**Program Tutorials** : Photoshop Elements : *Technique

PSE does NOT officially have masks but you can work around this by grouping layers together. Also at the end of this tutorial are some tips on using masks to create montage layouts in PSE.

1. Bring in the photo you want to mask on it’s own layer in your layout.
   

2. Create a new layer (CTRL + SHIFT + N) and drag it below your photo layer in the layer palette.
   
3. With the photo as your active layer, hit CTRL + G to group the photo with the new layer. Your photo will temporarily disappear.
   
4. Select the outline of the photo by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on the photo layer in the layer palette.
   
5. Make the new layer that you created in Step 2 your active layer.
6. Fill the selection with black on the new layer (Edit> Fill Selection). Your photo will reappear!
   
7. Now you can use the eraser to remove portions on the filled black shape and the matching portions of your photo will not be shown in your layout. The photo has NOT been altered! So if sometime down the road you decide that you erased too much of the image, just use the brush tool to paint back in that portion of the shape.
   

Tips on Montages and Masks in PSE
I use the Mask technique described above to create all my montage layouts. So every photo in the montage is grouped with a “mask” layer that determines how much of the photo shows in the layout. I mainly use soft round brushes in varying sizes and opacity to blend two (or more) photos together in the montage. I typically do my montages over a background texture image with a coloring that compliments the colors in my photos.