Photoshop :: CS6 - Why Did Background Eraser Stop Working
Oct 30, 2013
CS6, Win7 Pro
Why might the Background Eraser tool have stopped working? The settings I am currently using are Sampling: Once; Limits: Discontiguous; Tolerance: 100%; Protect Foreground Color: checked.
I wanted to remove a head and shoulders photo portrait from a background, and to do so, I generally followed the instructions on a YouTube video tutorial by Ali Baba entitled How to Remove Background Around Lots of Hair Photoshop;
which showed to use the eraser tool.
My background was an off white color, with a shadow from the subject on some of it. I made a layer on top of the photo and filled it with red (instead of the dark blue in the video, so it would contrast more with the black hair of my subject); then I copied the photo into a layer and put it on top of the red (unlike the video where he erased off the original.) Then I erased away the background. Then I took the steps shown to work around the hair. At that time, the background was still not closely erased around the ears and shoulders and I put the job away for a while.
When I came back, I used the Quick Selection to select the area from the entire right side that wasn't erased yet. But I didn't know how to erase the selection, so I went back to the Background eraser and erased the rest of the right side away. Then I deleted the selection.
For some reason, however, I am not able to erase any more on the left side, and I am stymied as to why not.
however the eraser tool and other methods of getting to transaperency are not working. Perhaps it is a problem with locked background colours or something, however my eraser tool is defaulted to erase to white not transparent - see picture.
have tried ctrl+shift+alt at start up to restore to factory settings, and even uninstalled and reinstalled the program, but no luck.also when i go to refine edge after a quick selection, there's no transparent option
I'm trying to figure out the Background Eraser tool. I understand that I am supposed to trace around the subject of interest without allowing the centre mark to touch the subject. I notice that it draws a puffy white border around the subject. Then what? What have I done? I don't see a new layer, new channel, or selection. I am able to "paste", which creates a new layer. This new layer shows my selection with the background painted white.
I am working on a floor plan in CS5 Photoshop. Just basically tracing over an original document and erasing what I trace over. I do this all the time and it has been working fine.
But now the eraser won't work at all. When i turn off all the layers except the background layer I can erase things, but then when I turn the layers back on, it doesn't show up erased. I've tried resetting the tool and that didn't work. I'm so confused as to why it just stopped working.
I often use the background eraser tool, however, I have opened two images of layouts which are on a white background and for the first time, none of the eraser tools will work at all. By selecting them they do not erase anything.
For some reason photoshop at times will only let me erase or draw within the confines of a specific layer. It seems to happen randomly without me accidently hitting a hotkey of some sort.
For instance in the image below, I was drawing and randomly I noticed I could no longer draw. It would only let me use the brush/erase tool within the confines of the line work I had already established. The only way I have been able to correct this so far is to completely restart photoshop.
Im having trouble locating the background erase tool. When the drop menu opens on the erase button, the only options are eraser tool, scissor tool, knife. Where can I find the background eraser tool?
I have a background layer and then I create a second layer (a blank one). I then try to erase the background image through the new layer and it doesn't work. What can I do?
Working onsite on a clients pc - and suddenly using the erraser toll it has gone all pixleated !!I have open PS with resetting all tools, the just resetting the eraser tolls. cannot for th elife of me able to get it back to a smooth blend ?
I am using PS CC on Windows7 with a digital board (don´t know if that is correct english, but - with a digital pen, instead of a mouse)When I try to erease, clone or write with the pen tool, nothing is happening where the cursor is, but instead rather far below that point.If I use the mouse, it works well, also the digital pen could be used without any problems to perform other things as changing tools, close an image by clicking the "x", or chose layers or whatever.Changing to PS CS6 the problem disappears - everything works fine.
I have reset the settings by holding shift-ctrl-alt while starting the program.
I was using my eraser and airbrush tools on a small image on a larger layer and I moved the image and, after that the eraser and paintbrush tools stopped working on all layers. When I went back to a previous version of the file the tools worked fine.
I scaned an iron on pattern. Now I want to remove the background color which is white. I thought I could use the magic eraser tool. It does a good job for most of the project, but I have to click on every small area. The reason that I want to do this is to being able to print on any color card stock. Is there another way of doing this.
I am reading a tutorial about the background eraser, and in this tutorial, on the screenshots, the erased parts are in red. It is the same red than the default one for the mask mode.
Is there a mode to see the mask color instead of what there is beneath the layer ?
Note : Maybe the tutorial author put a red layer beneath the current layer...
I have chosen to use the eraser with fuzzy edge to remove the background from a dog subject. I created an Alpha channel and made a copy of the original image as suggested in the tute. When I begin to erase it works for a few stroke then stops erasing. By trial and error I found that If I select back and forth between the original and the copy it will erase a little on each but this seems to be an irregular way of doing the job and this is not what the tutorials show. What I erase shows up on both the original and the copy, that is they compound the erasing. Should this occur? Why can't I complete the erasing on just one image. While it does achieve the removal of the background I feel I am doing something wrong.
I've been trying to use the Eraser Tool to erase a background sky and it won't erase. The Alpha Channel is turned on, the Selection Tools work, but the eraser does nothing.
Since I first upgraded from PSP X3, 5 months ago the eraser tool has worked great. But just in the last week I have been having problems with it not working correctly. It seems like it is faded and not erasing like it should. The hardness IS raised up to 100 but still no luck. The background eraser is working great, it is only the eraser tool that is acting up. Here is a screen capture of what it is doing.
Did an image trace on a jpeg. Want to erase some of the trace but when I choose the eraser tool I get the pencil tool with a circle and line going through it. That is not what I chose. It worked last night but not today. Watching a lynda.com tutorial, the same was accomplished by the speaker: he chose the eraser tool to eliminate some of the trace after it was completed.
I've converted hundreds of photos to B/W and used the eraser tool or masking to bring out the color detail from background.
I received one last night exactly the same image information that was on the other files. It was taken from my daughter's cell and previous pictures she sent never had a problem.
.jpg 72 PPI RGB-8bit channel
Duplicated the background converted it to B/W in the Effect>Photo Effects>Black and White Film Clicked on eraser and instead of my daughter's white teeth there was an orange transparent area where I erased.I tried masking with the same effect.
I have a jpeg of two people standing in front of some foliage. I want to use the background eraser to remove the foliage.The tool removes most of the foliage but leaves small unerased areas all over. I have to go over it many times to remove everything which takes ages.I am using the default settings for the background eraser tool. The only setting I have changed is the size (to 150).It certainly does not seem as easy to use this tool as the Corel tutorial on background removal makes it seem!
Having a problem which is easy enough to replicate when using Merge to HDR Pro ... either directly from within CS6, from LR4 or from Bridge it is causing CS6 to stop working.
What happens is that if you are using Merge to HDR then switch to another application causing Merge to HDR to lose focus eventually it will not recover and the Cancel/OK buttons are greyed out and not available. It never recovers from there.
Typical symptoms where Merge to HDR stops working (and therefore CS6) are the following:
- Any sliders that had been adjusted prior to this happening are available to change, others are not; - Any sliders that are greyed out can still be returned to their default value by double-clicking on the slider.
Photoshop has to be 'killed' before it can be used again.These symptoms are repeatable in the 32 bit version of CS6, the more files that are merged the quicker it happens. For example if you start with the "Photorealistic" preset and have 3 files open (opended using Camera Raw, Canon 5D mkII CR2 files therefore ProPhoto RGB; 16 bit; 5616 by 3744 (21.0MP); 300ppi) it happens withing a couple of times switching to other applications and back but with 9 files open it will happen faster.
And it also happens with AdobeRGB (8bit), ProPhotoRGB (8bit) and sRGB (8bit).Happens from both x64 and x32 systems. The environment is follows:
it is with the drawing pen, I have found that, when I load photoshop for the first time after starting the computer, the pen works as intended but if i were to close photoshop and reopen it later, the pen will cease to function with the program, despite my actions appearing in the history
I have three machines with this same issue. XP pro fresh install of everything, OS, PS CS2, LR 1.3, etc. All updates. I found this problem related to someone updating PS from CS to CS2, but not for a fresh install. I had this same problem before my most recent XP reformat too-I reformat my machines about once a year.
I can't run a droplet on more than 25 images at a time. I have tried multiple combinations of file/folder/droplet locations. Running the droplets from LR 1.3.1 does the same thing. Running from Bridge also will not work. It works fine for a few images, but not for 50 or 100 or more.
I would like to report a problem when running Adobe Photoshop along side Revit Architecture 2011 & 2012. When ever using the two programs at the same time I am no longer able to escape out of commands in Revit. The escape key will not work as long as I have Photoshop open.
I was retouching a painting earlier and i could not get every detail because my adjustment layers stopped allowing me to paint on the mask.
I switched from ps v13 and v12 and niether would allow me to paint on the mask. All of the correction i did were on adjustment layers. I would add an adjustment layer and tweak it then invert the mask and then paint with the brush. Then i would merge layers. After about 4 merges it stop allowing the painting on the mask.
Windows 7 64-bit | Photoshop CS5 | Wacom Intuos4 (driver up to date)
Happily painting away, when I switch to another program, be it Skype or anything else, and then come back to PS my CS5 Media Brush no longer has pressure sensitivity, etc - just like how a bruch behaves with using only the mouse.
The easy fix is to again switch out of PS, and then back, but you have to be careful not to have the pen on the tablet giving it input but rather wait until Photoshop is fully maximized again if minimized or the brush won't regain it's functionality. Do it right though, and it will regain tablet sensitivities.
CS2 dodge tool stopped working as set, yet Burn, Sponge, Clone Tools all work; dodge tool leaves centered white specks if clicked multiple times; all my CS1 tools work; all my CS2 & CS1 tool settings are same (0 hardness, 20% exposure), rebooting does not fix; Is it possible to create this problem by accidentally typing Shift, Alt or Ctrl "," or "." or similar whilst using CS2 Dodge Tool?
