Laurie McCanna's Photoshop Tip #8

Photoshop Gotchas!

I use Photoshop more than anything else on my system. I use it for my grocery list, for birthday cards, and a hundred other things because I know it so well and it's just easy (for me, and it took a long and winding road to get here).

BUT...

There are a couple of big gotchas I'd like to tell you about to save you some of the hours of frustration that I've enjoyed.
Don't get me wrong. I think that Photoshop is a fantastic program. I use it at least fifty hours a week, and it would be the last program I would give up.

I Can't Use a Tool

This is the scenario: you select a tool and try to use it and nothing happens. Solution?

Are you on the layer you think you're on?

Look at the Layers Palette to make sure you're really on the layer that you think you're on.

If you've toggled the eye icon off for the layer you're on, you won't see the changes you've made until you toggle the visibility for the layer you're working on.

Are you working on a layer with the transparency locked?

Are you working on a layer that is hidden behind artwork on a layer above it?

Have you changed the opacity or blending type for the layer you're on? If the opacity is set to a low number, you won't be able to see your changes.

Are the settings for the tool that you're using preventing you from seeing your work?

Check the settings for the tool you're using in the toolbar across the top of the screen.

If you've hidden the marquee tool and forgot to turn it back on (Ctrl+H on Windows, Command+H on the Mac) you might be working with a selection without realizing it.

You might have the brush settings set to a low opacity. I've also run into an oddity where if I'm using the puck (cordless mouse) for my Wacom tablet, any settings in the Brush Palette such as scattering or smoothing will prevent the brush strokes from displaying. It's just using the puck with the pencil or brush tool (or other paint tool) that does this. If I use the Wacom pen, everything works as it should.

Did you use the Type Tool?

You need to click on another tool in the toolbox or cancel out of the type tool before you can use other Photoshop features.

My Filters are Greyed Out

Select Image > Mode and see what color mode you're working in. If you're working in anything other than RGB or grayscale, the filters will be disabled.

I Can't Select Something

Are you on the layer you think you're on? Look at the Layers Palette to make sure you're really on the layer that you think you're on.

Are you lost in layers? It's easy enough to get lost in your layers. To find out which layer something is on, click on the Selection tool, then right-click on the part of your image you want to edit. You'll get a popup menu that lists the layer(s) that have pixels on them in the area you've clicked on.

Right-clicking the selection tool on different areas of an image reveal which layer(s) have pixels where you're clicking.

My Cursor Looks Funny or There's a Hole in My Screen or ...

If you get some profoundly weird visual things happening after you've updated Photoshop, patched Windows, it may be time to update your video card's drivers.

Think about it: the drivers for your video card may have been written before Adobe ever thought of creating the latest whizz bang effect in Photoshop, so how could the video card software developers ever forsee the need to support them?

It's probably no secret that video cards are marketed for the gaming market, which pushes the limits of the memory and performance of the visuals you see in today's games. Therefore, as new games come out, the drivers for video cards get updated frequently. I've seen drivers updated as often as once every two weeks for a new video card. You only need to update your drivers once in a while, and it's a good troubleshooting starting point for something you can't easily resolve.

For Windows: To see what graphics card you're using, right-click on your desktop, select Properties, select the Display tab, click the Advanced button, select the Adapter tab, and click the Properties button. This should display the date of your driver. You'll find the manufacturer and number of the card on the Adapter tab.Identify your video card in Windows

There are two main video card makers: Nvidia and ATI. You can find their drivers:

Also, if you're using a Wacom tablet, it might resolve issues to update the drivers for this as well. You'll find the model number of your Wacom tablet on the bottom of the tablet itself.