{masking}
Masking is similar to erasing, but better and easier seeing as you can easily bring back what you 'erased'. You can use masking for multiple reasons such as blending, cutting images out or just basic erasing that you'd regularly do.So I'm just going to use a very basic example to explain how to mask. So here I have a canvas with the pictures of Callum Blue, but you can only see one at the moment since the one on the top layer is completely covering the picture on the bottom layer.
Now add a layer mask to the top layer, you can do this by either going to layer>layer mask>reveal all or you can press a button at the bottom of the layer panel which you can find here. After you add the mask a tiny blank sqaure will pop up beside the layer you added the mask to.
So now the actual masking part- take the brush tool and use whatever brush size or type of brush you want, as long as you use black (#000000). Considering the size of this canvas and the fact that I'm going to blend these pictures, I'm going to use a soft brush with a diameter of 100px at an opacity of 100%. Now, just make sure the mask is selected in the layer panel (not the picture itself) and start brushing away what you want to erase. If you made a mistake or just changed your mind or want to perfect something, all you have to do is change the brush colour to white (#FFFFFF) and brush what you want to undo. And if you don't want to fully erase something, all you have to do is play with the opacity of the brush. Now this is my product after I've masked (it's pretty crappy though since I did this quickly)
The masking tool can be really helpful ...I use it pretty much whenever I want to erase something, seeing as there is a high change I'll make a mistake or want to change things. :)
