question about masks

I like to apply a mask at 100% opacity, then use the masking menu to reduce the opacity as needed rather than fiddle with the brushes opacity. What I'm wondering is how to mask at different opacities w/ in the same mask while being able to avoid inconsistencies I get from overlapping brush strokes.

Good question. There are probably a million styles and ways to do this. I usually do like you do and apply a mask at 100% opacity and then us a big soft brush at 100% to erase and let things show through. If I want to partially mask my transparent area I'll fill the whole image again but at only 20%, 30% or whatever. That way I'll have my original 100% mask and the area I allowed to show through will be at the second opacity I filled with. Sounds convoluted but it's really pretty simple. Hope that made sense :)

Thanks John, that made sense. I've kind of resigned to the fact that I may need to use multiple layers/masks if I want different opacities.