I'm having a really strange problem in CS5. When I add a mask to a layer in order to erase a portion, the eraser won't work on the mask. If I want to erase anything, I have to erase on the layer itself. I've tried restarting PS, I've even rebooted, and can't get erase to work on masks. This is probably another weird shortcut key I've inadvertently hit... Any ideas?
I must be misunderstanding something here.
Layer masks work on painting with white or black (or even grey), rather than erasing. If you covered something up (black) by mistake, you simply paint over it with white again to let it show again.
Yes, you can paint "out" or paint back in stuff on a mask. But you can also erase portions of it using the eraser. Well, I was able to until tonight....
So the problem is with the eraser. At least you can keep working with the brush. Later I will check the eraser settings and try to help you, now I'm still in bed with my phone - you know, our different time zones :)
Can't you just use the brush for both and just hit X to swap between black (mask) and white (reveal)? I never use the eraser on masks.
One other thing to check: opacity setting on the eraser tool?
I'm having a really strange problem in CS5. When I add a mask to a layer in order to erase a portion, the eraser won't work on the mask. If I want to erase anything, I have to erase on the layer itself. I've tried restarting PS, I've even rebooted, and can't get erase to work on masks. This is probably another weird shortcut key I've inadvertently hit... Any ideas?
If you're erasing the layer mask your foreground colour needs to be set to white, if it's set to black the eraser won't work. Don't know if that helps? :)
Not sure I understand why you would want too?
I just had a go and yes I can erase but why would I?
It seems to have exactly the same effect as painting Black/White which is the way to use it.
Think perhaps we are all misunderstanding your problem.
It seems to have exactly the same effect as painting Black/White which is the way to use it.
Think perhaps we are all misunderstanding your problem.
I think she's doing the same thing with the eraser, and I do the same. I only use eraser with mask, shifting from black to white with 'x'. I keep separated eraser and paintbrush in order to be able to do different stuff with brush.
I play around with the opacity depending on the effect I want, but even at 100% it doesn't erase. I haven't noticed what the color is set to as it never mattered before.
Why erase? Just how I started doing it - I use the brush tool for other stuff. I will check to reset tool though. One of those irksome little PS mysteries I may never solve. Or maybe I'll just have to use the brush from now on :-) Thanks everyone!
I play around with the opacity depending on the effect I want, but even at 100% it doesn't erase. I haven't noticed what the color is set to as it never mattered before.
It has ALWAYS mattered. If it never "mattered" before, that's because your color was always set to default. So go check your color picker tool in the tools palette; see the little tiny black-and-white dice? Click that and the colors revert to default B&W. Click to little 2-way arrow to switch between them, and be sure white's on top for erasing.
R.
Incidentally, using the eraser on the mask is EXACTLY THE SAME THING as using the brush on the mask, its parameters can be adjusted exactly as the brush's parameters can. So I can see why some folks would want to use the eraser instead of the brush, when masking, if they have their brush set by default to some specialized, custom setting or whatever.
