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contracting selection =\


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aschmidt

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Hi everyone! I am pretty new to Photshop and recently I've been doing a lot of tutorials and learning quite a bit from them. I have noticed on quite a few they are telling me to contract or change my selection by a specific amount of pixels. I have Photoshop 7.0 just to let you guys know. I hope to hear from someone soon! Thanks! :}
 
firstly, welcome aschmidt ... the pic below should help ...
refer fig1 - go to select>modify>contract ( the area to be contracted must be 'selected') ... a new menu will appear - refer fig2 .. change the pixels to the number you want and click OK ... if it has contracted too much or not enough - refer fig3 .. go to edit>step backward ... and start again :)
 
Eeeek! I've run into another problem! I am currently on step 6 on the Mercator tutorial where it says "Merging layers deactivates a selection, so Ctrl-click the grid layer to select it again. Then Contract the selection by 50 pixels." When I tried to contract the selection like you said it said Warning: no pixels were selected. I did have a selection so what does that mean? :(|
 
aschmidt .. don't worry, I had the same problem with that tute :D ... have a look at the pic below .. it should solve that problem :righton:
 
That is what I did. Load selection right? I'm so confused [confused] . Sorry if I seem annoying :(| . maybe I'm looking at the image you showed me wrong....
 
aschmidt wrote:
I'm so confused . Sorry if I seem annoying
Click to expand...
.. only rude people are annoying and you are neither rude or annoying :) ... everyone here get's stuck with Photoshops possibilities, so to be stuck and confused means that you are in good company on this board :D ... now first let's make sure that we are both talking about the same part of the tute .. refer pic below ... top image is where I think you are ... bottom left image is what you image should look like ... bottom right image is what you 'layers pallette' should look like ...
 
Nope :) . On the tutorial there is 4 pages. There is Style 1, Style 2 (pg 1), Style 2 (pg 2), and Mercator Effects. I am on the last page (Mercator Effects). I am stuck on step 6 on the part where it says "Merging layers deactivates a selection, so Ctrl-click the grid layer to select it again. Then Contract the selection by 50 pixels." I understand that ctr + clicking the nonactive layer selects the contents (at least I think), but when I did and tryed to contract the selection it said Warning: No pixels were selected . I hope that clears up some things and i hope to hear from you soon! Thanks for trying so far btw ;) .
 
Perhaps a different point of view?

Excuse me for just jumping in like this, but from your last post, aschmidt, possibly I can help.
aschmidt said:
I am stuck on step 6 on the part where it says "Merging layers deactivates a selection, so Ctrl-click the grid layer to select it again. Then Contract the selection by 50 pixels." I understand that ctr + clicking the nonactive layer selects the contents (at least I think), but when I did and tryed to contract the selection it said Warning: No pixels were selected . I hope that clears up some things and i hope to hear from you soon! Thanks for trying so far btw ;) .
Click to expand...

From your post, I gather that you are to merge down (Ctrl+'E'), with the top layer active, which then merges it downward with the one below it. The grid layer that you are instructed to Ctrl+Click on needs to have your basic shape (I assume a circle from the screen shot) on it, in order for you to be able to select it. The reason for this is to have a selection that has not been altered in any way. If your grid layer is empty, there will be no pixels to select, so you may need to go to the layer above or below your grid layer in order to have an object to select. You should see the "marching ants" of the selection appear when you ctrl+click on the grid layer.

The ctrl+click is a quick way to basically use the magic wand on a layer and select whatever object is on that layer based upon its outline rather that color values...

Your ACTIVE layer should still be the topmost one, which you have merged. You are just placing a selection area on it, which you then will contract.

Hope this helps!
Madster
 
Now I'm really confused [confused] ........ I might be reading it wrong, but it seems like all you did was explain what I was doing. I did have a selection with the little ants, but it still had the warning popup. I tried strl + clicking other layers and it worked, but I didn't get the effect that I wanted. It appears this problem is more complex than I though lol. Thanks everyone so far for trying to help and please keep trying :} . I hope to hear from someone soon!
 
aschmidt .. ok .. have worked through the tute ('twas a long time since I've done it ... and some changes have been made?? .. or is my memory dimming??) ... I have arrived at section6 (where you are having the problem) and everything worked ok (for me) ... I have shown my image and layers pallette below (along with the instructions from section6) so that you can compare your screen images with mine ... that may enable you to see where you are going wrong, or confirm you have the same images ... if you can post a pic of your image and layers pallette it would be helpful ... hope this all helps :) [/b]

oopps!! .. I had missed out layer4 ... [doh] [doh] ... so corrected image is below
 
It appears I have done something wrong because mine looks a tad bit different than yours. I am going to do the tutorial over again (I'll get more practice anyway) and I'll see if it is correct this time. By the way how do u take a screenshot on a PC? I never had to use it so I don't really know how :\ . Well I'll post again in a little bit after I finish and we'll see if it works!
 
Thanks about the avatar lol! Okay...I finished the tutorial and I can't tell if it's done correctly or not because the example image is so small. Here is what it looks like:
 
aschmidt .. well done :} :} :} :} ... and full marks for persistance :righton: ... it's a good tute eh?? .... the blue grid needs to be moved 'behind' the main mercator frame
 
Awsome! Thanks for everything! :D :D :D :D I'm glad that I didn't quit on this project because now I've learned alot from my mistakes! Photoshop is such an amazing program! Thanks again!
 
aschmidt you did great!
And namvet , you did excellent job with him on this tut. :}
 
Hi There namvet

a most excellent job with this tute and the other one!


taught with extreme clarity!! :}




ranger72 :righton:
 
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