How to move 2 selections independently made with the elliptical marquee tool

[alecspra]

Hi, I have tried using the elliptical marquee tool to change eye colors but after I create the selections for both eyes, I am unable to reposition one of the selections independently of the other. They both move together. The reason being that I am not always able to draw both circles perfectly over the eyes, so I may have to reposition one of them slightly but not the other. I have tried several things but without success. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks.

[anon1]

-

[crabtrem]

I tried following MBd's instructions, but I must be doing something wrong.

It took me awhile to figure out to hit return after I moved the new selection, or else I ended up with some strange truncated selections.

But every time I go out of the quick mask by hitting q at the end.  I end up with copies of my image in my selections.  Which I'm pretty sure I don't want.

 

Here is a video showing my error.  But I can't figure out what I am missing.

 

[alecspra]

Wow! That actually works. Thanks. But frankly shouldn't there be a simpler way of being able to select just one selection without having to go through that process? Such as clicking command or alt or shift and then being able to move one selection without also moving the other.

[crabtrem]

Wow! That actually works. Thanks. But frankly shouldn't there be a simpler way of being able to select just one selection without having to go through that process? Such as clicking command or alt or shift and then being able to move one selection without also moving the other.

It is my personal opinion that going into refine selection and using the Foreground and Background selection modifiers to paint your refined selection is much easier.  But that's just my preference.  Although, I would have never guessed to select the selection again to move it.

[JimmyJack]

Nice tip!

 

Crab... you're moving pieces of the one image.

In doing so you're revealing the duplicate layer underneath. So, you're not creating new eyeballs  :blink: ... :)

Turn off visibility of your bottom layer and you'll see holes.

[crabtrem]

Nice tip!

 

Crab... you're moving pieces of the one image.

In doing so you're revealing the duplicate layer underneath. So, you're not creating new eyeballs  :blink: ... :)

Turn off visibility of your bottom layer and you'll see holes.

Oh. Okay.  Got it Thanks.  I guess I didn't expect the selection to cut out those pieces for some reason.  Thanks again.

[R C-R]

I tried following MBd's instructions, but I must be doing something wrong.

Same here. Not only do I get weird truncated sections when I leave quick mask mode, I get strange overlapping bounding boxes while I move the 'meta selection,' which reverts to one only over the meta selection when I release the mouse button while I am in quick mask mode.

 

Weirdest of all, if I then tap delete, I get four holes in the image, a pair at the original location of the selections, one at the location of the meta selection, & another one at the location where the selection excluded from the meta selection would have moved to if both had been moved.

 

It is as if the application retains both the original pair of selections & another pair where both would have moved to if I had just moved both of them together without going through all the quick mask stuff. In fact, if I undo all of this to the step before making any selections, the four holes remain until I resize the view, refreshing the display.

 

I'm probably misinterpreting MBd's instructions, but whatever I'm doing wrong seems to trigger something the app was not designed to do.

[JimmyJack]

Can you guys post an image of these truncated selections and other issues. I've been trying to break this thing, and can't recreate this problem.

I was following directions and descriptions as stated. 

 

I will say this though... I found, in hitting every key known to man, you don't need to press v to move, you can just hold down cmd. (but v isn't causing me problems as far as I can tell). Hitting return after a v move doesn't seen to do anything for me.

[R C-R]

I will try to post some images when time permits, but first I will have to find photos in the public domain to use as examples.

 

In the mean time, maybe describing step-by-step what I'm doing & seeing will help:

 

I have been using a single layer photo. I draw two ellipse selections, enable quick mask, draw an ellipse around one of them, switch to the Move tool, & drag that combined 'meta' selection slightly to the left or right. That's when I get the overlapping bounding boxes, one around the meta selection & the other around both original selections. When I release the mouse button, the one around both originals disappears.

 

When I then exit quick mask mode, I get a selection that is sort of like an intersection of the old & new selections: the moved selection is still in the original ellipse shape but the one that should be stationary becomes a half moon shape, as if it has been copied, offset by the same amount as I moved the meta selection, & then intersected with itself.

 

If I then press the delete key, I get the four cutouts I described before -- all ellipse shapes the sizes of the original pair, as if I had somehow duplicated the originals & offset them. When I do that, all four cutouts are selected -- the half moon shape is nowhere to be found.

[JimmyJack]

Okay, so I think I have a bead on it.

 

It's a bug for sure.

But the key to success, for now, seems to be clicking off of the moved item before trying to commit to the mask itself.

 

IOW

1) once in mask mode, with selection drawn around one of the ellipses: pressing v gives you "meta" selection. Well... one active selection with marching ants around it and the other is just a bounding box. Moving moves only the section with the ants.

2) Now, after the move (with the selection still active) instead of hitting the mask button or Q, just click off of the selection. That will bump you out of Quick Mask with the new selection correct. Alternatively, after the move you can switch from the Move tool to the Selection tool then click off of the selection. This will keep you in QM mode if you want to do more.... and then using Q or hitting the exit button should be fine. 

 

Edit: Ahhhh, now I see what Crabtrem was saying about Enter. That DOES work too. Interestingly, when you do that the meta selection comes back.

 

Using CMD instead of v at least eliminates the need to go back and forth between two tools.

[alecspra]

From what I have tried so far, the suggestion proposed by MBd seems to be the easiest. I found that when you create a metaselection to move one of the underlying selections, you have to make sure the metaselection is larger than the underlying selection. Otherwise it messes up the underlying selection. Still, I do think there should be a simpler way of moving each selection independently by clicking a keyboard key or creating an additional option under Mode that allows you to switch between moving the selections together or independently. 

[R C-R]

JimmyJack,

I will try out what you suggest at some point to see if it works, but since this seems to be a bug or at least an unintended feature that may not be supported in the future, I'm not going to make it part of my workflow.

 

 

alecspra,

I agree that there should be a simple way to move selections independently -- & a way to draw ellipse selections from the center as well. I know the latter is on the feature request list; not sure if the former is or not.