The photoshop query thread

alasdairm

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Jul 22, 2002
Messages
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photoshop query

hi there

if i select an irrelgular shape (say somebody's face) using the 'polygonal marquee', is there a way to delete everything except what i've selected. i'm currently copying the selected are into a new blank image.

there has to be a better way... :)

alasdair
 
To delete everything other than what you selected:-> from the select menu, choose inverse

This will select everything outside of your marquee selection. Then all you need to do is hit delete.

You may find that when you do this the area which you deleted, will turn to the set background colour. To avoid this double click on your layer, and give it a name.
 
also, if you have photoshop 7, use the extract tool if you want to select something from a background (like a person or object) and delete the bg. its a real time saver
 
control shift i is the shortcut for select inverse... although ps is buggy for me sometimes and wont let me use that shortcut. like nateveronica said... this will only cover the selection with the background color if you are working with just the background layer. to change this you can keep the originial selection, cut and paste it and then drag the background layer into the trash. this will create the checkered pattern, which means that the area is clear. :)
 
when selecting rectangles with the rectangular marquee tool, it would be really useful to be able to see the pixel co-ordinates of the top left and (moving) bottom right corner of th reselected area.

it's hell trying to do it using the ruler on the side. MS Paint does this - surely there's an equivalent feature in Photoshop?


alasdair
 
^^^

if you find the equivalent i'd like to know!
its not in the info pallette, is it?
 
Okay here's a question for photoshop 7 users -

You know how you can turn the rulers on right, and one appears at the top and one on the left hand side. Well how come sometimes when you do this the docking bar covers the top ruler so that you can't see it? This happens after expanding images to fit the viewable screen by double clicking or clicking on the maximize button on individual image toolbars, or opening new files sometimes.

The only way I can bring it back is to detatch the docking panel (which reveals the hidden ruler) and then somehow put it back so that it's not covering the ruler anymore. This really annoys me and there is no way that I'm disabling or closing the docking bar because it is just too useful damn it :>

Anyone else ever have this problem? :)
 
i have. perhaps it will be fixed in the new version. otherwise we'll just have to get used to moving the bar at the top :\
 
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