It seems in some situations the select tools will "clear" instead of deselect. Can anyone reproduce? Is this a "feature"
?
To reproduce:
1. Make a selection
2. Free transform the selection
3. Subtract from the selection
CS6x64 windows 7.
I don't believe that's a bug, but the expected behaviour because your transforming the contents of your selection, not just the selection itself. (at least that's how it's worked for the last several versions of photoshop)
When your transforming the contents of a selection it turns into a floating selection (a temporary invisible layer, you can't see this on newer versions of photoshop)
Your actually transforming the pixels (cutting them from the layer if you will)
Even after you commit the transform but leave the selection it's still floating, so that's why subtracting from the selection actually deletes the pixels.
Once you deselect (defloat), then the invisible layer merges back down into the original layer.
You should use Select>Transform Selection if you just want to transform the selection itself, and not the contents inside the selection.
Or after you make the selection use Layer>New>Layer via Copy.
Set your background color in the toolbox to red and then try the same with a more rectangular shape to see this more clearly.
Photoshop 4:
