Darkening the tool cursor

[gregory_nicholson]

First off, I have about 12 months of self-study using Photoshop CS.

I never plan to use the program professionally just for my personal

photos. Anyway, here is my question. Start with, open image > apply

medium-heavy dust & scratch filter > take snap-shot in the history

palette > select history brush to remove dust specks, etc.

 

This is what I think I did in but I can't seem to duplicate it. I

switched back to the original document in the layers palette and

added a quick darker levels layer so I could see my history brush

against my medium gray background. I switched back to the history

palette and finished the dust/scratch removal with ease. When I

finished that process I went back to the layers palette and drug

that darkening levels layer to the trash can.

 

I opened the next photo to do the same thing. When I tried to use

the history brush tool I got a warning the history brush does not

have a corresponding layer...which makes sense. If I create the

darkening layer before this dust removal process the layer gets

automatically deleted when I click on the original document (in the

history palette) to edit.

 

I'm not trying to duplicate what I did but simply darken the tool so

I can see it against a neutral gray background. No book I have

deals with darkening a tool or changing its color and I couldn't

find it in the threads here. Thanks for any input.

[mendel_leisk]

What I settled on to keep the brush visible all the time was to set brush display mode to "standard". The hotkeys to get you there (in Windows) are:

 

<ctrl k> <ctrl 3>

 

Standard mode shows the brush as an icon, which is visible regardless of background hue or brightness. The disadvantage, you do not see your brush diameter. Also, the icons are kind of "goofy": the business end of the icon varies with the various tools. You do get used to it, though.

 

I'll typically use this standard mode for the majority of my work, where I have a good feel for the (usual) brush diameters I use. I just bump them up and down with "[" and "]".

 

If it's something critical, I'll temporarily switch to brush diameter portrayal.

[babette_ross]

hi, the caps lock key turns some tools between black and white- not sure if this will help with all brushes, but i think it does for cloning/healing and it definitely works with the ruler tool

[gregory_nicholson]

Thank you both for your responses. They work like a dream.