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1. Re: Selection Resurrection
You can save your selection as an Alpha Channel.
With your selection made go to the channels panel and click here:
You can later reload the Alpha Channel as a selection
Dave
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2. Re: Selection Resurrection
Hmmm. I've succeeded in doing as you suggest. However, the new Alpha channel, a rectangle, is painted white, i.e. no image data. When I load it, all I get is a black ground with a white rectangle outlined with the marching ants. Granted, the rectangle is positioned correctly vis-a-vis the image, but I'm still stuck. If I delete the channel, the entire image reappears, but without the selection
What I'm really looking for is a way to do a later reselect from an adjustment layer created earlier using the selection in question. Ideally, the animated outline of the selection would reappear just as if I had chosen RESELECT from the SELECT menu immediately after having deselected it.
I have now discovered that if I deselect and close the image after having saved the selection as an Alpha channel, I can reload the image. At this point, the Alpha channel is present but not highlighted. When I click on it, it appears on the monitor as before. If I then select the Alpha channel's white area with the magic wand AND delete the Alpha channel, the marching ants are restored to the image. However, that's not much help, since I'm still in the same boat--able to use the selection outline only once.
Ideally, Photoshop would create a pull-down list of all selection outlines associated with an image, much as it does with layers. Then I could choose the one I want, and the marching ants would then (magically) reappear.
Sigh.
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3. Re: Selection Resurrection
1 person found this helpfulHi
At present there is no "history" of selections.
You can save several selections as you make them into Alpha Channels.
To use them - load the Alpha as a selection then click in your layers panel to see your image (the selection will remain). Either go to an existing mask and fill it using the selection or add a new layer mask using real/hide selection. You can also add a new adjustment layer which will have your selection as a mask
Dave
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4. Re: Selection Resurrection
1 person found this helpfulI have selected part of an image and that I have used it to create, say, a curves layer. I then proceed to do more work on the image in another selection or two. At some later point, I decide to use the first selection for a hue/saturation layer
Control+Click on the Layer Mask thumbnail in your first [Curves] layer to load it as a selection. Now when you make a new Adjustment Layer [Hue/Saturation] it will use that selection.
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5. Re: Selection Resurrection
From the Select Menu - Save Selection. Name as you wish.(this creates an alpha channel)
When you want to use it - Select Menu - Load Selection-choose the one you want to load.
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6. Re: Selection Resurrection
1 person found this helpfulI rarely save selections. If you have a selection in a layer mask, you can Ctrl click the mask to load it again. With the selection in place, open a new Adjustment layer, and it will have the same layer mask.
Whenever I make all but the most simple of selections, I pretty much always copy the selected pixels to a new layer. You can then Ctrl click that layer later to reload the selection. This also makes it easy to add layer styles like drop shadows. Especially if you need to make a complex shadow rather than the simple offset that Layer Styles provide. If you want to place something outside a selection, then it is usually better to do so in a layer lower down the stack. You can then, move or transform the selected object relative to the background.
This is a fast and flexible way to use selections. It is also a no brainer if you have multiple screens to spread your workspace around. You can Ctrl click channels for instance.
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7. Re: Selection Resurrection
Actually, I would change my assessment and award you with the correct answer. I tried CTRL+click, but I found it unreliable. Only in one instancedid it correctly restore the marching ants to the image. Now that I understand that I have to load an alpha channel to use it, I see that this technique works every time. Thanks.
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8. Re: Selection Resurrection
Hi just be aware that you are limited to 53 Alpha Channels (by co-incidence a discussion in another question today)
Dave
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9. Re: Selection Resurrection
Weird. That's not even a power of two or of 16, or any other number system that programmers work with that I can think of. But thanks for the warning. I think that 10 such layers would be all that I might use for a single photograph.
