Paste Selection to New Layer

[Pedro Antonio]

I've been a pretty sophisticated Photoshop user for ages and was happy to see most of the familiar functions, tasks and key commands I've been familiar with using all these years are mirrored in Affinity Photo.

 

I was, however, baffled by one of the most basic functions in any photo editing app, namely making a selection and then copying and pasting it to a new layer.

 

No matter how I've tried numerous ways of accomplishing this after first selecting a layer, creating a selection, alternately using either Cmd+C or the Edit Menu to copy it and then:

 

   1) Creating a new layer, making it the active layer and using Cmd+V

   2) Simply pressing Cmd+V with the current layer selected

   3) Holding down the Option key and dragging the selected area...

 

The ONLY result that consistently shows up being affected is the actual selection itself—NOT the content!

 

Am I crazy?...what am I missing here?

[MEB]

Hi Pedro Anotnio,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

The photo you have selected in the Layers panel is an (Image) layer type (you can check the layer's type by looking at the label between parenthesis after the layer's name in the Layers panel), which you can only edit globally (change its scale, rotate, skew etc). To edit an image at a pixel level you must convert it to a Pixel layer type right-clicking on it in the Layers panel and selecting Rasterise. You can then select and copy/paste the layer contents.

[Pedro Antonio]

Thanks for your speedy response...I initially viewed all the Affinity Photo video tutorials and then tried looking for an answer to this issue by first searching  HELP, which just kept spinning and came up with no info, and then throughout the Forums...both with no luck.

 

So when first loading in a file, Affinity Photo seems to treat it as the equivalent of Adobe's "smart object." However, whereas Photoshop allows you to freely copy a selection from a smart object and paste it into a new layer without having to first rasterize it, AP requires that you must rasterize the graphic in order to enable selection copying.....not ideal.

 

Is there a polygonal lasso tool in AP? Do the Infinity apps (I also bought Affinity Designer) have PDF manuals?

 

I would strongly suggest creating future demo videos that walk users through multiple steps in completing a number of typical graphic design projects—ones which allow for illustrating how the most commonly utilized actions are accomplished using your apps. I feel this would be a far better way of showing how to adjust to working in Affinity's way of accomplishing things (as your interfaces and tools do vary from what most Adobe converts are use to) rather than just focusing on one particular feature of an app by itself.

[LenC]

I was about to ask about a similar problem. I have a BW image created by a Threshold Adjustment layer that I had been trying unsuccessfully to make into a mask. Applying MEB's instuctions, I right-click on the layer and choose Rasterise. Nothing happens. Shouldn't the label change from (Threshold Adjust) to (Pixel)? If I choose from the menu Layer .. Rasterise or Rasterise to Mask, again nothing happens. Help!

[LenC]

I should have included in the above that Pedro Antonio's suggestion about demonstrating basic techniques would be invaluable for a novice like me who has never used Photoshop or other such editor.

[MEB]

I was about to ask about a similar problem. I have a BW image created by a Threshold Adjustment layer that I had been trying unsuccessfully to make into a mask. Applying MEB's instuctions, I right-click on the layer and choose Rasterise. Nothing happens. Shouldn't the label change from (Threshold Adjust) to (Pixel)? If I choose from the menu Layer .. Rasterise or Rasterise to Mask, again nothing happens. Help!

 

Hi LenC,

You probably have the Adjustment layer above the image layer in the Layers panel. The adjustment requires the image data to produce the result (the Black and White image). If you are rasterising just the adjustment it does nothing. To do what you want do the following (you may want to create a duplicate of the image layer and adjustment first, in case you want to keep them):

• drag the adjustment layer over the image layer's thumbnail until a small vertical blue bar appear on the right of the thumbnail, release the mouse. You have nested the adjustment to the image layer.
• select the main layer (the image) in the Layers panel (the adjustment will be automatically selected too since its nested). Right-click on the image layer and select Rasterise.... It will convert both to a black and white image.
• select the resulting layer (the black and white image) and go to menu Layer ▸ Rasterise To Mask.

 

 

We are already preparing a new set of videos specifically for new users/beginners.

[LenC]

Your comments are always clear; thanks. So the nesting via the vertical blue line is different from the operation with the horizontal blue line! Other words I have seen might be clipping to and making a child of. Please say a few words about these operations and the order and way to assemble, say, an image with a mask and its inversion and two different adjustment or other layers. This is where I get stuck, and can't find any good instruction, even for Photoshop.

[ChooKing]

I am new to Affinity Photo and found this thread because I had the same problem. In my case, the solution was quite simple but not obvious. The layer that I pasted did not appear in the center of the window. It was actually so far off center that no part of the image was visible at all. If my selection had been rectangular, part of the image would have appeared, but my selection was of an entire person.  The top left corner of the hypothetical rectangular region encompassing my selection would have appeared on screen, but that's the empty space above the shoulder, so I saw nothing. I realized the situation when I used the move tool and clicked on what seemed like nothing. The bounding rectangle appeared and I could move it into position.

Edited May 13, 2020 by ChooKing
extraneous word