The Powerful Gimp Tool That You May Not Be Using

Hey guys, I wanted to chat a bit about a very cool tool that I don't think is used enough, especially in the realm of photomanipulation.  Of course, I'm talking about Layer Masks.  A layer mask allows you to dynamically change what parts of a layer are visible, and not visible by using a grayscale image parallel to your layer.  But without getting into trying to explain it in text, I recommend checking out this gimp video tutorial on them: gimpedtutorials.com/index.php/…

I use layer masks constantly, but that doesn't mean I don't use the eraser tool too.  With some proper planning, it's amazing what you can do with these things.

I use them for simple things like isolating a background in combination with the paths tool, but the real power comes from when I try to isolate hair from a background using this method: gimpedtutorials.com/index.php/…

How do you use layer masks?  Do you use them at all?  I'd love to hear some creative uses of this very powerful tool.