How to improve layer masking for complex documents

Improving layer masking for complex documents:

Problem Statement:

Masks are an invaluable tool in my workflow, but they become inconvenient to use the more complex my document becomes.  

Having multiple layers in the same document which all need either the same mask or a very similar mask to one another creates a tedious workflow in which very minor changes take much longer than they need to.

Example:

I want to apply a color edit to just a subject’s face and hair.  I have previously made a mask of the whole subject to isolate them from the background.  As it stands I have a handful of options:

• Copy the mask from a different layer
• If I saved the Selection as a Channel, use the Channel to make a new Layer Mask
• Create a new selection from scratch

Two of these options also require me to destructively edit the mask to restrict it to just the face and hair.

(optionally I could nest the color edit inside a group to allow me to non-destructively restrict the mask but doing so provides its own inconveniences)

Later on I decide to touch up how the hair has been selected in the original mask.  I now need to manually apply or copy this adjustment to each other mask I derived from it or else I will have artifacts from where the two masks are inconsistent.

I believe this issue could be ameliorated via the addition of a new type of Mask which derives its pixel values from a saved Channel.

Current state of Masks:

Layer Masks are static raster elements applied individually to each layer.

Selection tools allow for complex selections but the creation and editing of a Layer Mask remains inherently destructive.

This limitation impedes creative flow and lags behind adobe’s other image processing products (see new Lightroom/Camera Raw masking interface).

Proposal:

A new variety of mask to sit alongside the existing Layer Mask and Vector Mask options.  This new mask would be a Referenced Mask  which is not a static raster element.  Instead the Referenced Mask gets its pixel values from a selected Channel and updates in tandem with changes to the selected Channel.

Outcome:

• Easy bulk revision of masks throughout a document at any point in your workflow.
• Ensure mask consistency across multiple layers even when making changes to one mask.
• Using the Referenced Mask + Layer Mask together will reduce the need for destructive edits to masks.
• Using Referenced Masks and Layer Masks will eliminate the need to group an individual layer in order to stack layer masks.

Integrating into the existing workflow:

• How would a Layer Mask and Referenced Mask blend together?  
• For usability, maybe a Layer Mask that is created after the creation of a Referenced Mask comes in as a 50% grey and has a Hard Light relationship to the Referenced Mask
• Alternatively a UI element that sits between the layers (like the layer “link” symbol) could decide between taking the minimum or maximum value of the two masks
• Two potential additional UI changes to accompany Referenced Masks:
• 1)  Adding the ability to group Channels for better organization
• 2)  Forgoing the use of Channels in favor of a new window titled “Masks” which could itself integrate some of the dynamic masking workflow from Lightroom’s recent update