Layer Masking Issue

I recently purchased the Abode Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium. I am pretty familar with Photoshop in general, and masking also. But I am having a problem with them now. After applying the layer mask when I use black to take away what I want it looks as if I had the opacity turned down and it does not erase it 100%. I am struggling to figure out what is wrong, I have tried many options, such as opacity settings, blend modes, etc.
I have attached two test photos to show what is wrong, one is un edited, and the other has a mask applied.
Thanks for your help!

One can change the foreground color inadvertently when applying Adjustments for example.
To make sure that one does indeed work with black and white when editing Layer Masks it can be useful to occassionally hit D to reset the fore- and background color.

Similar Messages

Layer Mask issues cc 2014

So recently I installed CC 2014 and just two days ago the layer mask stopped allowing me to draw into the mask. I can lasso in the mask. I can switch to white and edit the mask with the brush. I can use erase and edit the mask. But I can't draw into the mask. This is HUGE problem in my workflow. Any suggestions to trouble shoot this would be great! Has anyone else encountered this? Is there an update that addresses this bug? Thanks!

It was set to normal. I read a response to a similar problem and a user had it set to dissolve. So I checked it just in case. It wasn't. Then I started having the same issue on a regular layer...So I grabbed my backup Cintiq pen to see if it was a Cintiq issue ( I have an older 21). It happened with that pen, as well. Then I opened the file in CS4 and everything is working fine....it limits me to the brushes I created in CS4 though. The long term issue of CC2014 will have to be resolved, because this seems like a bug. It's been working fine for a week and half until yesterday...

Layer Mask Issue, please help.

Hi,
My layer mask is not working, not sure what's happening. I'm using CS 4 . i want to use blending effect so i place the photos on a white background. I click layer mask on each photo, select brush tool brush on the photo but is not working, is either appear black or white color when i use the brush paint on it. If not wrong, the foreground color should be grey & white in layer mask function but it appear black & white instead. Please see the screenshot below. Please help, thank you

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!
Hope this helps.
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
(It is one of the best ways to search for tutorials or help files)
Pierre

Layer Mask Frustration!

Hello! How can I fix my layer mask issue? I'd been having tons of fun with masks and editing pictures in PSE 11; now suddenly the layer mask is acting funky! Instead of completely revealing a layer, it's like making the picture faded. I've checked my opacity, that I'm painting on the mask and with the right color and brush, to no avail. I'm SO frustrated, tearing my hair out! Can anyone offer any insight please? I would so appreciate it!
Thanks!

If you haven't tried resetting the pse 11 preferences that would be the next step.
Go to Edit>Preferences>General and click on on Reset Preferences on next launch, click OK
and restart pse 11.
Also, are you using a drawing tablet or some other input device other than a mouse?

I am having an issue in PS CS6 (on a Mac) where in the middle of working on a file, it gets corrupted by filling in a grid of squares in my layer masks as well as deleting out those same sections of misc layers throughout the file. I have reset the prefer

I am having an issue in PS CS6 (on a Mac) where in the middle of working on a file, it gets corrupted by filling in a grid of squares in my layer masks as well as deleting out those same sections of misc layers throughout the file. I have reset the preferences, cleaned up the file. Renamed it to another file and 2 weeks later it is doing the same thing. Luckily I had my main subjects as smart objects and it saved them. This second time I just closed it out and opened it again and it is fine. Anybody else have an issue with this? Also it runs really slow these days on my MacBook Pro Retina 2.6 Core i7 with 16gb Ram.

Hello APVzW, we absolutely want the best path to resolution. My apologies for multiple attempts of replacing the device. We'd like to verify the order information and see if we can locate the tracking number. Please send a direct message with the order number so we can dive deeper. Here's steps to send a direct message: http://vz.to/1b8XnPy We look forward to hearing from you soon.
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Layer Mask Rubylith Issue

I am having an issue with my Layer Mask Rubylith. When I activate it to check my selection it is coming in all blocky and won't fully render. Also if I try to paint white or black on it, photoshop seems to run really slow, or freeze on me. What can I do to fix this problem, it is really annoying especially when I am do photo retouching.
How do I fix this issue?
This is what I am getting.

Graphic drivers are updated and I don't see an openGL option in my photoshop preferences. Do you mean openCL? If not, can you direct me to the openGL setting?

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

ONLY since JAN 2014 update, PS CC has been hanging/crashing when I paint/edit a layer mask. All may be well at first (or not), but suddenly the display of the mask (or mask overlay on the layer itself, as shown when hitting backslash key) is not shown in full but renders in s-l-o-w-l-y in rectilinear pieces <snapshot below was taken before video card upgraded but is still typical of what I mean>. When I view Windows' Task Manager for PS, I see my CPUs are each working at their upper limits (up to 80+-90+%), varying only by a few points, over a VERY long time... which could be MANY minutes. OR the System has decided PS is Not Responding.
In any case, whenever this happens, it means in all practicality PS CC is not working, so I either kill it or it's crashed.
Now, here's the thing: that VERY file, can immediately be opened in PS CS6 (which I have fortunately kept installed on my computer), and the mask will be as I thought it should be, and I can edit it as I always could, just fine! So it's obviously a PS CC thing, and I do NOT recall this happening prior to the JAN update. It is still a problem after the two subsequent updates.
I have not been able to determine the specific instances when this happens, as it seems to happen whenever I am editing a mask, no matter what size/softness/color brush, what magnification, what view mode, many or few layers, big or small file, etc.
I did upgrade my NVIDIA card (from GeForce GTX 260 [with current driver] to GTX660), just in case it was a factor (maybe kept it from crashing as fast? hard to tell... but it's still an unworkable problem). You can see from my Sys Info shown here from the PS CC Help menu that it should be more than sufficient for any PS CC task, and it's running the latest driver:
Adobe Photoshop Version: 14.2.1 (14.2.1 20140207.r.570 2014/02/07:23:00:00) x64
Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit
Version: 6.1 Service Pack 1
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:14, Stepping:5 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2
Physical processor count: 4
Processor speed: 2664 MHz
Built-in memory: 16379 MB
Free memory: 12453 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 14697 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 60 %
Image tile size: 1024K
Image cache levels: 4
Font Preview: Medium
TextComposer: Latin
Display: 1
Display Bounds: top=0, left=0, bottom=1200, right=1920
OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.
OpenGL Allow Old GPUs: Not Detected.
OpenGL Drawing Mode: Advanced
OpenGL Allow Normal Mode: True.
OpenGL Allow Advanced Mode: True.
AIFCoreInitialized=1
AIFOGLInitialized=1
OGLContextCreated=1
NumGPUs=1
gpu[0].OGLVersion="3.0"
gpu[0].MemoryMB=2048
gpu[0].RectTextureSize=16384
gpu[0].Renderer="GeForce GTX 660/PCIe/SSE2"
gpu[0].RendererID=4544
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]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_FRAGMENT_UNIFORM_COMPONENTS]=[2048]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VARYING_FLOATS]=[124]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VERTEX_ATTRIBS]=[16]
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_VERTEX_PROGRAM]=1
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
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_TEXTURE_FLOAT]
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.

Why is my Layer Mask filling with Grey

I'm working in a multi layered CS5.1 Photoshop project (I did not create it). One of the adjustment layers in the project needs a layer masks, and when I create one it is not working properly. I make my selection that I want to mask off and create the layer mask it creates it with White and a 50% gray insted of black. Likewise when I alt click to create a layer mask it fills it in with black and 50% gray. The layer did have a 87% opacity to it so I thought this was causing the gray to happen, but when I turned the Opacity to 100% the mask was still being created with gray.
I use the fill tool to fill the gray with Black or White (Fill settings are opacity 100 and fill 100) it fills the mask more like my fill opacity is set to 50%. Likewise it does this for the pant brush as well. I have messed with every layer setting I can find including the layer mask panel and the adjustment layer panel, and nothing seem to work. Please help.
P.S. I'm doing this for work and so I cant take any screen shots to show what is going on.

Gsmith98 wrote:
JJMack: I control click the layer mask to select everything in it. The original layer does have some fethering to the file but i cant see why it would fill everythign the same shade of gray, and then not let me paint over it with black. This normally works for me and this issue is quite new.
Ctl+Clicking on the layer's layer mask icon in the layers palette should work and load the layer mask as a selection. Have you tried resetting your Photoshop preferences. Also ALT+Clicking on the layer's layer mask icon in the layers palette should display the grayscale of the selection in the image window.

Can anybody say why In the layer menu the background color is white when opening a layer mask, and why does it automatically turns black by simply opening the layer mask properties menu? The vector mask is white anyway.

Can anybody say why In the layer menu, the background color is white when opening a layer mask, and why does it automatically turns black by simply opening the layer mask properties menu? The vector mask is white anyway.

Topic or subject titles should be clear, pertinent and concise so that individual users can tell at a glance if they can help or not.
That field is not for attempting to fit your entire question in there.
Please keep this in mind next time you post. Thank you.
A lot more information about your hardware and software is needed.
BOILERPLATE TEXT:
If you give complete and detailed information about your setup and the issue at hand,
such as your platform (Mac or Win),
exact versions of your OS, of Photoshop (not just "CC", but something like CC2014.v.2.2) and of Bridge,
your settings in Photoshop > Preference > Performance
the type of file you were working on,
machine specs, such as total installed RAM, scratch file HDs, total available HD space, video card specs, including total VRAM installed,
what troubleshooting steps you have taken so far,
what error message(s) you receive,
if having issues opening raw files also the exact camera make and model that generated them,
if you're having printing issues, indicate the exact make and model of your printer, paper size, image dimensions in pixels (so many pixels wide by so many pixels high). if going through a RIP, specify that too.
a screen shot of your settings or of the image could be very helpful too,
etc.,
someone may be able to help you (not necessarily this poster, who is not a Windows user).
Please read this FAQ for advice on how to ask your questions correctly for quicker and better answers:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/419981?tstart=0
Thanks!

I cannot paint or use gradients correctly in layer mask mode

I have my blending mode set to 'NORMAL". When I paint in black on a layer mask it creates a transparent effect (not hide the image/pattern). Since the upgrade this has affected both my pc and laptop versions. I've read through the forums and see a lot of folks having issues with the blending mode set inccorrectly but this seems different. I'm at a loss and losing time. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Um, painting black on a layer mask is supposed to create transparency (and gray partial transparency). Unless I'm missing something subtle, it appears to be working correctly from what I can see.
Keep in mind the checkerboard is not really in the document - it's just Photoshop's way of showing you that the layer is transparent. You can set how that's portrayed in the Preferences - Transparency and Gamut section.
Or you can enable the visibility of your Background layer to see what it looks like when that shows through.
-Noel

Am I Missing Something Obvious? Layer Mask Not Confined to Selection.

Hello, I really hope I am not missing anything obvious.
I am working on a .psd in Photoshop CC in which I used a selection to precisely remove a portion of a layer in a layer mask. The problem is that it is removing a percentage of the opacity in the non selected area. The brush has 100% Opacity, 100% Flow and is in Normal Mode. The layer has 100% Opacity, 100% Fill, and is in Normal Mode. I have tried restarting Photoshop and starting over from scratch. Here is an image of the issue.
My only other concern is that on Friday we had a power outage due to lightning and PS CC closed unexpectedly. Could my PS CC be corrupted? My computer has restarted since then. Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thanks!

The power outage should not have corrupted your Photoshop to cause this to happen. Worst that could have happened is Photoshop was forced to quit and your preferences did not get save for yourt panel layout and prefertence settings.
Is your brush filled with 100 black, the swatch looks dark but you may be at 90% black.? Your screenshot looks fine though as if the mask is working correctly, can you post a screenshot that better shwos the problem.

Photoshop TIFFs with layer masks do not display correctly

I am sure other people must have this problem, but I cannot find any related posts so here goes:
I open an image using the "open in external editor" command (typically a RAW file converted to a TIFF), edit in Photoshop and save the file (as a TIFF, I do not use PSD format)
If the PS edit contains any layer masks or alpha channels (masks in the channel pallet) it does not display correctly when it reappears in Aperture. Only the top most mask will display, assuming I have multiple layer masks in the PS edit.
Not only will the TIFF only appear as the mask in Aperture, but Aperture will print or email the mask, not the PS edited file as it should appear.
It seems that Aperture only recognizes the layer mask (or alpha channel mask) as the image, and all the other layers etc are disregarded.
Is this a confirmed bug, or is there some setting I have not correctly configured or some other issue?
I love Aperture, but this problem is nearly a deal-breaker for my workflow, and would be for any serious photoshop user, I would imagine!
I cannot believe this is still a problem in version 1.5, which is the version I am using (thus my system is 10.4.8)

David,
I assume you mean in the edited PS TIFF file:
In different cases I have either:
A. A TIFF file with layer a layer mask
B. A TIFF file with multiple layer masks
C. A TIFF file with an alpha channel mask
D. A TIFF file with multiple alpha channel masks
E. A TIFF file with any combination of the above
the outcome is the same, they all do not display correctly in Aperture. It does not seem to matter if the file was opened in PS from Aperture via the open with external editor command or if it was worked on outside Aperture entirely then imported. I do have maximize compatibility in PS checked (though I understand this is only for PSD files, though perhaps I am wrong here)
any thoughts?

Bug report: [layer mask] editing colors

Sometimes it appears that the white/black color combination that is automatically selected in layer mask editing may override the selected color combination outside of layer mask editing.
Example:
1) Open Photoshop.
2) Select two colors: white/white.
3) Create two blank documents, each with an empty Layer 1.
4) In one document, add a layer mask to Layer 1. The colors should have been automatically switched to black/white as the layer mask is selected.
5) In this document, use the gradient tool to fill the layer mask with black/white.
6) Switch to the other document, and notice that the color selection is again white/white.
7) In this other document, use the gradient tool to fill Layer 1. Notice that the layer is filled with black/white instead of white/white as selected.
Tested on: PS CS6, Windows 7, 64-bit.

On further testing I think the issue may not be directly related to layer masks at all.
Basically the issue is that the Gradient tool colors don't update to the 'default foreground/background colors' in cases where it seems that they should.
One example of such a case (as illustrated in the original post) is when the Gradient tool keeps the black/white color combo used for a layer mask in a previous document after switching to the current document where a non-masked layer is targeted and the default fg/bg colors have correctly reverted to white/white.
Example:
layer mask targeted in doc1 - notice synchronised Gradient and default fg/bg colors
after switching to non-masked layer in doc2, Gradient is still black/white although default fg/bg colors have reverted appropriately to white/white
Bug or not, it's something I wanted to point out as it seems inconsistent.

CS 6 layer opacity issue

In the middle of working on a file my layer opacity started acting weird. If I reduce the opacity to 90% it looks like I have dropped it by 60%. This happened on the file i was working on but when I opened a new file and filled a box with solid black (100%) and then duplicated the layer and reduced that one to 90% it looked fine. SO I thought I had a memory issue. I quit PS then I restarted. Now no matter what file I open or create, my opacity is not proportional to the slider. 90% looks like 60% of any layer I make. Now, when I save the file and place it in an InDesign document, the preview looks as it should. What gives? There are no adjustment layers or layer masks apllied to the layers.
You can see the large discrepency in shade from 100% black to 90% black.
Please help. Its driving me nuts!

Charles,
Thanks for your reply but I discovered the problem. Gamut warning! I inadvertently must have hit shift-command-Y and unchecked the Gamut Warning under the View menu.
Here is the opacity in RGB mode with the gamut warning UNCHECKED:
And with the gamut warning CHECKED:
I knew it was just me hitting some random setting that screwed it up. User error as usual. Not sure why the gamut warning needs a keyboard shortcut, but whatever.

My layer mask is yellow/cream instead of white.

I can add a second one on the same layer and it will be white. Using CC and windows 8.

Yes that was the right answer but to be more specific about this masking issue there was no need to make a compound path or outline the text.
All you need todo is to place what ever you wanted to show through the Mask under the stacking order of the Text and select the text and the the objects or images you wanted to show through and Command 7 or Object>Clipping Mask>Make.

Layer Masking Issue

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