Photoshop :: Resolving Layer Via Copy Or Layer Via Cut - Grayed Out
Feb 24, 2012
There are many times you will "place" a picture file inside your Photoshop document, and want to resize it, put it in a different layer, or crop the image inside Photoshop - but you may find a simple error message or grayed out layer via copy/cut prevents you from doing so.
To do this, you will most often do this one of three ways:
1) Select the Marquee tool and outline the area of the image you want to copy or cut
2) Go to Layer > New > Layer via Cut/Copy
3) Click Ctrl+J
Many times, you will find none of these selections work. All options will be greyed out. You may be tempted to create a new layer, and then use one of these options in the new layer. In this case, you will get the error message "Could not make a new layer from the selection because the selected area is empty." All these errors are a result of photoshop not identifying pixels that you are trying to cut/copy.
There is a simple solution to this problem. Go over to the "Layers" box, and click on the layer listing for the layer where your newly placed image resides. Make sure your image is the only item in this layer, if not relocate the image into a new layer by itself. Right-click on the layer where your photo is located in the "layers" box and click on "Rasterize Layer".
Once you do this you will now be able to follow one of the steps above to Layer Via Copy or Layer Via Cut.
I am trying to copy "fx" from one picture to another but when I try to drag to next photo it doesn't seem to work I have held the alt key and dragged but no luck...
I have been trying to copy a mask from one layer to a new layer in Elements 11. I can do this in CS3 by using alt and dragging to the new layer. It doesn't work in Elements 11. Is this feature unavailable in elements 11 or is there a different command? there doesn't seem to be much point in spending all that time making a complex layer amsk and then being unable to use it on another layer.
I have to give a tutorial on layer masks using both CS3 and elements at the Camera Club!
I have a GIF image that I need to add something to, but I don't want to add it to every single individual layer. Is there a way to add it over or behind the entire GIF so that it remains static while the GIF's frames cycle - like a watermark or something?
Or if not, is there maybe a script-fu that copies and merges a selected layer over every other individual layer automatically, without messing them up?
I know I'll probably have to just end up manually adding it to each layer, (so many layers...).
I have a layer that has the exact shadowing I want on another layer. Actually what I really want is to keep the image (colors etc) on one layer and just apply the 'shapes' and 'shadows' from another layer to it.
I've tried putting the layer with the image I want to keep above the shadowed layer and creating a clipping mask and that didn't do anything. I tried changing the opacity of the image that I want to keep to like 30% and that works, but it fades it out too much. I tried creating a pattern with the shadow layer and applying it as a texture to the image layer and that didn't work well either.
I have two similar images where the subject has moved between the images. I have them in the same file as two separate layers and am using the subtract layer mode to identify where they differ, (roughly!).
I want to be able to use the subtract layer as a completely new layer so that I can make edits to it. The only way I have found to do this at the moment is to 'copy visible', but this still brings other elements that I don't want from where the layers overlap.
I have used an adjustment layer in CS5 and when it was first used I could adjust everything. Now most of the controls have grayed out and whilst I can slide the sliders I can not type figures in nor use the radio buttons! Why has it locked me out? It has happened on a few images and with both Color Balance and Hue and Saturation Layers.
The image above shows the problem with the top Color Balance layer where I can not select Shadows or Highlights, nor type in figures for the sliders BUT I can slide them and change the tick on Preserve Luminosity! The basic image being edited is an 8-bit RGB file.
Adding a new adjustment layer (Color Balance) on top of this one initially showed the same problem but after adding 3 more new adjustment layers suddenly everything came back to fully working again - even the original problem layer!
This problem keeps happening with some of my images. It is happening on all 3 of our Photoshop PC's, so it looks like a basic PS bug.
In PS i can Magic wand selection shape from one layer, drop to sub layer and copy that selected shape from that sub layer. How do I do this in illistrator, and moreover, from multiple layer at the same time.
For instance, in PS = Import an image of gold - select a text phrse with wand - drop to gold - copy paste = gold text.
If I drag an effect from the target circle of one object to anther in the layer's panel it replaces the effect along with all appearance. But I want just to add the effect. For example, a layer has a drop shadow and a path, round corners. I want to move the drop shadow from the layer to the path so that the path now has the round corners and the drop shadow. To do this I have to open the shadow effect of the layer wright down its parameters, then create a shadow effect for the path with the same parameters which is a lot of work.
New to AutoCAD. Designing a building in plan. Then used the plan to draw a section in new layer, but still in plan view. Is there a way to copy that section onto a new layer in front view and erase the old section layer? .
I am using ACAD 2005 and am trying to copy&paste several objects from a layer I created in one .dxf file to one of the 2 standard layers (0 or Defpoints) in a new blank .dxf file.
My problem though is that if I copy and paste all of the objects (or even one of them) and them move to the new file and paste, it pastes the objects, but also "imports" into the new file the original file's layer that these objects were on.
For clarity, the new file only has the 2 standard layers and then after copy/pasting an object, the file manager shows the 3rd layer from the original file.
I have received a drawing with a a layer's print icon grayed out in the layer manager. I can print anything from that layer and I do not know how to switch on printing for that layer. What must I do and what does the grayed printer icon mean?
It appears that the Layer Filters functionality is broken again with 2013. Unchecking the "Apply layer filter to layer toolbar" disables the function of layer filters in the tool palette.
I've noticed that when a selection is Layer via Copyed in Photoshop CS6, it appears brighter and slightly more saturated in color than the original selection it came from. Currently I manually make lighting and color adjustments to match it back to the original, but is there a way to prevent this altogether? There are no masks or adjustment layers or any other tools being used when this happens -- just a simple Layer via Copy.
I'm not sure if there is a setting that will cut out that time consuming manual step of retouching to match the original selection.
I am trying to take apart this big graphic I made and it is "in pieces" because I made each part for it using layer sets to stay organized. I was trying to copy the layer set to another new file. When I did, there was nothing there! The layer set was there in the new file, the layers, the layer styles, but the layers were empty!
Simple gray scale photo of kite in sky. The kite is not completely surrounded by sky, part of it is out of the shot. I want to make the sky flash the gray it is now to white(gif). I used the polygonal lasso tool to select the sky. I dont know how to copy it to a new layer so I can change the exposure and make one frame with the original layer showing, another with the exposed layer showing. After I select with the lasso, all the items under "layer" are grayed out including "new". I tried the new layer icon at the bottom of the palette but no go. The closest I have come is edit>copy but where to put it?
Also, if I lasso the kite, isnt it subjective which is the background and which is the foreground?
I have found that when I use the Layer Styles on one layer and then make a new layer or select a shape that creates a new layer that when I go to add Styles to the new layer/new shape the previous layer is affected by how I set the Bevel & Emboss, Direction, Altitude, Drop Shadow etc etc.
For instance, let's say I have a ...
BG > New Layer > draw an ellipse and then add a Bevel with an > Angle of 89 and an Altitude of 30 and then I add a New Layer > open the Styles and go to change the Angle to say +89 or whatever and the Altitude to say 45 ... the first Layer/Shape Effects change.
How I can keep one Layer from being affected by an other Layers Effects'?
I have found that if I Rasterize a Layer Effect that I can add a "double" effect on the same layer but I haven't tried the to do this with separate layers. However, for most of the work I am doing I cannot use the Raster because everything needs to be true vectors.
I have a Dell Laptop/Windows 7 Home Premium that's a 64 bit
in a tutorial in PSCS6, I am told to "make a mask for the layer and then copy the layer into its own mask" I am given the key combo "opt+click", apparently to copy this layer into its own mask. This does nothing and I am lost.
Some results of Layer Via Copy (Cmd+J) when pixel layers are targeted seem unusual to me. Depending on initial conditions, the result can be entire layers being duplicated instead of just the selection, masks not being duplicated, and the selection being lost plus Select > Reselect being unavailable. .
The following table shows my expected and actual results for CS6 on OS X 10.6.8. Results which I find strange are in red triple caps.
In Photoshop CS3 I cut have 2 open picture side by side and "drag and drop" layers between picture 1 and picture 2, but in Photoshop CS4 i can't open pictures side by side !
Can I copy an layer in picture 1 and insert it in picture 2 ?
I drew a shape using the rectangle tool. I then added some options such as drop shadow, outer glow, etc... What is happening is if I create other shapes they automatically copy those options/styles how do I turn that off?
Can I copy from more than one layer at a time, without merging the layers together? If there's a way to do this it would save me a ton of time (working on animated sprites for a video game).
Im trying to copy a channel as a separate layer Im not sure how to word this right. I wanna keep the red channel cause like it as a starting point but i also want to keep the RGB to add some of the original color on parts of the red channel
I do a lot of texture work and create depth by using several layers and different blending modes. I wind up masking and remasking the same thing on multiple layers -- is there a way to copy the mask on one layer and paste it onto another? I know I can drag a mask to a different layer, but that removes the first one.
why doesn't the color in a background copy layer change even after i've chosen a new color in the color picker and that new color shows as the background color on the tools panel? This question pertains to Photoshop cs6.
I'm having the darndest time trying to figure out why i keep getting an error message that the selection is empty when i try to create a new layer-via copy after using the rectangle marque selection tool then refining the edge/feathering my photo.
