re: "Sharpening" is just a copy of the pepper that I took from one of the layers."
I had already made that chile selection for an earlier masking purpose (no pixels of the actual chile, just the selection area for the mask). I, later, wanted to physically copy that chile from a background layer which contained those pixels. So, of the following 4-step process, I went immediately to number 3. If you don't already have the selection area, then you need to begin at number 1:
1. Outline a desired area of the background layer, using the selection tool of your choice.
2. Click the "new adjustment layer" button I showed at the bottom of the layers palette. This makes a new layer with the adjustment tool you select, *and* automatically makes a mask allowing access only to the selected area.
3. Anytime you need to retrieve that selection area, it's just one click away. I erroneously wrote "double-click the white area" of the mask in the thumbnail. Should have said "ctrl-click any area" of the *mask thumbnail* (white or black). I apparently went on a short mental vacation to the Bahamas during my writing.
You may want to retrieve that selection area for a variety of reasons: 1) to copy the pixels of that area from another layer (make sure you've highlighted the layer you want to copy). 2. Make another mask using the same area.
4. Paste into a new layer.
"Are you saying that you went to one of the background layers, outlined the chili with magic wand or lasso or whatever, switch to move cursor, double-clicked inside the outline ... and then, Ctrl-C copy? Then, insert new layer, click on the layer, then Ctrl-V paste?
And the point of this is to have a layer which is normally not visible, but which preserves the selection outline in case one needs it later?" |
