Accept you wondered how a photograph is cut upwards into a specific shape? Or how a shape is filled with a photo instead of a color in Adobe Photoshop? This common outcome is easy to achieve with a Clipping Mask.

The final image looks like a cutout, simply you don't have to crop the pic irreversibly. Instead, y'all but have to manipulate the layers to get the effect.

How to Ingather to a Shape With a Clipping Mask

One of Photoshop's handiest tools is the Clipping Mask. Buried in the complicated program's layers, you lot can use this tool to create a frame for an image, revealing just the part of the image you want to display.

Here's an example of the final image:

This tin can be a not bad way to focus on an prototype with a shape in Photoshop without cropping the actual image. Follow these simple steps with a new transparent epitome or ane with a background color.

i. Select the shape of your choice. Go to Photoshop's Shapes tool located in the Tools bar on the left. You lot can choose from a rectangle, ellipse, rounded rectangle, or polygon, or create a custom shape.

For the purposes of this tutorial, nosotros'll be using an ellipse. After selecting the shape, y'all can draw the shape one of two ways. You lot tin can either drag the cursor across the canvas to create the ellipse.

2. Belongings downwards the Shift cardinal will permit y'all to create a perfect circumvolve when using the ellipse, or a perfect square when using the rectangle. Alternatively, you could only click anywhere on the canvas and type in the exact dimensions of the shape you lot want to create.

three. For the purpose of this tutorial, let'southward create a blackness circle so it's easy to encounter on the canvas. The color is simply important for you to see the shape equally whatever color you lot choose will be completely covered by the image.

4. Side by side, insert the image you desire to exist framed by that shape. To do and so go to File > Place Embedded, and navigate to where the epitome file is saved on your calculator.

Doing it this fashion, rather than copying and pasting, allows you to manipulate the paradigm in Photoshop without making irreversible changes to the original file.

five. Browse to the epitome on your estimator and upload it. Hit Enter and it volition create a new layer on your canvas.

You'll notice that Photoshop volition restrict the size of the prototype to the boundaries of your canvas fifty-fifty if it'due south a larger image. Y'all tin adjust the size of the image in the agile layer with Complimentary Transform. Go to Edit > Complimentary Transform or press the shortcut Ctrl+T.

6. Then apply the corner handles to adjust the size of the prototype. Press Shift and drag the handles to preserve the attribute ratio of the image.

vii. Become to the Layers panel. Correct-click on the paradigm layer of the vintage photograph and click Create clipping mask.

8. You will meet the borders of the image restricted to the circle shape. Now, movement your shape around, make it bigger or smaller with the Free Transform tool, and show only the precise part of the image yous want to prove.

You lot can use Clipping Masks and a similar method to fill any text with an image too.

How to Ingather Images With Custom Shapes

The Custom Shapes palette in Photoshop gives you more than options to experiment and place a photo inside any shape. For instance, you tin can utilize a three-dimensional shape like a box and make a photo "wrap" around it.

Read our other article to larn more than most how to use the Custom Shape tool in Photoshop. You might also like to know how to combine multiple photos into i in Photoshop or how to ingather quickly and simply in Mac.

vi Free Online Courses for New Chore Seekers

For new professionals looking to advance their careers and land the perfect job, here are six free online courses that'll help you lot become started.

Read Side by side

About The Author

Saikat Basu (1522 Articles Published)

Saikat Basu is the Deputy Editor for Internet, Windows, and Productivity. After removing the grime of an MBA and a x twelvemonth long marketing career, he is now passionate about helping others improve their storytelling skills. He looks out for the missing Oxford comma and hates bad screenshots. Just Photography, Photoshop, and Productivity ideas soothe his soul.

More From Saikat Basu