Ok, I'm going to try and explain this. I have a color photo that I converted to black and white (image > layer adjustment > saturation -100). I created a mask because I wanted to brush certain areas black in order to turn them color. I put some text on it and I would like to treat the text the same way I did with the black brush. I would like the words to be made of the color image.

Any help?

What?

First off, use a black and white adjustment layer instead of setting the saturation to -100.
Create a text layer.
Duplicate the original image layer and place it on top of the text (should now just look like the original colour image).
Right click this top layer and convert it to a clipping mask.
The text should now look like the original image, with the black/white image in the background.

This is currently where I'm at.



I want the the text to "transparent" and the color to be made of the waves behind it.

Go to
Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Black and White
Or click the middle button under the layers (the black and white circle) and choose Black and White.

Layers should look like this.

Got it. Thanks!