is there any way to make "Smart Masks"?

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
October 11, 2025
1 reply
120 views

Hello,
I know that the answer is probably no, but it never hurts to ask, especially that the feature seems useful and somehow basic.
My goal is to use a smart object as a mask, which allows me to modify the filters that are attached to it to change the mask at any time. let's say it has sponge+threshold filters and I want to be able to adjust the threshold value to change what's shown or not on another layer. the smart object's pixels themselves shouldn't be seen at all but it should simply act as a mask.
I thought that setting the smart object as a knockout layer and removing the blacks from it using blend-if would achieve the result, but the knockout option still sees it as completely opaque.

Windows

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Untested, but you could try a clipping mask, where the lower smart object's transparency will mask layers placed above.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/revealing-layers-clipping-masks.html

FlowgunAuthor

Inspiring

that still doesn't achieve the results I'm looking for.
if we clip the layers to a layer we intend to use as a mask, and this layer is filled with black and white spots (e.g: clouds texture), it would still show beyond the layers clipped to it (limitation 1), and, if the clipped layers have low transparency/different blend modes, the layer used as mask would still show and interact with the layers underneath, instead of the layers clipped to it interacting with them while the clipping layer is remaining neutral/invisible (I experimented with blend modes+"blend Clipped Layers as Group" turned off. knocking out the blacks on it using "blend if" on current layer doesn't make these blacks to be considered transparent, but to be considered white.

isn't it weird that photoshop doesn't offer such a basic function?

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