Layer Mask Help???

Alright so ive been using quick mask, and a brush on a layer mask to make selections while doing some color splashing over the past few days and everything was going fine until now, everything goes good making a new layer, adjusting saturation, and making a layer mask, but when I select the quick mask to start making my selection it deselects the layer mask and wont let me reselect it. any advice is appreciated.
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You have to provide system info and other details. We don't even know your version of PS.
Mylenium

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  • Needing Layer Mask help

    Hello all!! I would like to go ahead and thank you for any support and help you may be able to offer....
    I am having troubles understanding proper layer mask techniques.....
    What I am trying to accompolish is turning
    into this
    I want to know how to make the floral brush take on the whites of the background images and then how to get the background image take on the white background with floral design overlayed into background iamge.....
    I cant seem to figure it out, been 3 hours or so now THANKS FOR ANY HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

    Draw the floral elment on a new empty layer. Then do one of the two possible things:
    - paint the flower on a new empty layer
    - use Ctrl+click on the layer thumbnail to load your flower as a selection
    - select the photo layer (if it is still labeled Background, double click to turn it into a floating layer)
    - use the layer mask symbol in the layers palette to apply your active selection as a new layer mask (the little dashed circle)
    - repeat the above steps with a white solid, but invert the selection before converting it to a mask
    - cleanup and refine the mask by painting directly on the mask and using all the otehr tools
    or you could
    - paint the flower on a new empty layer
    - move it above the layer you want to mask
    - hold down Alt while hovering over the little separator between layers to use the layer as a group mask for the photo
    - duplicate and invert the flower
    - connect it to a white solid in the same manenr as described above
    Mylenium

  • Please help with Layer Mask

    I have been painting in Photoshop using layer masks. Using the pen tool I would outline my image, control>R-click>select create layer mask, then I would paint as desired. When doing so it would create a grey layer mask background in the layers window and everything would work100%. But now all of a sudden when I do this process the layer mask square turns white and it seems as the mask I have created is inverted. I paint everything but the mask I want. I have no clue how to turn it back to the original grey colour I was using. Please help.

    Using the pen tool I would outline my image, control>R-click>select create layer mask,
    So are you using a Vector Mask or a Layer Mask?
    Could you post a screenshot?
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  • Hi, i am trying to smoothskin in photoshop cs6 and when i add a layer mask and try to use my paintbrush nothing apears to happen? help please

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  • Layer Mask Issue, please help.

    Hi,
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    Hi, I will try explain your problem.
    In your posted example we can see see that you have three layers in the layers panel.
    On each one of layers, we can see, on the left side, that there is the Layer Thumbnail, that is a showing the actual image of your layer and then a Layer Mask Thumbnail (the white rectangle, on the right side).
    A layer mask works as follows: you tell Photoshop to display or hide actual parts (pixels) of the layer with greyscale values. A white pixel on the layer masks tells Photoshop to show the image area at full opacity (non-transparent), while a black pixel on the layer mask tells Photoshop to hide the layer totally (0% of opacity.) Gray values will therefore show the image data partially.
    But you are painting on the document, and you need to indicate Photoshop whether you want to paint on the image (what you did in your example, and you do not desire) or if you want to paint on the layer mask (what you want to do). This indication is called Targeting. It is done simply by clicking either on the Layer thumbnail, or on the Layer mask thumbnail of your layer. (Clicking different areas of a layer in the layer palette are different orders you give to the program). For instance, if you want to switch the layer you are hiding to another one, in order to paint on its mask, make sure to click on the layer mask thumbnail of the other layer in the Layers Panel.
    In Photoshop CS5.5 and earlier, you will see that a layer or its mask is targeted because there will be three outlines around it: a black, a white and a black one again, like the actual layer data in the highlighted layer 0928 of your image. You should see those three outlines around the layer mask in order to paint on it.
    In CS6, the target indicator is different, look in my image, we can see that the layer mask is targeted thanks to the white corners: I was then able to mask part of the black layer by targeting the Layer Mask in the layer panel, and then painting on the image where I want to hide the layer.
    If you want to modify the actual layer (the photos, in your case), simply click on its thumbnail, and you are good to go!
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    See these help documents: Layes Basics: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-78e3a.h tml
    Layer masks: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/masking-layers.html
    Some search results for "Layer Masks Basics" in Photoshop help: http://community.adobe.com/help/search.html?q=layer+mask+basics&x=0&y=0&lbl=photoshop_prod uct_adobelr&hl=en_US&lr=en_US&self=0&area=0
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    Pierre

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    Has anyone else come across a problem where Photoshop files grow in size much faster than expected, especially when adding layer masks?
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    The only

    Maybe it has something to do with "Maximize Compatibility". If that's checked when you save, it might add a lot of weight to your file, even with just a simple layer mask. Don't know, haven't done any testing, just a thought.
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  • Need help using layer masks

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  • PS CC (since JAN 2014 update) Layer-mask editing causes hangs/crashes

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    Version: 6.1 Service Pack 1
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    AIFOGLInitialized=1
    OGLContextCreated=1
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    gpu[0].RectTextureSize=16384
    gpu[0].Renderer="GeForce GTX 660/PCIe/SSE2"
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    gpu[0].Vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
    gpu[0].VendorID=4318
    gpu[0].HasNPOTSupport=1
    gpu[0].DriverVersion="9.18.13.3221"
    gpu[0].Driver="nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um"
    gpu[0].DriverDate="20131219000000.000000-000"
    gpu[0].CompileProgramGLSL=1
    gpu[0].TestFrameBuffer=1
    gpu[0].OCLPresent=1
    gpu[0].OCLVersion="1.1"
    gpu[0].CUDASupported=1
    gpu[0].CUDAVersion="6.0.1"
    gpu[0].OCLBandwidth=1.16816e+011
    gpu[0].glGetString[GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION]="4.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler"
    gpu[0].glGetProgramivARB[GL_FRAGMENT_PROGRAM_ARB][GL_MAX_PROGRAM_INSTRUCTIONS_ARB]=[16384]
    gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS]=[4]
    gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_COMBINED_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS]=[192]
    gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VERTEX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS]=[32]
    gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS]=[32]
    gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_DRAW_BUFFERS]=[8]
    gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VERTEX_UNIFORM_COMPONENTS]=[4096]
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    gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VARYING_FLOATS]=[124]
    gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VERTEX_ATTRIBS]=[16]
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    gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_FRAGMENT_PROGRAM]=1
    gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_VERTEX_SHADER]=1
    gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_FRAGMENT_SHADER]=1
    gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_EXT_FRAMEBUFFER_OBJECT]=1
    gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_TEXTURE_RECTANGLE]=1
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    I work on digital-photography files, and use a layer mask in almost every file, so this relatively-recent bug is a big PITA, having to switch back and forth between CS6 and CC!
    Until there's a fix... is there a way to roll-back my PS CC version to BEFORE the JAN 15, 2014 update?

    I am not qualified to comment on technical issues; I'm just a user whose son in IT is my 'technical support department.' (But he's not much of a PS user.)
    I'm pretty sure, however, that all my Prefs were set to the same things BEFORE the Jan 16, 2014 PS CC update as after (unless the update itself changed something I was unaware of... the settings APPEARED to be the same but I can't easily locate my notes of what my Prefs were from long ago).
    And they were the same as the PS CS6 I have had installed on this same system for a very long time, with older video card with older driver, with newer driver; newer video card with newest driver, etc. Yet after that CC update, CC has not (until this workaround) worked re 'the masking bug' for me, yet CS6 has always worked just the same.
    So I conclude that the only variable (other than the video card upgrade I did in an attempt to solve this and of course those Windows auto-updates) in this scenario IS something to do with PS *CC*, and after Jan 16, 2014.
    As for restarting the machine vs. restarting PS, well, PS is the major player of my system, so when I shut that (and LR) down, I might as well 'clean things up' by Restarting. BTW, I am in the habit of closing and reopening PS (CC or CS6) whenever I finish with a file and load another, in order to get back some of that memory which PS never seems to want to let go. (This is not new to the latest versions, I think. My son says it's a 'memory hog'? ;-) ) I track its memory use in Windows' Task Manager and find that seems to let it 'refresh' itself. (See, I told you I'm not a technical person. ;-) ) But I do not think this has anything to do with the bug. Just a quirk of PS. Like when a tool goes all wonky (for example, its little icon becomes just a 'plus' sign even though the tool is still performing correctly, it's telling me, I think, that it would like to be restarted. And that makes it feel all better... I mean, tool icon reappears.)
    Anyway... it's up to Adobe to figure out IF and what may be wrong with PS CC -- it still doesn't work for me as I had it configured at first, and I think it should, right? -- and to fix that... PLEASE. SOON.

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