Using Adobe Photoshop

So, you’ve placed a texture in your document and spent a bit of time carefully making a layer mask. What if you want to place more textures either to try several at a time or just to play around and see which works best? Will you have to redo your layer mask each time?

Layer Mask

Nope. You can copy a Layer Mask to other layers.

Just click on the layer mask in the Layer Panel and Option (mac) or Alt (PC) drag it to the layer you want to copy it to.

Layer Masks copied

You can also replace layer masks with another layer mask. Again, Option (mac) or Alt (PC) drag the layer over the layer you want to replace and Photoshop will ask you if you want to if you want to replace the layer mask.

In Photoshop, you can also group your layers and apply the layer mask to the group instead of to each individual layer. In Elements, however, groups are harder to work with.

Leslie Nicole
Leslie Nicole

American Photographer and Designer living in France with my French husband, 2 Weimaraners and Cat Rescues. Camera, Mac, studio, garden.