Photoshop 101: Basics of Layers and Masks an Fstoppers PPT by Sean Armenta

Hello Fstoppers! My name is Sean Armenta, and this is my little spot on Fstoppers called The Post Production Tutorial. If you enjoy these videos, please to subscribe to my new Fstoppers PPT Youtube Channel for the latest updates.

This week we are back to the very basics to help out those viewers who don't quite know their way around layers and masks. This is a crash course on the bare essentials of what you need to know, and is just a way to get you started on the right track so you can keep up with future tutorials.

We will be back to regular programming in the weeks to come.

I just wanted to thank you all for your kind words, encouragement and support. They are very much appreciated.

Feel free to interact with me on Facebook, Twitter, and my Blog, and check out Prep To Post for my upcoming workshops.

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8 Comments

I can't thank you enough for doing these tutorials, any ass pirate online can criticize all they want, but this is useful to me and i wanted to show my appreciation. Honestly has helped me lots with my work and my understanding of photoshop (although i need to learn more). Keep at it, there are plenty here that appreciate your work and help.

Thanks Sean. I've learned so much from these few tutorials that you have made. Especially one of your first ones that you submitted on fstoppers about how to light a beauty shot with 1 one light.

As always, this is amazing!

Top work again Sean! 

Previous tutorials have been quite helpful because the information was taken step by step and the results could be seen in the image being used as an example. I was really looking forward to getting a clearer sense of using layers and masks. This particular version, dealing with one of the basic applications used in photoshop, brought up a whole string of things I've never even heard of at such a rapid pace that I failed to get much out of it. You really know your stuff Sean, but this one blew right by me.

hi mark, i appreciate the feedback. this tutorial is not meant to be an exhaustive lesson on photoshop layers and masks. it is, as noted, a crash course on the very essentials of how to navigate the layers palette, create basic types of layers that i always use, how to create adjustment layers and how to hide and reveal adjustments by painting on layer masks. my challenge with every tutorial is finding the right balance between duration and amount of information. 

photoshop is such an immense program, that I don't think I even utilize 30% of it. I learned the basics of photoshop reading a few books by scott kelby and katrin eismann which i would definitely recommend to anyone. whether it be retouching or photography, no amount of tutorials will give you the proper basic foundation that can only be acquired through self study and experience. I am only hoping to get people started in the right direction towards that.

I agree with Mark. I have a basic understanding & knowledge of PS and this tutorial was far too face paced. 
I am appreciative of these tutorials, however this one missed the mark in my humble opinion.

Sadly I can't watch some of these tutorials in Germany due to some music rights stuff (GEMA -.-). When watching over proxies the quality is really bad. Would it be possible if you upload these also on the Fstoppers vimeo account?
Thanks!