Transform Error

I know I am missing some small detail; but for the life of me, I cannot see it. And it is getting frustrating.

I have a photograph of a building. In the first layer I have rotated the building slightly to correct the central verticals. In the next level I intend to skew the image to correct slight keystoning. This is not working. Instead, I am getting the message "Could not transform the selected pixels because the selected area is empty".

I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting pixels in the background layer?

Any suggestions? I am working in CS3 but the problem is the same in CS2.

Charles Kinghorn

"Charles Kinghorn" wrote in message

I know I am missing some small detail; but for the life of me, I cannot see it. And it is getting frustrating.

I have a photograph of a building. In the first layer I have rotated the building slightly to correct the central verticals. In the next level I intend to skew the image to correct slight keystoning. This is not working. Instead, I am getting the message "Could not transform the selected pixels because the selected area is empty".
I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting pixels in the background layer?

Any suggestions? I am working in CS3 but the problem is the same in CS2.

Charles Kinghorn

Is the Layer you want to transform selected or highlighted --
"Granny"
Old N Slow N Prefer Quick N Easy

Yes, it is.

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:49:17 -0600, "granny"
wrote:

"Charles Kinghorn" wrote in message

I know I am missing some small detail; but for the life of me, I cannot see it. And it is getting frustrating.

I have a photograph of a building. In the first layer I have rotated the building slightly to correct the central verticals. In the next level I intend to skew the image to correct slight keystoning. This is not working. Instead, I am getting the message "Could not transform the selected pixels because the selected area is empty".
I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting pixels in the background layer?

Any suggestions? I am working in CS3 but the problem is the same in CS2.

Charles Kinghorn

Is the Layer you want to transform selected or highlighted

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:12:59 -0500, Charles Kinghorn
wrote:

Yes, it is.

I suggest you look again as that is the only and therefore ,most common error message for that.

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:49:17 -0600, "granny"
wrote:

"Charles Kinghorn" wrote in message

I know I am missing some small detail; but for the life of me, I cannot see it. And it is getting frustrating.

I have a photograph of a building. In the first layer I have rotated the building slightly to correct the central verticals. In the next level I intend to skew the image to correct slight keystoning. This is not working. Instead, I am getting the message "Could not transform the selected pixels because the selected area is empty".
I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting pixels in the background layer?

Any suggestions? I am working in CS3 but the problem is the same in CS2.

Charles Kinghorn

Is the Layer you want to transform selected or highlighted

Borge in sunny Perth, Australia

In article ,
Charles Kinghorn wrote:

I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting pixels in the background layer?

Please describe, step by step, how you are creating the layer you want to skew.

It sounds like you are creating a new empty layer but not putting anything in it.

--
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

It is definitely the selected layer. I know I am missing something, but I don't know what it is.

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:02:26 +0800, nesredep egrob <Long. -31,48.21 Lat. 115,47.40> wrote:

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:12:59 -0500, Charles Kinghorn
wrote:

Yes, it is.

I suggest you look again as that is the only and therefore ,most common error message for that.

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:49:17 -0600, "granny"
wrote:

"Charles Kinghorn" wrote in message

I know I am missing some small detail; but for the life of me, I cannot see it. And it is getting frustrating.

I have a photograph of a building. In the first layer I have rotated the building slightly to correct the central verticals. In the next level I intend to skew the image to correct slight keystoning. This is not working. Instead, I am getting the message "Could not transform the selected pixels because the selected area is empty".
I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting pixels in the background layer?

Any suggestions? I am working in CS3 but the problem is the same in CS2.

Charles Kinghorn

Is the Layer you want to transform selected or highlighted

Borge in sunny Perth, Australia

My image is in the background layer and is locked.

1. I create a new layer for the rotation and execute the rotation successfully. The only selected layer is the rotation one.

2. I create a new layer for the skew, select the image, and click on skew under the menu item edit/transform. It is then that I get the message.

It does sound like an empty layer; but then, so was the rotate an empty layer in the same sense and it worked.

Charles

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 22:27:28 -0500, tacit wrote:

In article ,
Charles Kinghorn wrote:

I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting pixels in the background layer?

Please describe, step by step, how you are creating the layer you want to skew.

It sounds like you are creating a new empty layer but not putting anything in it.

unclick all the eyeballs except the one you want to work on.. to see if it is empty or not.. maybe you should copy the layer you want to skew instead of making a new layer..

--
"Granny"
Old N Slow N Prefer Quick N Easy
"Charles Kinghorn" wrote in message

My image is in the background layer and is locked.

1. I create a new layer for the rotation and execute the rotation successfully. The only selected layer is the rotation one.
2. I create a new layer for the skew, select the image, and click on skew under the menu item edit/transform. It is then that I get the message.

It does sound like an empty layer; but then, so was the rotate an empty layer in the same sense and it worked.

Charles

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 22:27:28 -0500, tacit wrote:

In article ,
Charles Kinghorn wrote:

I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing
is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the
image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting
pixels in the background layer?

Please describe, step by step, how you are creating the layer you want to skew.

It sounds like you are creating a new empty layer but not putting anything in it.

You are right. The layer is empty; but then so is the rotate layer and it worked. There is something that I am missing and it may be what you are suggesting: copy the layer. Or it may be some setting such as the Sample setting for the Clone Stamp tool; if working in a layer and this tool is not set to sample "Current & Below" or "All Layers", it doesn't work. Am I missing some such setting for Transform?

Charles

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 01:14:18 -0600, "granny"
wrote:

unclick all the eyeballs except the one you want to work on.. to see if it is empty or not.. maybe you should copy the layer you want to skew instead of making a new layer..

Easy solution: Create the new layer with duplicate layer and it will have all the information of the background layer in it

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:26:12 -0500, Charles Kinghorn
wrote:

I know I am missing some small detail; but for the life of me, I cannot see it. And it is getting frustrating.

I have a photograph of a building. In the first layer I have rotated the building slightly to correct the central verticals. In the next level I intend to skew the image to correct slight keystoning. This is not working. Instead, I am getting the message "Could not transform the selected pixels because the selected area is empty".

Charles Kinghorn

Start over and try this. You have the background layer showing, now in the layers palette, grab the background layer, drag and drop it on the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Making sure this second layer is highlighted, do your first correction (the central verticals.) Now in the layers palette, grab this second layer and drop it on the Create New Layer icon. This will create a third layer. Highlight this layer and do your keystoning correction.

Talker

This reply also applies to John Forest's response as well.

This is essentially what I did. Each time I created a new layer I made it a duplicate of the preceding one (menu item Layer/Duplicate Layer). And this did work. I now have rotate, skew, and crop layers, all of which acted as they should.

This raises another issue however. All of these actions are destructive; that is, they change the pixel configuration of the original image. I thought one function of layers was to enable one to keep actions separate one from the other so that one could always remove a layer and therefore remove the effects of that layer. Such is not the case with these actions: once I rotate, skew, and crop there is no going back unless I save intermediate versions of the image.

What do others do? Any comments or suggestions?

Charles

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:09:57 -0500, Talker wrote:

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:26:12 -0500, Charles Kinghorn
wrote:

I know I am missing some small detail; but for the life of me, I cannot see it. And it is getting frustrating.

I have a photograph of a building. In the first layer I have rotated the building slightly to correct the central verticals. In the next level I intend to skew the image to correct slight keystoning. This is not working. Instead, I am getting the message "Could not transform the selected pixels because the selected area is empty".

Charles Kinghorn

Start over and try this. You have the background layer showing, now in the layers palette, grab the background layer, drag and drop it on the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Making sure this second layer is highlighted, do your first correction (the central verticals.) Now in the layers palette, grab this second layer and drop it on the Create New Layer icon. This will create a third layer. Highlight this layer and do your keystoning correction.

Talker

Please see my response to Talker.

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:40:38 -0400, "John Forest" wrote:

Easy solution: Create the new layer with duplicate layer and it will have all the information of the background layer in it

In article ,
Charles Kinghorn wrote:

My image is in the background layer and is locked.

1. I create a new layer for the rotation and execute the rotation successfully. The only selected layer is the rotation one.
2. I create a new layer for the skew, select the image, and click on skew under the menu item edit/transform. It is then that I get the message.

It does sound like an empty layer; but then, so was the rotate an empty layer in the same sense and it worked.

If you use the "Rotate" menu command, it rotates the entire image, and every layer. That's why the rotation is working.

When you create a new layer, you do not actually put anything in it. Hitting the New Layer button in the Layers palette creates a new, empty layer. I'm guessing that what you actually want to do is create a new layer with the same image as what you see in the background.

If so, click on the background layer in the Layers palette, hold the mouse button down, and drag it to the New Layer button on the bottom of the Layers palette. This will make a new layer that is a copy of the background layer.

--
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

In article ,
Charles Kinghorn wrote:

This raises another issue however. All of these actions are destructive; that is, they change the pixel configuration of the original image. I thought one function of layers was to enable one to keep actions separate one from the other so that one could always remove a layer and therefore remove the effects of that layer. Such is not the case with these actions: once I rotate, skew, and crop there is no going back unless I save intermediate versions of the image.

Correct. Using the menu commands will crop or rotate the entire picture and everything in it.

If you want to rotate just one layer, use the Free Transform command. If you want to crop just one layer, create a layer mask.

--
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

Thank you all for your responses. They have been very helpful. As a result I have reworked my workflow to do all the "destructive" stuff first (rotating, transforming, cropping) before the spotting, levels, and curves. I will continue to use layers for the former as well as the latter to maintain a record of what I have done; I will just not expect to be able to undo or redo these steps the way I can the latter.

Thanks again.

Charles Kinghorn

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:26:12 -0500, Charles Kinghorn
wrote:

I know I am missing some small detail; but for the life of me, I cannot see it. And it is getting frustrating.

I have a photograph of a building. In the first layer I have rotated the building slightly to correct the central verticals. In the next level I intend to skew the image to correct slight keystoning. This is not working. Instead, I am getting the message "Could not transform the selected pixels because the selected area is empty".
I know the message means that somehow the layer I defined for skewing is not connecting properly with the background layer. If I flatten the image it will work, but that is not what I want. And why would the rotate layer work but not the skew one, since they are both affecting pixels in the background layer?

Any suggestions? I am working in CS3 but the problem is the same in CS2.

Charles Kinghorn