Problem with "Paste Into"

RS
Posted By
Robert Stockdale
Sep 4, 2003
Views
284
Replies
7
Status
Closed
Based on a technique in a book, I tried useing the "Paste Into". I selected an area on Picture 1 to receive the paste, copied a selection from Picture 2, and then did a "Paste Into" on Picture 1. It bounded the paste exactly as expected, aloowing me to move the pasted portion around. However, when I tried to do a Levels on it, the levels visibly modified not only the visible portion of the inserted picture, but also affected the rest of Picture 1 behind which was the "not seen" portion of the pasted picture. While it makes sense that the whole paste is affected by the Levels, I would not expect portions of the original picture to be modified, as they are not selected.
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EM
Elena Murphy
Sep 4, 2003
If you look in your Layers palette, you will see you actually DO have portions of the original image selected because the part you pasted in is still on the same layer as the original image and thus, even though you have what’s called a floating selection, and you can adjust it by moving it still, Elements thinks it’s the same layer and that’s what’s important. If you were to select Deselect, you wouldn’t be able to modify the part you pasted any longer.

If you want to manipulate only the portion of the image you pasted, you should paste it onto a new layer which is behind the original (you’ll have to convert the background layer to a regular layer first) and then cut a hole in the original image so you can see the new part behind.

It works as you are expecting it to in Photoshop because there, paste into automatically creates a new layer with a layer mask which isn’t supported in Elements. Does that make sense?
RC
Richard Coencas
Sep 4, 2003
Paste into on Elements merges the paste into the original layer upon commit. An ordinary Pase will put it on it’s own layer, which you can then apply a levels to.

Rich
NS
Nancy S
Sep 5, 2003
Elena,

Actually, I use layer masks all the time running Windows and PSE V1.

Ctrl/A > Ctrl/C > Ctrl/Shift/V > Ctrl/J. Link the two thumbnails in the Layer’s Palette. Alt/Shift/Click on the mask t.n. will produce a rubylith mask.

Though you are correct there isn’t a pushbutton ‘option’ to create a layer mask.

Nancy
CS
Chuck Snyder
Sep 5, 2003
Nancy, a couple follow-up points:

Ctrl/A > Ctrl/C > Ctrl/Shift/V > Ctrl/J. Link the two thumbnails in the
Layer’s Palette. Alt/Shift/Click on the mask t.n. will produce a rubylith mask.<
Alas, only works in PE1 – those with PE2 have to use another method involving Adjustment or fill layers to get the mask. (Mention here so those with PE2 don’t get frustrated trying it.)

Though you are correct there isn’t a pushbutton ‘option’ to create a layer
mask.<
Ah, but there’s a solution: the Shipley add-on’s (free!) include this capability. Worth investigating for those who haven’t encountered them yet.

Chuck
NS
Nancy S
Sep 5, 2003
Chuck,

You had a good point in that though I mentioned I use version 1, people may have incorrectly assumed that version 2 does everything and more than v.1. I should have added I was speaking for the program "out of the box".
CS
Chuck Snyder
Sep 5, 2003
Nancy, as you and Jodi know well, v2 is not better in all things than v1. We can only hope that v3 takes the best from both and adds some more goodies! (And doesn’t make the add-on’s not work….)

🙂

Chuck
RS
Robert Stockdale
Sep 8, 2003
Thanks everyone for the excellent responses. It makes sense now what is going on, and with the responses given, I’ve been able to correctly merge my photos.

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