I have a 'negative frame' in which I have put pictures; each picture is its own layer. One of the pictures is a little too big; I'm looking for a way to make it fit: I have tried ctrl-alt-g and all it does is make the paper(behind the picture) show up . Help.
Thanks.

You can put the layer with the photo behind your frame layer, resize the photo how you want it, then use the eraser tool to erase away the parts of the photo that fall outside the frame.

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You might also try clicking on the picture layer, and using the rectangular marquis tool select the area of the photo behind the frame/negative, then select the inverse and delete. That would trim away any of the photo that goes beyond the frame/negative if you don't want to resize it.

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Control Alt G creates a clipping mask. It essentially fits the layer you have selected when you hit control alt delete into the layer below. SO, for that to work you need to have a shape in a layer below the photo. Right now you must be clipping it into some other layer that may be either not aligned with your photo or is the wrong size to fit in the "opening" too.

To use the clipping mask option, you'll need to create a shape on a layer below the photo that fits inside the opening you want to fill. THEN click control alt delete while you have the photo layer selected.

Even using clipping masks, you sometimes need to resize the photo to make it "fit" in the shape.

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you could always go to edit, adjust size and hold shift key while moving the corner handle to make the inage smaller. Holding the shift key while sizing keeps the image in proportion.

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Thanks for looking

All the above.. as well as Ctrl-T (transform), shift click handles and fit to frame... Erasure tool is good but keep in mind that it is a destructive tool... once you erase the pixels they are gone forever. I typically avoid it and prefer to create a mask, fill the mask with a background color (white in your case) and then just paint away the mask revealing your photo at the desired size..

That's the beauty of Photoshop... powerful, flexible and many ways to achieve the same results.
Good Luck!

Pesto is right that the mask is a better way to go to "erase" something because it can always be undone, but some people have a harder time wrapping their mind around how the mask works, at least in the beginning. It's worth learning though!

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Yes.. it does take a little bit to get the hang of masks but once you start using them.. boy, you really start to use and see the power of Photoshop and how you can make and undo changes to your work as you tweak things here and there.

Don't get me wrong.. I do use the erasure tool.. there are times when it just works so well and is so easy... if you are absolutely sure you'll never need the info you are erasing.. it works great.