Can’t see spot brush on dark background

DE
Posted By
Doug_Earle
Mar 6, 2009
Views
776
Replies
19
Status
Closed
I have just installed Photoshop CS4. When I try to use the spot healing box on a dark background,the target area is invisible as the target circle is black, as is the background. It’s like trying to find a black cat in a coal mine.

What can I do to see the brush target circle.

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MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Mar 6, 2009
Try adding a temporary adjustment layer, say a curves adjustment, lightening the image in order to contrast the tool against your work layer.
G
Gener
Mar 6, 2009
I like that trick when selecting a dark object from a murky background.
JJ
John Joslin
Mar 6, 2009
When the cursor is really lost, as happens sometimes, pressing the hand tool will locate it. Once you know where to look, you can usually make it out sufficiently to use it.
DM
dave_milbut
Mar 6, 2009
When the cursor is really lost, as happens sometimes, pressing the hand tool will locate it. Once you know where to look, you can usually make it out sufficiently to use it.

that works, but I like the control key myself. it brings up the move tool’s arrow cursor AND if you set option to show pointer location when CRTL is pressed in the control panel> mouse> pointer options tab, you’ll get a quick flashed diminishing circle effect (like a radar "ping") over your cursor.
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Mar 6, 2009
Ugly fixes for stupid programming, IMO. This isn’t fixed in the CS4 update?
DE
David_E_Crawford
Mar 6, 2009
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm……… nope
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Mar 6, 2009
That renders CS4 far less useable than CS3. I saw this problem on my inital trial installation, on 3 separate computers and assumed it would be fixed.

Sigh. Why should I buy?

Why!!:-(
K
KatWoman
Mar 6, 2009
we have asked for option to modify cursor lightness for over 4 versions or to make it a color like red that can been seen on gray areas Windows users are dissed once again by Adobe (blaming Microsoft OS) who say it is not possible

I have been told Mac users get a cursor that changes color as it it used over different areas
it is super annoying to try to use heal or clone on a gray background image which applies to most film scans of B&W

I bought a scanner with ICE that was supposed to remove dust, only to find it only works on COLOR images
ICE does not work to remove the dust from B&W negs so much spotting is required
and the point to circle is really not a good workaround, we need to see the brush size

I use the above mentioned adjustment layer method too
at least that feature has been improved to ignore the layers you don’t want included
DE
Doug_Earle
Mar 6, 2009
You know, I purchased Lightroom when I upgraded to CS4, and have found, as a photographer, that Lightroom does almost everything I need a program to do, and does it simpler, more intuitively than the PS, and has the benefit of a database and slide show generator.

If all you need to do is adjust exposure, clean things up a bit, resize, convert to BW or Sepia, and stuff like that, Photoshop is not needed. I wish I’d stayed with PSCS3 and simply gotten lightroom.
LV
liza_V
Mar 7, 2009
There should be an "global" comand: colouring the mousarrow, or whatever its tool, in a suitable colour. This would be useful in tuitotial videos f.ex. where it sometimes is difficult to see where the heck is the man pointing.
LV
liza_V
Mar 7, 2009
There should be an "global" comand: colouring the mousarrow, or whatever its tool, in a suitable colour. This would be useful in tuitorial videos f.ex. where it sometimes is difficult to see where the heck is the man pointing.
CC
Chris_Cox
Mar 8, 2009
The cursor is not a fixed color – it changes color to provide contrast over the image behind it, because no fixed color is going to work over all other colors in an image.

Do you have OpenGL drawing enabled or disabled?
Do you have any utilities installed that would change the appearance of the cursor?
RL
roger_leale
Mar 8, 2009
The odd thing is that it is only the cursor for the spot healing tool that does not show up. All the other brushes, tools, etc. are differentiated OK, but the spot brush needs either the Hand , or the Ctrl key to make it visible.

Roger
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Mar 8, 2009
Chris, when I ran CS4 on the i7 platform, all was running. It ran fine, until I tried the clone tool. No dragging cursor, hell, no cursor at all!

I don’t see this in CS3, so what’s the big issue in CS4? Fix the damn thing! I cannot use CS4 as is; I would have to revert to CS3 every time I need a brush tool. Is that with which orporate is satisfied ?

Look, in order for me to graduate to CS4, it will take a major HW revision, costing far more than I spent to run CS3 well. So, since CS3 runs fine as is, I am not buying, mobo, cpu, ddr, case, etc up to the OS and apps.

That’s the down side, and I’ll bet there are others agreeing with me.

"For the lack of a nail….."
K
KatWoman
Mar 9, 2009
So Chris youare saying CS4 added the changing cursor color for WIN users? yeah just have to buy a new comp to run it LOL
CC
Chris_Cox
Mar 9, 2009
No, Photoshop has had changing cursor colors for a long time on both platforms (well, except for some Mac OS X breakage).
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Mar 9, 2009
So then, why don’t I see it? Is the luminosity different? In all three tested platform, I found the cursor disappearance common, and in the same place on the same image.
JJ
John Joslin
Mar 9, 2009
It works correctly with CS3 on my old XP machine and now on Vista 64 with CS4. The only slight problem is in the transition areas.
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Mar 10, 2009
CS3/XP ok. CS3, nope. One time, on the Intel machine, it showed a change as it went from light to dark. Upon restarting the app, it went away. I was time limited so I couldn’t investigate it further.

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Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

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