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Inspiring
December 24, 2018
Answered

Problems copying masks between layers

  • December 24, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 603 views

I'm fairly new to Photoshop, but have been making great progress. I am stumped at the moment as to how to copy a mask to another layer particularly when that layer may be an Adjustment Layer. The steps I follow are:

  1. On one layer, create a selection and output that selection to a layer mask of the layer from which I select. (Or a similar approach)
  2. Add a Curves Adjustment layer for which I want to apply only to the same selection as the selection in Step 1.
  3. When I do CMD + click on the mask and then drag to the Curves Adjustment layer, I get a prompt, 'Do you want to replace the existing mask' or a message to that effect. I say yes and the mask gets moved rather than copied as I understand the behavior should be.

I am running PS 2019 on Mac Mojave OS.

I'm sure there is some little nuance that I'm not doing correctly, but I can't for the life of me figure it out.

Note that I experience the same behavior if I try to Cmd + Click drag to a regular layer.

David

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Jeff Arola

You want Option drag, not Cmd drag to copy a layer mask from the source layer to the destination layer.

1 reply

Jeff Arola
Community Expert
Jeff ArolaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
December 24, 2018

You want Option drag, not Cmd drag to copy a layer mask from the source layer to the destination layer.

DaBrownCOAuthor
Inspiring
December 24, 2018

I thought I had tried that as well, but evidently not. Thanks!