Pseudo Layer Masking

While I'd really like to think I coined the term Pseudo Layer Masking, I'm sure there are others who thought of the idea before I did. But what does pseudo masking mean?

Masking, as the name might suggest, is a technique where we can use an editable layer to 'protect' parts of the image while it's being changed/adjusted. The really neat thing about true Layer Masks is that they are a bit like an infinitely editable stencil - you can paint into the mask to add whatever change you want to the image, locally. The beauty is that the mask can be infinitely adjusted: if you make a mistake, it's no problem to keep adjusting the mask back and forth till you have the perfect result!

Pseudo masking is far simpler—you use a duplicated photo layer (rather than an editable black and white mask) and make changes to that layer, even when you might only want to enhance a small area in the picture. In this example, I want to enhance...