If you double click on the quickmask option, you will see a choice of whether the quick mask is representing Selected or Masked areas. Try switching it.
Also, verify for yourself that it’s working properly by making a selection with a marquee tool and then hit quick mask and try.
Peace,
Tony
Thank you for your reply. The quickmask will not appear in either masked or selected areas when the option is changed. I also tried the marquee tool and the selected region does not show a mask, only the outlined area.
only the outlined area.
So… you make a selection with a marquee tool, then you hit quick mask. Are you saying that only the area around that selection is colored?
If that’s the case, as I said earlier, you can double click on the QM icon and set it to Selected Area instead of Masked Area.
If that’s not the case, try to elaborate on what happens after selecting an area with the marquee tool and hitting QM.
Peace,
Tony
When I make a selection and then click on Quickmask there is no overlay until I choose selected area in Options, then the full image, not only selected area gets a red overlay (if I click the on masked areas option, I get no overlay). At this point I can use the paint tools, but only within the selected area.
Here’s where my confusion starts: Until recently, if I wanted to mask an area I simply clicked on the Quickmask icon and then the paintbrush tool, and I could simply paint on a (red) mask anywhere in the whole image — no pre-selection was necessary. To eliminate some of the mask I would use the eraser tool. This was a much faster way to operate and similar to what I was used to in the old Corel Picture Publisher program (which had a great "fill holes" mask tool). Is this a legitimate way to also use Photoshop CS? In any case, that’s how it was working until a few days ago?!?
Until recently, if I wanted to mask an area I simply clicked on the Quickmask icon and then the paintbrush tool,
That’s normally how it works. I was asking you to basically "test" the function of QM, by first selecting an area, and then going into QM. That’d be step one: does it display a masked and unmaksed area. If so, can you use the eraser tool to take away or the paint brush tool to add.
Next thing to check is the opacity of the QM mask. Double clicking on the QM icon should bring up options for Color, Selected v. Masked, and Opacity of the mask.
If you simply click on QM and paint and are not seeing your ruby mask, then I suspect that the opacity of the mask is set to something less than say, 10%.
So first, let’s go to step one. Select a simple rectangle and click on QM. Does it display your ruby mask?
Peace,
Tony
My favourite problems in Quickmask are: after selecting the area, I hit Q to get the mask, B to get the brush and then either the Black/White (Foreground/Background) are the wrong way round (hit X to toggle them) the blend mode is not Normal or the Opacity is way down.
Then I wonder why painting has no effect 🙁 .
Good point John, I forgot about blend mode of the brush.
Has the original poster tried resetting preferences yet? (FAQ shows how).
Don,
My thought was, "are you seeing what you think you’re seeing?" I know he could just reset preferences, but sometimes that’s akin to throwing in a grenade when you just need a little surgery. <shrug>
Agreed Tony. But I know that when there are so many possible changes in settings, a reset is often the way to get someone going quickest.
I think I finally got this thing figured out. For some reason (probably something I did – doh!) the color swatches in the toolbox did not automatically become black and white, at least not in the expected order. I reset the colors and since then the quickmask has been working as expected. Thanks for your help.
That’ll do it every time. Doh!
Thanks for the follow up Robert.
I agree w/tony, bob. Thank you for getting back to us. Now if someone here could rememeber that next time this pops up… 🙂
