Gotchas

Gotchas are things to watch out for. When you try to do something, and you don’t get the expected
behavior, there are things to look for to quickly troubleshoot and get back to work. Some
may seem obvious, some not so. But what helps is to get used to quickly looking at the layer
palette first, then your brush options, then finally to other areas.

1. Are you on the right layer?
2. Is your layer turned on?
3. Are you painting on the mask or the image?
4. Are you in the correct blending mode? There is one for the layers and one for the brush options.
Check them both.
5. Is your opacity turned down? Again, check the layer AND the brush options.
6. Do you have a hidden selection? It is possible to hide the marching ants, but the selection is
still there. To quickly eliminate this as a possible cause, just hit Command (PC: Control) D, to
deselect.
7. Watch your units when you crop. It’s possible to have pixels instead of inches, and you can
have Height in pixels and Width in inches, giving you unexpected results.
8. Are you trying to do something on or to a text layer? Text layers are special, and may need to
be rasterized (converted to pixels from a vector, or mathematical representation) in order to do
what you want. The Rasterize options are in the Layer MENU.
9. Can’t merge a layer? There may be an adjustment layer underneath, and you can’t merge a
layer onto one.

Can you think of any more? If so, add a comment!