My full white layer mask is still transparent

This has to be one of those stupid, rookie mistake, but I can't solve it.
I'm using a layer mask, and when I paint black on it, it disappears (as it should), but when I use white, it doesn't get back to full 100% opacity. In the attached picture you can see a black area, where the top part of the mask is painted in white. And it's transparent.
This happens with every picture, every depth of colors. Where do I look? I'm pretty desperate, you know...

Hello Marzia. I see now what you mean. Sorry for misunderstanding the question.
That's indeed weird. The only thing I can think of is that maybe your painting tool (brush settings?) itself is not fully opaque or is not in normal blending mode? What happens if you reset the painting tool?

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Swap black and White in layer mask

How do I change the default settings for the layer mask, as I'd like to swap black and white color.

hi steenmikkelsen2,
white means that your mask is transparent until you fill it with black. since then, there was no option to change the mask default settings from white to black otherwise you have to do what Noel suggested. but i hope my suggestion will help you better.
►press "Alt" key on your keyboard simultaneously as you click on the "Add Layer Mask" button under the Layers panel. that switches a white layer mask to black. :-)

What do you do when painting on a layer mask with the correct color dosen't work?

I have been trying to do some compositing but when i paint with white on a black layer mask or black on a white layer mask, NOTHING HAPPENS. What should I be looking for? Is there an adjustment that needs to be set a certain way? I would also like to know how you open multiple images in one document with each image on it's own layer. Thanks...

Everything is set correctly... still nothing.
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Oh and one more thing. When I click on Safari photoshop goes missing and Safari shows. If I click on photoshop then Safari goes missing. This is INCREDIBLY annoying and I don't know why it's doing that. Both these things started at the same time. I'm on a Mac.

Layer mask brush/gradient tool not working in black.

I have cannot paint in black to conceal on a layer mask. I have "NORMAL" mode set and the foreground color is set to black. When I paint or use the gradient tool in "normal" mode with black it paints to transparent.   Before the uprade it was normal.   I have this problem on both CS6 apps pc-and-laptop. I am lost here. Can I get someone to help a brother out...
Thanks,
Kenny

Same issue, please see below:
Given:
     Photoshop 12.1 x64 on OS X 10.7
Problem:
     Painting with black and using the 'gradation tool' inside a 'white' (everything exposed) layer mask is NOT WORKING:
The facts:
     1) Using a black-to-white gradation in a white layer mask is not working.
     2) Using a black-to-transparent gradation in a white layer mask is not working.
     3) But, a using a white-to-black gradation in a black layer mask is working.
     4) or, using a white-to-transparent gradation in a black layer mask is working.
This used-to work. Shall we keep an eye out for a fix or is Adobe going to back-out this bug from the update that broke this?

Photoshop CS3 crashing when working on image with layer mask

I've never had problems with Photoshop CS3 (or any other version) until now.
Here's the problem:
I created an image that has a layer mask applied to it. The image is saved in one layer (named Layer One) but not flattened in order to retain a transparent background. So far so good.
But when I try to exapnd the canvas or make other changes to the image, it crashes. Repeatedly.
Do I have to apply the mask (and thus give up the transparency) to prevent crashes?
I did find a workaround. Applied the mask, made a cast drop shadow (which is what I was after all along), then copy-and-pasted the drop shadow into the original layer-masked image with transparent background.
But is this the only way? Am I experiencing a bug or is something else wrong?
Thanks!

You create a new user account
and it will show you where the corruption is. in the old user account or in the system or application.
It a method of troubleshooting.

Black brush on layer mask not working. Please help/

I have been using CS6 for a while now. CS 6 decided that I can't use my black brush on a white layer mask. At all. I can use the white one on a black mask, but not the black one I. I restarted the computer, but I am annoyed. Has anyone has this problem? Solutions? I am so over my head with photos to finish...this was going to be my big weekend to work at night.

Look at Options bar. Is the brush in Normal blending mode?

Layer Mask Transparency not White

When I go to make a selection in Photoshop CS6 and then click on layer mask from the background layer, the inverse selection is trasparent, rahter than white. How do I change this? Thank you!

Sorry for not describing it in better detail. Here is another example. When I go to crop image and expand my canvas beyond the borders and click ok, the background should be white, instead it is transparent.
When I try to convert a selection from my background image into a layer mask by selecting and then clicking on the mask icon, my background is transparent rather than white. I have cleared all my settings and am totally stumped on what I should do. Any help would be much appreciated!

How to know if a layer mask is full white ?

Hi,
I need a script to know if a layer mask is full white, meaning it can be deleted without any visual effect.
I can get layer mask selection, but it allways report full image size
getLayerMaskSelection()
doc.Selection.Bounds
gives (0.0, 0.0, 4000.0, 2400.0) even with doc.Selection.Invert()
Any idea ?
Basically, I try to delete all empty layer masks.

Here is another way
function selectLayerMask(visible){
    var rc = false;
    try {
        var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
        var ref = new ActionReference();
        ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID( "Chnl" ), charIDToTypeID( "Chnl" ), charIDToTypeID( "Msk " ) );
        desc.putReference( charIDToTypeID( "null" ), ref );
        desc.putBoolean( charIDToTypeID( "MkVs" ), visible );
        executeAction( charIDToTypeID( "slct" ), desc, DialogModes.NO );
        rc = true;
    } catch (e) {}
    return rc;
function isRevealAllMask(){
    var ref = new ActionReference();
    ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID( "Chnl" ), charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" ), charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" ) );
    var desc = executeActionGet(ref).getList(charIDToTypeID( "Hstg" ));
    var histogram =[];
    for(var h=1;h<256;h++){
        histogram.push(desc.getInteger(h));
    return histogram[254] == histogram.toString().match(/[^,0][0-9]*/);
function selectComponentChannel() {
    try{
        var map = {}
        map[DocumentMode.GRAYSCALE] = charIDToTypeID('Blck');
        map[DocumentMode.RGB] = charIDToTypeID('RGB ');
        map[DocumentMode.CMYK] = charIDToTypeID('CMYK');
        map[DocumentMode.LAB] = charIDToTypeID('Lab ');
        var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
            var ref = new ActionReference();
            ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID('Chnl'), charIDToTypeID('Chnl'), map[app.activeDocument.mode] );
        desc.putReference( charIDToTypeID('null'), ref );
        executeAction( charIDToTypeID('slct'), desc, DialogModes.NO );
    }catch(e){}
var hasMask = selectLayerMask(true);
if(hasMask){
    var revealAll = isRevealAllMask();
    selectComponentChannel();
    if(revealAll) alert('mask is all white');
Also if you have one of the newer versions of Photoshop that support mask density you might also want to check that. If the density is set to 0 this will not show the alert for non-all white mask even though the appear white in the GUI

Probelms with PS CS5 - Cant add a transparent gradient layer mask to a layer - please help

My company just upgraded us to cs5 on our macs. I was working along in photoshop & dont know if I hit something inadvertently or what but all of a sudden I cannot add a black to transp gradient to a layer mask. Ive searched around even saved out and re-loaded the gradients from my pc (which has the black to transparent gradient in the gradient editor & the process works fine).
Funny thing is that in the mac gradient picker, the black to transparent gradient is black and solid white but the name of it is 'black to transparent' in the editor. Ive tried
I guess my questions would be how would one make a transparent gradient, or how would one reset the gradients to default becuase every time i delete all the gradients the add a new .grd file from my pc, it still does not show the gradient.
Its amazing how such a small thing like this saves so much time and its eating me up that I cant get this to work
Thanks in advance, Mark

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Adobe Photoshop CS4 Settings
This is where I finally found the prefs.psp file. At least this is the way my Vista machinie is set up. Your "User" config may be diferrent from mine.
But, Thanks for the right answer!. My transparent layer is now only showing the faint gray checkboard instead of black.
Rob_L

Can't paint at full opacity in layer mask in CS6 64 bit windows 7

A problem has developed in my photoshop CS 6 64 bit on windows 7. I can't paint at full opacity in a layer mask. It is like an 75 % opacity brush. I have gone back to the default brushes soit is not the particular bursh. My brush settings are all at 100%, mask density is 100% , the blend mode is normal,-can't think of where else to look for the solution.The brush works just fine when I am not in a layer mask.
I updated the graphic card driver and also the wacom intuos driver. It has to be somewhere in photoshop CS6 as when I go into my older version photoshop, cs5, the mask opacity works works at 100 % opacity
Any ideas of what to do next.

I am having a similar problem that I need help with. I just loaded CS6 for the first time ever last week and have been tinkering around with photo editing. I am trying to use an action I downloaded to whiten the whites of the eyes and teeth. When I run the action I cannot paint with the soft white brush. I hit backslash and it shows no work completed, just a red background. I have everything selected at 100% opacity (brush and action layer).
A couple days ago I was able to use the brush tool to darken the background by loading an action and paiting on. Now I can't do that anymore.
I can use my brush for other tasks. I am so confused. I would greatly appreciate any insight.

How do I add a second layer mask to turn more areas transparent?

I can't get this to work, and I haven't been able to find a post specifically for this question. I applied a layer mask to a photograph to take out part of the background, that is, make it transparent. I would like to add several more masks to make more areas transparent. But when I add a second mask, it hides the first one, and the first one hides it. If I turn off either level, and I can see the transparent portion for the other level, but when both layers are visible, all of the transparent sections are covered.
It seems to be there ought to be a simple way to do this. Perhaps it is possible to combine all the selected transparency layers into one mask?
Thanks for any help you can give.
Best -- Cat

Thanks, Scott! I'm not exactly sure how to use groups, but this is a good reason to figure it out.
I also figured out a kludgy way to do it. I make transparent the part of one layer that is blocking the transparency of the others. As long as I don't have a lot of layers do to that way, it works okay. It's a pain, though.
Thanks for the help!
best -- Cat

How can I Copy/Paste a Black & White Photo into a Layer Mask

I have a landscape picture.
Then I will copy it into another layer and convert it to black and white. I will make some changes to the B&W photo
Then I want this B&W photo to be the layer mask of a "Layer-Multiply" of the original ...
I tried copy and paste as it is, but it doesn´t works
Please help me with the steps or what I am doing wrong.
Regards
Roberto

You can paint not only a black and white photo, but also a coloured one.
Once you have copied the photo (Ctrl A and Ctrl C), before trying to paste, be sure that the layer mask is active, Alt click in the layer palette in the mask icon on the right : you get a white screen and the mask icon is shown selected. Only then can you paste into the mask (Ctrl V). To exit the mask view, Alt click again or click in the layer icon on the left.
When you paste a coloured pictures it is automatically converted to grayscale.

How to copy a black and white layer to the mask of another layer.....

Earlier I asked, "How?"
Got a reply, but the solution didn't work in PSE 10.
After trial and error, I figured it out.
When dealing with abstract art or even hair, it is too time consuming to make a
mask pixel by pixel.
Load the image you want to mask into a new layer and convert it to black and white. You might need to
adjust contrast/brightness to maximize the effect..
Using the Magic Wand tool, click on the WHITE area of the image.
Click Edit/Copy.
Click on the layer you want the mask copied to.
Next, click on "Add new layer mask" button on the bottom of the layers panel.
Your mask should appear and is now ready for a touching up!.

What’s the correct way to proceed?
Joke?
In Photoshop there are often more ways than one to achieve a task and none of them need be considered »wrong« as long as the result fits the intention, so »the correct way« seems to be problematic terminology.
Anyway, one can use a Layer set to Blend Mode Color and paint on that with whatever colors.
Or one can use Solid Color Layers set to Blend Mode Color.
Or Hue/Saturation Layers …
To edit contrast if necessary Curves or Levels Adjustment Layers can be employed.
You could also have googled »photoshop colorize black and white« …

Colored texture pasting as black and white into a layer mask

Hello all,
First time poster, long time lurker here.
I'm pasting a colored layer into a layer mask I created in order to texturize a shape I made. Whenever I Option + Click the layer mask and then paste the texture, it pastes in black and white instead of color, see screen capture below (pardon the watermark):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC8Da4V0FAc
Am I missing something here? Thanks in advance!

If you want to add a texture to a shape, create a new layer, fill it with your texture, then ALT+click their separation line in the layers panel.
This creates a what is called a Clipping Mask: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/revealing-layers-clipping-masks.html.

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!

My full white layer mask is still transparent

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