Participant

Answered

Layer Mask Suddenly Not Working

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
October 26, 2012
10 replies
133418 views

Hello!

I have been using PS 6 for several months now, with no problems; I totally love it! I tend to do a lot of heavily composited photos, so I use layer masks a lot. All of a sudden this afternoon, they aren't working. I am 100% sure I am selecting the mask itself and not the layer (paint colors change to only black and white with the slider). My opacity and flow are both at 100. I am using just a standardsoft-edged paint brush. I paint on back, and nothing changes.

What's weird is if I invert the layer mask and paint white on, that will show up. But if I switch over to black again, it won't make anything disappear.

I'm so perplexed by this; I've never had an issue like this before!

Thank you for your help!

Problem or error

Correct answer SarahEAllegra

Sarah,

Well, that is odd.

The brush is loaded with black. The brush Mode is Normal. And Opacity and Flow are set to 100%.

And it is a regular, standard brush?

Can you post a screen grab showing Document, Tool Option bar, and Layer Panel? (like what I posted?)

thanks.

This is SO weird. I was setting things up to do a screen capture for you and it just as suddenly started working again. I didn't change a thing, haven't closed or opened it; nothing. So I have absolutely no idea. But I'm going to just go with it as long as it decides to work

Thank you for your help!

dianaleighallen

Participant

Hi all! So thankful to find this post!

Yes, this post is an oldie -- but very much a goodie! This morning I was working on a file, in the exact manner of our dear OP, and experienced the exact same thing SarahEAllera did back in October 2012. I am using Photoshop Extended CS6, working on a multi-layer composite, when all of a sudden, painting black on my mask had absolutely no effect! I saved my work, closed & restarted PS, did everything I could think of -- to no avail.

BUT, when I opened the file again (after a cup of coffee), I remembered, I had put a really heavy feather on the mask -- SO basically every paint stroke I put on that mask was feathered so much, it looked like nothing was happening! When I removed the feathering, all those frantic strokes showed up.

I hope this may help someone else in this situation -- regardless of the Photoshop version.

I uploaded a couple of photos to show mask Feathered at 338.6 px, and with the Feathering at 0.0 px

A

Ali38910907d8v4

Participant

thank you soo much

A

Ali38910907d8v4

Participant

not select the mask the mask will be hide

C

claudiav88992020

Participant

Thanks Sarah, I was having the same problem after focus stacking multiple images. I could not edit my individual layer masks. All the normal "culprits" checked out. Was on layer mask, brush set to the correct color (white), normal blending mode, 100% opacity, etc. In the end I gave up and decided to safe my work and just open it again. Bingo- now my brush worked as expected. I did not change anything besides saving and reopening my drawing.

Ríss5ED8

Participant

Hello everyone, I am now having this same issue with photoshop 2020. When I use CS6 to composite and image, I am able to paint black onto my white layer mask. But when I use Photoshop 2020 it does not allow my brush to paint black. I reset the brush tool preferences, the layer mask itsef is selected. I THINK the blend mode was set to normal (but I'm not 100% so I can check that again). How do I fix this so the brush tool will paint with black? Also where do I find the blend mode for the brush in photoshop 2020 so I can check if it's normal?

I hope someone can help me, mainly because this error happened when I was teaching a student. I have another lesson with them in 3 days and I'm hoping we can resolve it by then. They use Photoshop 2020, and I use cS6. So for my demo I was able to show them what to do but then they could not follow along. So embarrassing and frusterating. Wondering if their version is perhaps corrupted even? We reset all the tool preferences too! I feel stumped but I know there must be something I can try.

M

millmaine

Participant

I'm having the same problem since updating to Photoshop 2022!

Colour is solid black 0R 0G 0B

Brush is set to Normal, Opacity 100% Flow 100%

Mask Channel Opacity is 100%

BUT...

Masking ends up looking transparent.

L

Linda26114699muwk

Participant

I have the same problem in PS2022 and have no idea how to fix it.

A

Aayush5FEC

Participant

Problem Solved!

I have solved problem by following these steps :

(1) go to desktop

(2) right click and click personlize

(3) go to themes

(4) pointer to none

DWU01

Participating Frequently

I realize I'm replying to a very old thread, but this happened to me this morning using the latest version of Photoshop CC. I wonder if this was related: I brought two photos into PS from LR using the Open As Layers in Photoshop feature. With black selected, nothing worked on the mask. So, I closed the file, and brought the two images in separately, then pasted one in as a layer onto the other. The mask then worked fine.

yanhaoj78348000

Participant

Hi!

I just have my same problem solved on Ps 2020. I don't know why but by default, my photoshop set my brush mode to Exclusion (Located on the top tool bar). Just scroll up and change it to Normal and everything works great from there. Hope that helps!

Charlieecake

Participant

I ended up on this thread because I was having the same issue but my brush was set to multiply after I checked it several times confirming that it was set to normal. Absolutely wild bug but I'm glad I stumbled on to this thread and found out others were having this problem with 2020. 🙂

mhrpaige

Participant

ISSUE RESOLVED! Well, for me...

I just had this same issue and figured it out. The mask color somehow got messed up.

Right click on the layer mask and click "Mask Options..."

This will open up the Layer Mask Display Options menu. The color should be WHITE and opacity 50%. (Or maybe 100%? I don't see a difference between the two.) If it is not white, bingo, that's your problem. Double-click on the color to change it to white.

D

defaulto7dfgaqr3y91

Participant

WOW! This happened to my CC(2021) recently when downloading updates. My masks weren't working in the sense I couldn't fully "black out" the image, there was always still a trace of what I was trying to remove. Just checked the mask options and it got reset to red for some reason.

R

r-bin

Legend

It has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with it. The mask is displayed in this color if you turn on its visibility in the "Channels" panel.

What is your specific problem? What is the density and feather of the mask? And also fore(back)ground colors?

J

Justin Hardcastle

Participant

I realize this was posted back in 2012 however I as well am using PS 6 and I am having this same exact issue. When I use the black paint tool for the selected layer mask nothing shows up. Even when I try and paint like normal with the paint brush on the actual layer nothing shows up. The white brush does act like the black brush should, however if you go over the area you just marked it erases it.

Little extra info:

I am working on Cinemographs and specifically been working with keyboard shortcuts like Shift + Option + Command + E to make a stamp layer of a video layer. At first this worked as well along with the Layer mask. However after my second video edit this command no longer worked, and would give me a ding every time I pressed it. Then at that point the layer mask also would not work.

I am using a mac.

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

Justin, if were were able to do this in the past, and not now, you might want to reset your preferences, as something might have become corrupted. Also make sure you're using the brush tool and not the eraser tool, and that your brush blend mode is set to normal.

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charles badland

Inspiring

Hi Sarah,

Do you see the black appear on the layer mask in the Layer Panel?

Have you checked that your brush mode is set to Normal?

S

SarahEAllegraAuthor

Participant

The brush is set to normal, yes. And if I paint black onto the white mask, the black does not show up in the layer panel. But if I invert the mask and paint white on, the white WILL show up.

C

charles badland

Inspiring

Sarah,

Well, that is odd.

The brush is loaded with black. The brush Mode is Normal. And Opacity and Flow are set to 100%.

And it is a regular, standard brush?

Can you post a screen grab showing Document, Tool Option bar, and Layer Panel? (like what I posted?)

thanks.

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