Painting outside the selection

L
Posted By
Lesten
Jan 7, 2007
Views
2964
Replies
2
Status
Closed
Hello.

I have a problem with Photoshop (8.0 CS – Swedish version). I’m not sure what all the tools and stuff are called in the English version but I hope you can understand what I’m talking about.

When I change things in a selection made with colour selection the area outside the selection is effected as well. When I select things in other ways there doesn’t seem to be a problem, it’s only with the colour selection. Like this:

All but the brighter areas are selected here and I use the colour selection to select the brightest pixels in the selection.
<http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/6922/fel4kf3.jpg> <http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/521/fel1pd5.jpg>

Now I try and paint in the selection with a 100% pen (red 255 0 0) and as you can see the area outside the selection is also effected by the brush (though not the area that was outside the first selection). Even though the brush is set to 100% opacity it doesn’t completely cover the background (neither inside or outside the selection).
<http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/2591/fel6no5.jpg>

It’s the same problem if I try to change the selected area in other ways, e.g. brightness/contrast or even when I copy and paste the selection (the area outside the selection follows when I copy!)

This is obviously very frustrating. I have selected pixels with colour selection before without any problem. This started yesterday and I have no idea why. I have tried to restart PS, restart the computer, reinstalling PS and I have tested other pictures but the problem persists!

Help!

Thanks
/Lesten

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SF
Scott_Falkner
Jan 7, 2007
That’s because that are is partially selected. A selection is not binary (pixel either is or is not selected), it is a channel much like the Red, Green, and Blue channels in an RGB image. The marching ants that show a selected are only show boundaries that are 49% or lower on one side and 50% or higher on the other.

If you want you selection to be more black & white, switch to QuickMask and run a Levels adjustment on it.
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Jan 7, 2007
The selection marker (the "marching ants" dotted line) represents the 50% point in the case of a selection that is not hard edged. If you are using color selection, the edge won’t be hard unless you have a 0 tolerance (only single color or several specific colors selected). For example, if you use the magic wand with a tolerance of 0 you will only pick pixels that exactly match the original pixel; if you were to convert the selection to a layer mask, it would be hard-edged black and white, with the border right where the marching ants were. If you use a tolerance of 32, you will get pixels being partially selected that differ from the original pixel by a bit, and the marching ants represents the middle level (50% selected); if you converted this selection to a mask, it would be a soft-edged transition from black to white, as though you applied a blur to the earlier hard-edged mask, and the neutral gray (128, 128, 128) area is where the marching ants would have stood.

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