Can’t copy a section of a photo…

BS
Posted By
barbara_sestric
Jan 21, 2004
Views
1069
Replies
8
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Closed
I want to copy a small section of a photo to cover (paste it) something else in same photo. Every time I try to do this (with marquee, lasso, or any tool). I get an error message that says I cannot do it because "no pixels have been selected". Can someone please tell me what that means!!!!!!???? How do I select them if not with one of the tools that I am using??? HELP!!! I would like to use this method a lot. Thank you ahead of time. Barb

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CS
Chuck_Snyder
Jan 21, 2004
Barbara: do you have a large number in the Feather value for the selection tool? (will appear on the tool’s toolbar up top). If so, you can get a message that says, "No pixels are more than 50% selected…" Is that the message you’re getting?

Chuck
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Jan 21, 2004
Barbara, you can get the same message if you have layers in your image and you have as the active layer one that’s essentially devoid of pixels in the area you’re trying to select. If that’s the case, just go to the layers palette and activate the layer on which resides the image segment you’re trying to copy and move.

Hope that helps!

Chuck
BS
barbara_sestric
Jan 21, 2004
Chuck – Thanks for the fast reply. I just checked, and the number in the feather box is 0. The exact error message is "copy command could not be completed because no pixels have been selected".(nothing about pixels and 50%). Another one I have gotten in the past is "copy command could not be completed because layer is locked". I don’t understand any of these. I’ve only had this for a couple of weeks. I’m getting really frustrated and I don’t find photoshop’s help any good at all! Maybe this forum will help — I just discovered it!
Barb
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Jan 21, 2004
Barb, please tell me your exact steps and I think we can figure this one out. Are you working with an image that has layers or is it a single layer?
BS
barbara_sestric
Jan 21, 2004
It has happened both ways. But let’s talk about the current photo. It has layers. My son is standing in front of a fence. I want to copy a part of the fence so that I can put pieces of it over a person I want out of the picture (make it look like the fence continues.) I have tried going to the layer that I have made changes with and can’t copy the section, and I’ve tried copying it from the background layer and can’t do it.
BS
barbara_sestric
Jan 21, 2004
Chuck, I may have done something wrong in the forum already by clicking on something wrong, but I did answer you. Maybe you had to leave. But now I have to go to bed (I’m in the midwest and it’s 10:30), I’m so tired from working on this photo! I do hope that you will be online tomorrow evening and will continue to try to help me as you said you would. Please give me a sign tomorrow night if you are on. For now, good night, and thanks for trying.
Barbara
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Jan 21, 2004
Barbara, I’m sorry – multitasking tonight! I’ll leave instructions for you to see if it’ll work for you in the morning.
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Jan 21, 2004
Barbara, it should be fairly straightforward. If it doesn’t work after trying what’s proposed here, you may have to go through the Delete Preferences routine.

What you should be able to do is:
1. On the layer with your son and the fence on it (probably the bottom or ‘background’ layer, select the part of the fence you want to copy with the marquee or lasso.
2. After completing the selection (‘marching ants’ showing), go to Layer>New>Layer via Copy and hit Enter. You won’t see anything on your image, but when you look in your layers palette you should see a brand new layer containing only the part of the image you wanted to copy.
3. Make that the active layer and use the Move tool to put it into place
and the Erase tool to touch it up.

Just as an aside, you can make the same thing happen by doing your selection, then an Edit>Copy followed by an immediate Edit>Paste instead of doing what’s in 2 above.

Hope that’ll work for you!

Chuck

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