MicrostockGroup

I always wondered why people use layer masks for this. Isn't erasing at the edges of the faces much faster and easier?

Excellent tutorial! Thanks Leaf 

Love your tutorials also, very clean and to the point.

Idea:  why not do an advanced tutorial to show the possibilities of masks, there are many.

Right, I am too lazy so you do it.

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Not once you've saved the file, however with a layer mask you can go back if you saved the file layers in tact.

I mentioned, for example, of the possibility of showing how using a Gaussian Blur on a mask that was created from a selection can create a feathered effect for a particular adjustment layer. You could also explain how you can "unlink" a mask allowing it to be moved within the layer. For portraits I often create a B+W Adjustment Layer with mask to put around the subject, blur the mask, and move it around until it has the effect I am hoping for . . .  Most people don't know that you can run a filter on a mask creating different effects,  although this might not pretain to pure photography. 

Back to the Gaussian Blur.  During the winter I had some shots with snow that had a few areas with Level 254-255.  I used a temporary Threshold Adjustment Layer to isolate these areas, magic wand to make the selection, and created a Selective Color (White) Adjustment Layer with mask from that selection to dial the numbers back to around 251-252.  That mask had to be blurred since using Threshold gives a very hard mask.

Hope you get my point, I'm not very good putting workflow into words . . . . .