Photoshop CS5, how to create a layer mask from a layer?

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I have a layer in Photoshop that I’d like to use as a layer mask, is this at all possible?

It’s a black & white layer with some gradients that I would like to apply to another layer that’s a solid color, but I can’t figure out how to just edit a layer mask to copy and paste the image in.

P.S. I have Adobe CS5

Answer

Layer masks are located under the channels tab.

  1. Copy the contents of your layer by selecting it then pressing Ctrl+A to select all followed by Ctrl+C to copy.

  2. Select the layer that you want to mask and create a new mask by clicking the “add layer mask” icon at the bottom of the layers panel.

  3. Go to channels tab (at the top of the layers panel), and select the mask channel, it should be named <layername> Mask. Make sure the contents of the mask are selected (Ctrl+A), and paste the contents of the original layer into the mask channel Ctrl+V)

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Source : Link , Question Author : JKirchartz , Answer Author :
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