Newbie Question: Simple Layer Mask I am trying to paint in Black or White and I only get gray

[tims82968041]

Hi Folks,

I am embarassed to ask this question but I have been searching for an hour and just can't find an answer.
Details:
PS 2021, MacOS
Two Layers
Reveal All Layer Mask on Top Layer 
Brush set to: Hardness 100, Opacity 100, Flow 100

I start painting black and I get a 50% grey.

Screenshot attached

If I change the Layer Mask to Hide All and paint white again I get a 50% grey and can't paint pure white.

It has to be something incredibly stupid that I am missing but I can't figure it out.

Thanks

[barbara_a]

The only thing I noticed is that the active layer is set to Darken mode instead of Normal. (Upper left corner of the Layers panel)

[tims82968041]

Hi Barbara, 

Thanks for the reply.  Yes, that was a test I did to see if the behavior changed.  If I changed it back to Normal that issue still occurs.   

[Bojan Živković]

Have you tried with preferences reset? Save any unsaved actions and presets to not loose them.

[tims82968041]

Hi Bojan,

Thanks a bunch!  That solved my issue!