Cutting

[benrymnd]

I am doing a project which requires me to isolate part of a photo, I select the portion of the photo using the selection brush tool and then I refine my selection and apply it, from there I invert my selection and then cut it at this point I would expect the portion of the photo that I originally select would show surrounded by checkered background instead it shows a completely white background with the dancing ants showing the outline of the original selection. I also noticed that when I click on cut the layer disappears from the layers panel. 

Am I doing something wrong.

Regards Ray

[v_kyr]

5 minutes ago, benrymnd said:

...I select the portion of the photo using the selection brush tool and then I refine my selection and apply it, from there I invert my selection

As far as I can follow your description, you inverted the main portions selection, which then selects all (everything else) but the main portion here. - You may want to show some full screenshots, or a screencast (video), of your APh screen here incl. the layers panel etc. in order to see and replicate what you did.

[NotMyFault]

I would suggest a slightly different approach.

after you made selection,

1. add a mask layer. It will use the selection.
2. deselect all (cmd-d)
3. invert mask layer (cmd-I)

if you need the result as pixel layer

1. merge visible.
2. delete mask if no longer needed.

This approach avoids some complexities. Trying to delete something when masks are active can lead to countless UI traps. It is far easier use masks to make visible what you want to keep or remove. Inverting a mask is super simple, and you see the result, and can use channels panel to check the mask. The marching ants can misguide you - only showing the line, but not showing what is selected. Using quick masks (Q) and one of the overlays help to better visualize masks.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, benrymnd said:

then cut it at this point I would expect the portion of the photo that I originally select would show surrounded by checkered background instead it shows a completely white background with the dancing ants

A white fill might occur if the transparency pattern is not activated for this document. Then white is the default background colour for areas without contents.

1 hour ago, benrymnd said:

when I click on cut the layer disappears from the layers panel.

A deleted layer might happen if you cut from an image layer | a vector layer | a container layer (e.g. Group, Layer, PDF or an affinity document). Make sure your pixel selection will affect a pixel layer.

[benrymnd]

 I am doing a project which requires me to isolate part of the photo, I select the part I want to isolate using the selection brush tool and click on refine making sure the snap on edges is ticked, I then paint around the edge of my isolated piece and click on invert my selection and then cut it  followed by cntrl/cmd+d to remove the dancing ants at this point I would expect the portion of the photo that I originally select would show surrounded by checkered background instead it shows a completely white background with the dancing ants showing the outline of the original selection. I also noticed that when I click on cut the layer disappears from the layers panel. 

Am I doing something wrong.

[firstdefence]

1 hour ago, benrymnd said:

 

 I am doing a project which requires me to isolate part of the photo, I select the part I want to isolate using the selection brush tool and click on refine making sure the snap on edges is ticked, I then paint around the edge of my isolated piece and click on invert my selection and then cut it  followed by cntrl/cmd+d to remove the dancing ants at this point I would expect the portion of the photo that I originally select would show surrounded by checkered background instead it shows a completely white background with the dancing ants showing the outline of the original selection. I also noticed that when I click on cut the layer disappears from the layers panel. 

Am I doing something wrong.

Follow @NotMyFault instructions it will work better for you.

[v_kyr]

3 hours ago, benrymnd said:

I am doing a project which requires me to isolate part of the photo ...

Well your screenshot doesn't show any image inside, I assume you have created a new document with a default white background and not setup/toggled on "Transparent background" on the panel you get via the top menu "File -> New...". - Further you probably have dragged/placed an image in, in which case the image is treated as an embedded image file. If that's the case, then you have to rasterize the embedded image first (select layer right click "rasterize", or via the top menu "Layer -> Rasterize". - Otherwise a "Edit -> Cut" (Cmd-x) will, as you've already recognized, just delete your embedded image layer and nothing else!

If your document is created with an initial transparent or white background and you rasterize a placed/dragged in image, the image will be converted into a pixel layer (the layer panel shows this as "(Pixel)" layer then and not as an "(Image)" layer), here the later "(Image)" indicates an embbeded file instead.

If you would now on a document with initially transparent background and your image as a pixel layer perform what you did via "Edit->Cut, or pressing the delete key) it should work. - If your default background is white then cutting/deleting from a image pixel layer selection on top deletes just the selected image portion, but background remains white. - In order to change the white background here then afterwards to a transparent one use from the top menu "Document -> Transparent Background".

I'll show you quickly another approach with just opening an image via "File -> Open..." here, so I didn't defined explicitely a document format here, I use the opened image format, which has opened as a pixel image then, in a (Pixel) layer. - After selection I use the delete key first, then the "Edit -> Cut" menu.

 

[John Rostron]

Would this do what you want?

Copy the desired selection (not the inverse).

File > New from clipboard.

This will give you the selection with a transparent background and clipped close.

John

[thomaso]

18 hours ago, benrymnd said:

I also noticed that when I click on cut the layer disappears from the layers panel. 

Am I doing something wrong.

See the post directly above yours … and make sure to use a pixel selection for layers of type "(Pixel)" only.

[benrymnd]

this is a photo that I am using and trying to isolate the moon, the  picture is how it loads into AF photo

[John Rostron]

@benrymnd should there be images in your post?

John

 

 

 

[benrymnd]

 

1 minute ago, benrymnd said:

 

 

[thomaso]

15 minutes ago, benrymnd said:

the  picture is how it loads into AF photo

As mentioned various times, you can not work with a pixel selection on an image layer. Convert the image layer to pixel first to make the pixel selection affect the image.

[benrymnd]

as you can see the moon image don't fill the AF file page and I cannot resize it with out distorting the moon shape.and this is causing problems when go through the sequence for isolating the moon. 1 tick snap to edges box,2 click the selection brush tool and click inside the moon to bring up the dancing around the edges of the moon,3 click the refine box, in the box that appears in Smoot move slider to 4px 4 click on invert pixel selection, 5 click on cut this is were I should get the moon isolated surrounded by a checkered background.

[thomaso]

3 minutes ago, benrymnd said:

as you can see the moon image don't fill the AF file page and I cannot resize it with out distorting the moon shape.

Instead changing the image you can adjust the canvas to make it the image size.
–> Choose menu Document > "Resize Canvas…"

4 minutes ago, benrymnd said:

5 click on cut this is were I should get the moon isolated

Yes, it works if the layer is a pixel layer. As image layer it will get deleted with "cut".
–> Right-Click on the image layer > choose "Rasterize…"

[benrymnd]

when I click on add pixel layer in the layers column a pixel appears in the layers column but there is nothing in it ,ie if I close the original layer and just leave the pixel layer ticked nothing appears in the work area 

[NotMyFault]

3 minutes ago, benrymnd said:

when I click on add pixel layer in the layers column a pixel appears in the layers column but there is nothing in it

This is how it was designed to be and how it actually works.

• if you want something in the pixel layer, you can use paint brush, fill tool, or other destructive operations.

4 minutes ago, benrymnd said:

if I close the original layer and just leave the pixel layer ticked nothing appears in the work area 

This is how it was designed to be and how it actually works. 

• why do you want to close the original layer? If you want is content visible, keep the layer.

 

It is really difficult to follow your questions and provide suitable answer, because we don’t have the context what you actually want to achieve. It seems you are following some kind of tutorials, and every time you struggle you ask something new.

It would be easier if you try to follow a tutorial that is publicly available on YouTube, and tell us the exact Timecode where you struggle so we can easily get the missing details.

 

[benrymnd]

thank you every one for your replies it has been very enlightening.

[benrymnd]

Thanks to you NotMyFault yes I am following a tutorial were I am trying to isolate the moon then save it and then open up another photo of a baseball player with the ball in his   hand I then want to overlay the ball with the moon, the part when every thing goes wrong is when I come to the part where I use edit cut what happens instead of showing the moon surrounded by transparent background I get a white background with the dancing ants in the shape of the moon but no moon.

[Old Bruce]

22 minutes ago, benrymnd said:

I get a white background with the dancing ants in the shape of the moon but no moon.

This sounds like a case of the Moon is not a Pixel layer but is an Image layer. Rasterize the Moon layer (after duplicating it for safety) and the marching, not dancing, ants should contain just the moon.

[firstdefence]

something like this?

Used an ellipse to mask the outer portion of the moon image.

Here is an example file for you to look at...
Moon in hand.afphoto 

[carl123]

8 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

This sounds like a case of the Moon is not a Pixel layer but is an Image layer. Rasterize the Moon layer (after duplicating it for safety) and the marching, not dancing, ants should contain just the moon.

Don't forget to hide the original layer after duplicating it or it will appear not to work and you will see no change 

[benrymnd]

Thanks for your help NotMyFault I have now managed to complete the exercise, will carry on with the other lessons.