Feathered selection, transparency, mask question

1) On a transparent canvas, fill a feathered selection at 100% opacity.
2) Cmd-click layer icon to load the selection (of the pixels).
3) Add its Layer Mask.
When I Enable/Disable the Layer Mask, the pixels change (the border changes).
This does not happen when a similar selection is made on a non-transparent canvas.
What is going on with the transparency and the Mask that I am missing? That is, why does Mask change the image?
Thanks,
Sonny
OS 10.5.8, PSCS4

Hi Sonny
Michael has some good insight into this.
No matter what, these topics are definitely hard to grasp and I too have struggled with how does all the transparency, selections, layer masks, alpha channels all work together (or not) and the differences between all these names and their function. My experience is how learning works for one person may do nothing for another. Thought I would give it a shot based on my understanding. Sorry if this is wordy yet you ask very good and tough questions.
First for the Transparency/Opacity
When you create a feathered selection and fill it over a transparent background you effectively have created a transparency mask for that layer right within the artwork. The fuzzy edge is the transition from full 100% opacity (transparency = 0) within the red square to 0% opacity outside the square (transparency=100%). This defines one of the two transparency masks that each level can have. The transparency mask does not get a lot of press because a thumbnail for it does not show up anywhere. The second mask is the Layer Mask. The total opacity is determined by multiplying the Layer Mask with the Transparency Mask (ignoring the opacity/fill sliders and Blending Options). The effective total opacity for the layer is seen as familiar checkerboard pattern.
When you pressed CMD (Ctrl on PC) and clicked the artwork thumbnail, you pulled up the transparency mask up as a selection (I'll talk about the marching ants and the hard edge it portrays later on). By copying this selection into the Layer Mask you now have effectively double masked your artwork (Layer Mask X Transparency Mask). The transparency mask still sits within the artwork and is now duplicated as a Layer Mask. This will make the total mask look like it has shrunk. Why?.... Right in the middle of the transition edge of either mask you will have 50% opacity. When you double up on the masks that same point will now have 50% x 50% = 25% opacity. The bottom line is the the opacity edge will go through a steeper and faster transition when you have this doubling up of masks.
If that is not what you want there are several ways to avoid this
1) Just don't use a layer mask since the red object is already created with a smooth transparent edge within a transparent field (why do you want the layer mask?)
2) Create the initial selection with a hard edge, move it into a layer mask, select it and then Select>Refine Edge for the Layer Mask to create a smooth transition.
Either way you won't double up on the masks.
Selection Mask
The selection mask is its own beast and not associated with any particular layer. Think of it as a mask that hovers over the entire layer stack and that it can be applied to whichever layer is active (highlighted). The selection mask with its marching ants gives the impression that it has a hard edge. This is misleading because anytime you have any feathering you are creating a mask with a gradual transition or a mask that on the edges has partial opacity/transparency. Almost all the selection tools have the ability to do feathering.
Unfortunately tyring to represent the mask edge is problematic when it is not a sharp transition. The marching ants just represents the point in the feathering where the partial transparency of the selection =50%. When you have no feathering the edge is sharp and the marching ants are exactly right on top of that edge. Other than that, the marching ants are somewhere in the middle of the edge transistion.
Clear as mud right?
Hope that helps
John Wheeler

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I don't know what the little square is called at the lower left of screen.
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Another transparent image question: so sorry

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