Issues with selection and fill

[jamess26431423]

I am having trouble with filling a selection. So, I selected an area using the elliptical marquee tool. Then I went to fill the selection with black. Instead of filling the selection with black, it filled the opposite - the whole screen minus the selection. Then I hit CTLR-I to invert the selection. That turned the screen white.
What I was expecting is to see the photo with the selected area black.
What am I doing wrong? Screen shots below.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

     Then I hit CTLR-I to invert the selection. That turned the screen white.

That’s Image > Adjustments > Invert, inverting Selection is ctrl-shift-I if I am not mistaken.

The third screenshot shows the Tool is set to »Subtract from selection« in the Options Bar.

[jamess26431423]

Hmmm, the 3rd screenshot does show subtract from selection, but changing it, unfortunately, changes nothing. I did try ctrl-shift-I, but this does nothing. Looking at the menu option shows it as ctrl-I. Screen shots below.

[jamess26431423 · Accepted solution]

Sorry to reply to my own post, but you are correct regarding the shortcut, its actually select-inverse which is shift-ctrl-i. This still does nothing.
I am not sure how to to rid of a previous "select all" other then Ctrl-D to deselect.
Missing something obvious!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Sorry to reply to my own post, but you are correct regarding the shortcut, its actually select-inverse which is shift-ctrl-i. This still does nothing.

It inverts the Selection – this may not be noticable if you don’t view the whole image and the original Selection’s borders are at the canvas’ edges.

[jamess26431423]

Thanks for the replies, starting over after removing the layer worked perfectly. Not really sure why. For sure I was making a mistake about inverting the selection.

[davidc1815]

I think you may have used the wrong shortcut.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Also a Select All-selection might still have been active.