Having trouble with my filters in the filter gallery not all working on the image.

Question

Bas relief filter is not adjusting all the layers.  It is applying the filter to a white screen.  The underlying image does not show through.  I did this successfully yesterday - can't figure out what went wrong.
The image is in RGB color, 8 bit, and I've tried to do this in both TIFF and PSD formats. 
I have been creating images by opening the image and then immediately going into the bas relief filter and applying the filter.  This time, when i do that, the preview image in the filter panel goes completely white.  I can see very, very faintly that there is the design in there, as though the design is hidden well behind a thick layer of white.  I adjust the sliders, and it doesn't help.
To make matters worse, it's doing this for a few of the filters!  Some of them work just fine, and some don't!
Where I used to be able to go through the entire filter gallery and see how every filter would love on an image, now many of them just show a white screen when I try to apply them, so I know that it's not only the bas relief filter.
I have a job to turn out - so I need to figure out what I've done wrong!
Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Answer 1

OK - that is the problem!  I can't thank you enough!!!
Another question - I have the other file that is exactly what I want to
duplicate.  Is there a way that I can go into the other file and see the
color settings for foreground and background that existed prior to the
change and duplicate them?
I was working on several different files that look quite similar, as I was
adjusting the color to have lighter varations.  They all started out the
same, though.
It looks like the File>Info shows the process of changes, and I would love
to know what the settings were before the changes- what the settings were
when I opened the file.
Again, I can't thank you enough!