I have tried to figure this out but can't. Sometimes when I go to use the brush tool instead of a round circle I get a crosshair. This does not happen all the time, what can be causing this.
Second question..do you do your editing on the orginal or should I be doing it on a copy?

Taz, if the size of your brush is too small in comparison to the image your working on the cross hairs will show up just to let you know where it is. You can go to the brush pallette at the top of the page and change the size. Changing the brush will also change the sixe of the brush to the default value. From there you can go to the pallette again to change the size again.

Re the brush; see if "caps lock" is engaged. Other potentials, see if brush size is too small compared to the dpi of your pic. One of these two conditions are usually the "culprit" for me. I imagine there are other conditions, but someone else will point them out.

I always edit on a copy. Just do "cntl-j" . Good luck.

Thank you gary and gail. gary I tried to make the brush bigger when this happens and the crosshairs are still there
gail, your suggestion about cap loacks could be right..when I e-mail my brother his eyesight is not good so i type everything in caps. I will put this to a test. also will tstart working on a copy instead of orginal. this program has so much to learn and not enough time to really get into it

I'll bet it is the cap lock thing..had the same problem when I first started using Elements.

Hi Taz,

The brush issue is possibly related to the size of the brush and the size/pixels of your image. If the brush is really small, it can't show tre brush circle because it is just too small, so it uses the cross-hair to show you where it is pointing.

As to editing, I shoot RAW, so there is no changing the original image. But, If i was working on JPEG, I would never change the original image. It is the equivalent of a negative and shouldn't be worked on.

Gail, was right is was the cap lock being on. Thank you all so much for your speedy help.

Taz, another thing to keep in mind when the above suggestions fail, reset your brush tool. Click the first icon on the brush tool bar and you will get a drop menu with two options, Reset or reset all tools. Click the reset so it just resets the brush tool for now.