I've been thinking about this, but can't come up with a satisfactory method !

My guess is that you'd like to i.e. increase the contrast or saturation in certain areas, and decrease it in their inverse areas.

The problem lies in not being able to have smart MASKS (a separate, referred image to serve as a mask for e.g. an Adjustment layer). Then you'd be able to use a black and white image as the smart mask for the one action, and use it again as a smart layer combined with an Inverse adjustment layer as another smart mask for the opposite action. That would work...

But for now, I think you can only try using an Action, to quickly create a routine to whip up inverted masks and layers.

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst op Quora: Is there a way to make mutually exclusive layer masks in Photoshop (meaning two masks that are the respective inverse of each other without having to update both manually)?"