above, background layer at the bottom, although as he says it doesn't make much difference usually.

 

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks for answering. It does make sense to select round rather than do a lot of brushing!