Index: trunk/psphot/src/setup.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/psphot/src/setup.c	(revision 4630)
+++ trunk/psphot/src/setup.c	(revision 4641)
@@ -44,4 +44,6 @@
     } else {
 
+      // XXX EAM it looks like psBinaryOp is broken for: image op scalar
+      // this loop performs the operation by hand
       noise = psImageAlloc (image->numCols, image->numRows, PS_TYPE_F32);
       for (int iy = 0; iy < image->numRows; iy++) {
@@ -51,5 +53,5 @@
       }
 
-      // XXX EAM it looks like psBinaryOp is broken for (image op scalar)
+      // this uses psBinaryOp 
       # if (0)
       psScalar *value;
@@ -65,10 +67,11 @@
     }
 
+    // load the mask if specified, otherwise construct 
     char *maskName = psMetadataLookupPtr (&status, config, "MASK");
     if (status == true) {
       file = psFitsAlloc (maskName);
       mask  = psFitsReadImage  (NULL, file, region, 0);
-      // require U8
       psFree (file);
+      // XXX require / convert mask to psU8?
     } else {
       mask = psImageAlloc (image->numCols, image->numRows, PS_TYPE_U8);
@@ -92,8 +95,7 @@
 	}
     }
-    DumpImage (mask, "mask.fits");
-
     psLogMsg ("psphot", 3, "load data: %f sec\n", psTimerMark ("psphot"));
 
+    // save the image data & return it
     psImageData *imdata = psAlloc(sizeof(psImageData));
     imdata->image = image;