Selecting with layers…

TR
Posted By
Tricia_Roush
Oct 31, 2003
Views
226
Replies
8
Status
Closed
I am a little confused… I decided to play more with layers today. I had a picture of a pink spiral heart on a white wall. I made a levels adjustment layer and played with it until the monitor looked pretty close to what the wall looked like. Then I wanted to play with just the heart. So I made a new layer, (on top of the adjustment layer in the layers palette) and used the magic want to select the heart. However, when I tried to play with the heart (using filter effects) PSE 2.0 kept telling me I had no pixels selected when I clearly had marching ants on my screen.

Eventually I made a duplicate layer of the background layer (between the background layer and the levels adjustment layer) and selected the heart on it and was able to play with the filters.

At one point I tried selecting just the heart and making a "layer from copy" but it wouldn’t let me do that either.

Are there some rules that apply to selecting in relation to layers? And, if there are, can you tell me what they are?

What I really wanted to do was create just a copy of the heart after making the levels adjustment.

Thanks,
Trish
Related Tags
layer select

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 31, 2003
If you have done an adjustment layer and then want to do a selection out of the background with the adjustment in effect, you’re going to have to merge the background and adjustment layers first. I’m such a conservative, that I’d probably make a duplicate copy before I did the merge, just in case I changed my mind later. 🙂
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 31, 2003
If you have done an adjustment layer and then want to do a selection out of the background with the adjustment in effect, you’re going to have to merge the background and adjustment layers first.

The only real "rule" that would apply to this situation is that in order to make a selection, you have to be on the layer that contains the image. In this case, at firsts you must have had the adjustment layer active. If you’d had the background layer active, you would have been able to do the selection, but it wouldn’t have the adjustment with it. Ah, yes, and background layers (e.g. the original image) should be simplified before you start playing with layers.

This is a little disjointed, so….

Open your original image

Double click on it to "simplify" it

Do your adjustment layer

If you want a selection that includes the adjustments you’ve made, merge the background and adjustment layers before starting beginning the selection.
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Oct 31, 2003
Trish, if you just created the new layer it was empty and contained no pixels – hence the message you got. One way to approach would have been:

1. Create a duplicate layer.
2. Create a levels adjustment layer and get it to look like you want it to.
3. Merge down the levels and duplicate layers ( leaving the original
unmerged for safety)
4. Select the heart on that layer.
5. Do a Layer<New Layer from Copy to move the heart to its own layer.

There may be easier ways but that’s one.

Chuck
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Oct 31, 2003
Beth, we’re in sync again…

🙂

Chuck
BG
Byron_Gale
Oct 31, 2003
Tricia,

The "No Pixels Selected" error and I are old friends… 🙂

In the situation as you described it, you were getting it because you were working on an empty layer. The magic wand has a setting to "use all layers". It was seeing through the top two layers, and creating a selection based on the visible image. So, even though you had marching ants, they were not surrounding anything on the current layer.

When I get that error, now, I first look at the layers palette to see which is selected. If it’s an adjustment layer, or a new, empty layer, you can simply click on the actual desired layer without losing the selection.

In your example, after selecting the heart with the wand and getting the No Pixels message, you could have simply clicked on your base image layer, and then gone ahead with applying filters to the heart (targeted by the selection), or creating a new heart-only layer with Layer-New-Via Copy.

I’m sure that almost everyone struggles with this concept in the early phases of learning PSE. Just remember to check which layer is active. Before you know it, it will be automatic and you’ll seldom have to think about it.

HTH,

Byron
BG
Byron_Gale
Oct 31, 2003
LOL!!!

There was no reply to Trish’s post when I began typing… took me so long that now there are FOUR!!

-B
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 31, 2003
Well, there would have been one less post if I hadn’t forgotten I’d hit post after the first paragraph. Geez. This really hasn’t been one of my better days. I should probably just turn off the computer and give up. And I thought my nap would help.
TR
Tricia_Roush
Nov 1, 2003
Okay,

So, I should make a duplicate layer, applied my levels adjustment, merged those two, then selected my heart, and finally layer -> new via copy to just get a copy of the heart on a layer by itself.

My final palette would look like:

– Copy of Heart Only (at the top)
– Duplicate of background/merged levels adjustment
– Background (containing original picture)

Some of those effects are really cool. A lot simpler than me trying to do it myself 🙂 Some of the gradient effects had some wild effects on my heart.

Thanks,
Trish

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

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.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections