How To Use Clipping Masks In Adobe Photoshop – SlashGear

As a general rule, the more complex an image you create in Photoshop, the more layers it’s likely to have. There isn’t a limit to the number of layers that can be included in a given image, and if the user is adding shadowing, text, textures, and numerous other elements to a piece, there can be a lot of layers indeed.

The key with a multi-layered image is keeping those layers in the right order. They’re usually positioned in a specific way because they affect the layers above and below them: hiding or revealing certain elements of the overall image, preventing elements that shouldn’t overlap with each other from doing so, and so on. 

From the Window menu, users can select “Layers” to reach the Layer panel, from which they can add new layers, change specific opacity and other options, drag and drop them to change their order, and much more.

A clipping mask, then, is a way of simplifying the process of interacting with all these different aspects of an image. With clipping masks, the boundaries of a lower layer can be used to frame aspects of layers above the mask. A rectangular border shape, for instance, can be clipped to a photograph larger than it. Because “the bottommost layer, or base layer, defines the visible boundaries of the entire group” (as Adobe puts it), the photograph will be neatly framed within the shape on the other layer.