Adobe Community: Selecting with colour range doesn't work properly

Currently Being Moderated

1. station_two,

Sep 18, 2012 10:25 PM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

TinRobot44 wrote:

…If I have elements on seperate levels and I use the colour range option to select the area, it works on all the levels, not just the level I have selected. That's not what I want! I only want it to select the colour range on that one level.…

"Levels"? Do you mean Layers?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

2. station_two,

Sep 18, 2012 10:28 PM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

If you do mean "layers", check your tool options in the Options Bar. You may be set to select all layers.

If everything else fails, you could make the unwanted levels temporarily invisible by toggling off the eye icon to the left in the Layers panel.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

3. c.pfaffenbichler,

Sep 18, 2012 11:51 PM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

The work around is to manually turn off other levels, but on a file with lots of levels, that can be tedious.

Hiding all other Layers can be done by alt-clicking the visibility icon in the Layers Panel.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

4. TinRobot44,

Sep 19, 2012 9:07 AM in reply to c.pfaffenbichler

Report

Yes, I did mean Layers. Sorry, but I see you figured that out. The menu bar setting doesn't refer to the function, colour range. It seems the only way to fix this is to turn off all other layers, so that ALT click option is a big improvement on what I was doing. Thanks for that great tip.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

5. conroy,

Sep 19, 2012 9:16 AM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

Look in Options bar when using Color Range. You can limit the sampling to just the currently targeted layer, as shown below:

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

6. TinRobot44,

Sep 19, 2012 9:35 AM in reply to conroy

Report

Ah, I never noticed that the tool changes to the eye dropper there. Having said that, I have done exactly what you indicate, changing it to current layer, as you indicate, but it still acts exactly as before. I have a flat colour on that layer and above it, there is some shading. The selection result traces around the shading, even though it's on the level above. It seems it should easily just select the flat colour area nice and clean. Any idea what's going wrong for me?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

7. conroy,

Sep 19, 2012 10:08 AM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

Aha! You are correct. Layers above the target layer are still being sampled when sampling is at "Current Layer".

That has to be a bug. The Eye Dropper Tool itself does work correctly, though.

I'm about to report another problem, so I'll report this one, too.

------

Edit: Looking again, I don't think there is a bug.

It seems to not be that the higher layer is seen when sampling "Current Layer", which is correct and the same as when the Eye Dropper Tool itself is use. However, the pixels of the visible composite are then evaluated to determine the regions to be selected. I guess that's correct behaviour and you will have to do the Alt-click on eye trick to completely ignore all other layers.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

8. TinRobot44,

Sep 19, 2012 10:14 AM in reply to conroy

Report

No, for me the eye dropper works correct, but colour range doesn't. If I select the flat colour layer and use the eyedropper, all is selected as intended even though there is a layer above it with shading. If I do the same with colour range, it selects all around the shading above. That sounds like a bug to me. Not sure why you are getting a different result with your eye dropper. Still, as you say, the ALT click does the job.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

9. conroy,

Sep 19, 2012 10:19 AM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

Not sure why you are getting a different result with your eye dropper.

I am getting the same result as you. We are interpreting the program behaviour differently.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

10. TinRobot44,

Sep 19, 2012 10:29 AM in reply to conroy

Report

I see, so I wonder why you feel that. when using the colour range selector on one level only, it is working as expected when it reacts to pixels on other levels? Maybe I'm not getting something about how it's supposed to work. To me, it should work as though I have switched off the other levels, which is the work around, but it seems to me I shouldn't have to do that.

At this point, kind of academic, but just wondered. Thanks for your help.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

11. conroy,

Sep 19, 2012 11:57 AM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

I think Color Range is designed to determine the selection from the pixels of the composite of visible layers that's being displayed in the document window. It employs Eye Dropper Tool as a sampler and uses whatever result is returned by EDT. The options in the bar are options of the EDT and have nothing to do with Color Range itself.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

12. TinRobot44,

Sep 19, 2012 12:00 PM in reply to conroy

Report

Right, but I wonder what the benefit of that is. Wouldn't it better to be able to select colour range based on just one level or all levels or selected levels, as desired?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

13. conroy,

Sep 19, 2012 12:16 PM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

I agree that options in Color Range for the layers to be considered could be useful. Development resources are limited, though, and the design team probably considered the command as it is to be good enough to be useful, which it certainly is. Spending more resources on Color Range would mean sacrificing something else.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

14. station_two,

Sep 19, 2012 2:06 PM in reply to TinRobot44

Report

You keep on typing "levels" repeatedly, over and over, when you mean layers.

That's confusing. Levels are an entirely different thing in Photoshop.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

15. TinRobot44,

Sep 19, 2012 3:29 PM in reply to station_two

Report

Sorry, I keep saying "levels" because I work in animation and that's what they are called there. Anyway, in this context, I think it's probably clear that I am not talking about the "levels" adjustment tool, but I will do my best to use the word layers anyway.

|

Mark as:

Photoshop General Discussion

Selecting with colour range doesn't work properly

Sep 18, 2012 10:13 PM

More Like This

Bookmarked By (0)

Answers + Points = Status