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Mosaic Layer Mask Effect

 

Use layer masks to create this mosaic design effect.

Corey Barker

Corey Barker is Executive Producer of PlanetPhotoshop.com and is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Corey has also made numerous appearances on the highly rated podcast, PhotoshopUser TV, and is co-host of Layers TV.

39 Comments

  1. hmmrm said on — May 28, 2010 @ 3:54 pm

    I like the effect .. am big fan ! Your tutorials are very useful .. Especially for people like us , Love PS … thanks

  2. George said on — May 28, 2010 @ 6:16 pm

    Cory, your the best i’ve ever seen , love this mosaic tut. with your help im learning photoshop , just wanted you to know you have just replaced my former favorite
    Bert Monroy he’s now # 2 thank and keep doing what you do

  3. Emir said on — May 28, 2010 @ 6:19 pm

    Amazing.

    tnx for sharing

  4. Melania Fois said on — May 28, 2010 @ 6:19 pm

    Great tutorial, as usual :)

  5. marino said on — May 28, 2010 @ 8:33 pm

    Corey once again another greay tutorial……thanks a lot.
    pls considere to make a tutorial about a clear ball or cristal ball whatever…..

  6. Drew said on — May 29, 2010 @ 12:46 am

    Awesome tut bud. You always seem to get my “creativity wheels” turning. I am astounded at how you seem to be always thinking outside the box and seldom use traditional design methods on anything you create. Kudos for another great tut, many of my best designs owe you a commission!

    Right now I am in the process of learning how to create websites using both photoshop and dreamweaver. I have bought the kelby training photoshop to dreamweaver dvd and was wondering if you could recommend any similar products from kelby that may go more in depth…?

  7. Jared said on — May 29, 2010 @ 7:54 am

    I don’t think I have ever even seen the mosaic filter. Great tutorial.

  8. Walter said on — May 29, 2010 @ 11:23 am

    It’s about time that you did some photo designs and got away from all the lettering and logo stuff

  9. Alain said on — May 29, 2010 @ 2:14 pm

    you always amaze me all the time

    keep up the good work you do and keep coming with all the good stuff that you do

  10. Krippo said on — May 29, 2010 @ 2:53 pm

    Realy like the outcome and simple to follow.
    Another great tutorial! Let keep them coming!

  11. John said on — May 29, 2010 @ 5:29 pm

    Great tutorial Corey. Your ideas seem endless and your tutorials are always superb. I agree with Marino re making a tutorial about a realistic reflective glass sphere. Thanks.

  12. John said on — May 29, 2010 @ 5:35 pm

    Great tutorial Corey. Your ideas seem endless. I agree with Marino’s comment on considering creating a tutorial on a realistic glass sphere. Thanks.

  13. Patricia Wiskur said on — May 29, 2010 @ 6:38 pm

    You’re so talented! Thanks for another great tutorial!

  14. Tridel Edwin said on — May 30, 2010 @ 1:48 am

    Hey Nice tutorial but can you please make suggestion as to where we can get these stock photos or similar one?

  15. Ann said on — May 30, 2010 @ 4:48 am

    Again beautiful, thanks you!

  16. Kole said on — May 30, 2010 @ 7:05 am

    realy,realy nice tutorial, thanks ;)

  17. Oat said on — May 30, 2010 @ 12:00 pm

    Thanks, really good review of smart objects for me

  18. hans said on — May 30, 2010 @ 4:19 pm

    Corey, keep going on!

  19. hans said on — May 30, 2010 @ 4:21 pm

    Corey, it’s great!

  20. Taner said on — May 30, 2010 @ 5:32 pm

    Amazing!

    Thank you for beautiful tutorial ….

  21. Anita Baas said on — June 1, 2010 @ 3:03 pm

    You make photoshop look so easy! Your combination of tools and options are great.
    You show how to use photoshop on a very creative way. Thanks!

  22. Robert McNamara said on — June 3, 2010 @ 11:27 am

    Corey,
    This tutorial cuts out about half way through, Just after the layer pallet is dragged out, it resets?

  23. Ronald Kenney said on — June 3, 2010 @ 2:47 pm

    thanks for all the info. one question a photographer friend was trying to tell me about CS5
    that I could remove Tourists from a photo I took at the Vatican in Rome not using C Aware but layers?
    thanks

  24. Dale said on — June 12, 2010 @ 2:36 am

    Great tutorial, so simple but very cool.
    Where did you get the streak.psd image from?

  25. indyastaric06 said on — June 14, 2010 @ 7:48 pm

    wow… nice design n tutorial..thnx a lot
    (http://indyastaric06.student.ipb.ac.id)

  26. Kasia said on — June 20, 2010 @ 8:18 am

    Ive just bought a book of which you’re co-author and omg its amazing :) im already in love with it:) well its written in polish so i dont know whats translation of a tittle into english. I just must say that i found your tutorials very useful too so thank you for your work:]

  27. Salah said on — June 22, 2010 @ 2:25 am

    Thanks Corey for this Great tutorial
    your e-mail pls

  28. melanie said on — June 23, 2010 @ 11:02 am

    thanks for sharing the tutorial. nicely done!

  29. Robert Schwarztrauber said on — June 30, 2010 @ 7:04 am

    Great effect and great tutorial Corey!
    I love learning and teaching Photoshop and you’re a tremendous inspiration for all things creative.

  30. Benny said on — July 3, 2010 @ 9:37 am

    Great tutorial, as always! I like your methods how to teach the stuff! I buys CS5 yesterday, and with u i learned very much in only about 5 hours!

  31. Paul of UK said on — July 21, 2010 @ 7:09 am

    Brilliant Corey! i tried this and it works fantastic.I love learning photoshop from you.

  32. Radziwill said on — August 3, 2010 @ 3:20 pm

    Great tutorial, as always. Thanks.

  33. Muzammil Ali said on — August 5, 2010 @ 2:10 am

    nice one ..Corey. like it :)

  34. Renat said on — October 6, 2010 @ 1:57 pm

    Awesome!

  35. kartik said on — December 27, 2010 @ 11:37 pm

    once again thank you for this tutorial n for the rest of the tutorials i’m getting betterin photoshop

  36. mary said on — January 1, 2011 @ 8:28 pm

    wonderful effect! it’s amazing what you can do in photoshop – i never knew!

  37. a. jefferson said on — March 30, 2011 @ 2:59 am

    Corey:

    this is a very helpful tutorial. However, I have a question for you. Chris Brown has a video (“I Can Transform Ya’) in which there is a mosaic effect being used. Can you inform me on how to achieve the effect that he illustrates on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCq1xaNiAeQ

    Can you help me out?

    Thanks!

  38. Philip Dangerfield said on — September 12, 2011 @ 1:02 am

    this just opened up a whole new dimension of photo manipulation for me :) masks are awesome! haha! thanks man! your awesome :)

  39. anonim said on — September 19, 2011 @ 7:16 pm

    this is my favorite tutorial

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Create A Composite Layer

If you have a multilayer composition and you
want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers.

Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E).
by Colin Smith

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