Masking questions - editing and copying?

[HDJeff]

Greetings

I have recently purchased Affinity Photo for Windows, and I have been going through tutorials and coming up to speed in its use.  So far, I am impressed with the product.   My questions are mask=related.

1. I opened a previously edited and saved file that includes several layered edits, including a High Pass sharpening filter which I applied to an area of the image that I selected using the Selection Brush Tool.  If I recall correctly, I made the selection on the pixel layer, then added the live HP sharpening filter, which then reflected the mask in the small thumbnail on the Layers window.  I unnested the filter and moved it to the top of the layer list,   Anyway, when I went back to the file several days later, upon zooming in on the HP filter layer in normal blend mode, I could see that I was missing some of the intended edges of the masked area, due to some sloppy editing on my part.  I then tried several ways to edit the selected area to capture the areas that I had missed, but when I opened the Selection Brush Tool, it only wanted to start creating a new selection, not edit the previous one.  Is there a way to edit a mask in a previously saved file?

2. I also decided I wanted to make some level adjustments to this same masked area.  However I could find no "copy mask" function that would allow me to conveniently apply the mask from the HP sharpening filter, to a new "Levels Adjustment" layer.  Is there a way to do this in a previously saved file?

I get the impression that these masked selections are "baked in" to the layer when the file is saved, and cannot be edited or copied.

Regards, HDJeff

[Gabe]

Hi @HDJeff,

Welcome to the forums. 

Have a look at this tutorial. It's similar to what you're doing. As for the mask, you can simply copy and paste that mask, or duplicate it and move it to a different layer. A mask's just a grayscale layer.

If you want to edit that layer later, you can always go back go the clipping mask, and paint with white/black/gray and adjust it accordingly. 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

 

[HDJeff]

Gabrielt

Thanks for the feedback.  I have watched this video previously, and it was very informative.  I actually found out how to save a pixel selection to a spare "channel" , where it is available for future edits to  the file it is saved in.  It can be loaded to a pixel layer, where  it can then used as a mask  for adjustment layers.  It was a bit hidden for me, since I wasn't familiar with the channel concept.

Regards, HDJeff