Blend brush w/mask layer not working right

[CraigV]

If I'm not mistaken, when I create a mask layer, the brush tool is supposed to brush out everything to reveal the background, correct? Take a look below, of the swimmer in the upper right. What am I doing wrong?

[LeviFiction]

Short answer - to erase paint with black. To bring stuff back, paint with white.

Long Answer

Color is important, it's not just a reveal conceal thing.

Masks are grey-scale images, meaning they can use values ranging between 0 (black) and 255(white). You can think of it as painting in the transparency. 0 (black) is invisible 255(white) is full opaque. Any levels of grey are partial transparency. You'll notice you're painting with grey. So you're not completely erasing when you paint in.

If you want to erase, then make sure the color is set to black.

[df]

I can't really see too many specifics of your screenshot. What's the blend mode? Do you have Smart Edge or anything else checked?
Is this an 8 bit or 16 bit image?

[hartpaul]

It also help to let us know what you are trying to do.
I suspect you have a picture of a bear and icefloe on top of another picture showing some swimmers and are trying to simulate some swimmers in a daring situation.
In this case instead of using a mask, you could use a soft eraser brush to eras the water in the top image and show the swimmer beneath.

A second way would be to use the image extractor to separate the swimmer and copy and paste to new layer then move to position and soften edges to blend in.

[CraigV]

Thanks for the replies, sorry for the poor screen shot. My two color boxes had been switched to gray, as opposed to black and white. Once I got that straight, it works now as expected.

@hartpaul - are there any tutorials describing the methods you mentioned?

[hartpaul]

Object Extractor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQAAvWslcXg

Using eraser tool:

1. Load your two images bear and swimmers.
2. Activate your Bear image, Edit > Copy
3. Activate your Swimmers image - Edit > Paste as New Layer.
4. In layers palette activate your top bears layer and change the Opacity to 50 % or enough to be able to see the swimmers beneath. Now before you were painting the mask area with grey (recommended to change to black) in our case we are not using a mask and instead erasing the parts of the bear layer so we can see through to the swimmer beneath. You may need to activate the swimmers layer and use the pick tool to move it into position.
5. Select the eraser tool and set the hardness to 0 and Opacity to about 10. Now on your bears layer (make it active) start erasing the water over the top of the swimmer so that the swimmer becomes clearer.
6. when finished change the layer opacity back to 100 and merge and save.

This same method can be used when you have taken two images of a group of people and one person has eyes closed in the best of the two pics. Place the best on top of the second best, move the second so that the faces are in line, then erase only the face / eyes area of the top image so the eyes open of that person show through from the bottom image. This can be done with masks but the eraser tool is simpler and as well you can right click and unerase as well.

[CraigV]

Object Extractor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQAAvWslcXg

Using eraser tool:

1. Load your two images bear and swimmers.
2. Activate your Bear image, Edit > Copy
3. Activate your Swimmers image - Edit > Paste as New Layer.
4. In layers palette activate your top bears layer and change the Opacity to 50 % or enough to be able to see the swimmers beneath. Now before you were painting the mask area with grey (recommended to change to black) in our case we are not using a mask and instead erasing the parts of the bear layer so we can see through to the swimmer beneath. You may need to activate the swimmers layer and use the pick tool to move it into position.
5. Select the eraser tool and set the hardness to 0 and Opacity to about 10. Now on your bears layer (make it active) start erasing the water over the top of the swimmer so that the swimmer becomes clearer.
6. when finished change the layer opacity back to 100 and merge and save.

This same method can be used when you have taken two images of a group of people and one person has eyes closed in the best of the two pics. Place the best on top of the second best, move the second so that the faces are in line, then erase only the face / eyes area of the top image so the eyes open of that person show through from the bottom image. This can be done with masks but the eraser tool is simpler and as well you can right click and unerase as well.

Wow, quite a write up there - thanks! The idea I was trying to do was to take indavidual pics of the swimmer, make them a "selection", copy/paste onto the bear picture, make the selection a mas layer and use various tools to make it appear the swimmer was in the water around the ice flow. Ideally, the look of the pool water would blend in to make it appear the swimmer is in the cold water surrounding the bear.