Is there a way to stick a curve layer into the stack and mask its effect?

If I create a new Brightness/Contrast layer by clicking the new layer button, the curve layer doesn't come with a mask by default. I can right click it and give it a transparency mask, but this for some reason masks everything below the curve (within the group). That's not what I want. I want to mask only the curve. How do I do that?

If I add a curve by going Filter>Adjust>BrighnessContrastCurve>CreateFiltermask I have a mask on the curve ... but the curve only modifies a single raster layer. That is not useful to me. I want to affect all the layers below in the stack.

Hello twirlysocrates,

I understand that you want to mask-out certain areas of the filter layer.

I do this by changing the blend mode of filter layer to 'Normal' from 'Copy'. Doing this will solve the problem of masking everything below

After this I paint on the filter layer with brush to mask-out or reveal certain areas.
Like any other masks work the percentage of grey make the filter layer transparent accordingly i.e. black hides and white reveals. To make the whole filter layer 50% opaque I flood fill the entire filter layer with 50% grey.

Below is the layer stack for more clarity



I hope it helps

thanks

You can also stick the stack into a group, and have a filter-mask attached to the group. The filter mask can use the same filters as a filter layer, but you can draw on it, like you can with a mask

Hey! Thanks for the replies

Ah - I didn't notice that the blend mode was set to 'copy'. What does does copy do?
Normal blend mode works fine thank you!

TheraHedwig, I'm not sure I understood what you were suggesting. I put a stack of layers into a group ... and then what? If I select the group and go Filter>Adjust> ... everything is greyed out. It won't let me apply the filter to the whole group.

go to the new-layer button, you should be able to select 'filter mask' there. If you click that, a filter menu will pop-up where you can choose your filter. Move the filter mask into the group, and it should apply to all layers within.

Cool! Thank you!