PSE 18 Problems

[elaine21]

Hi all, I hope you are well.
I've not been here for some time.  My photography was put on hold for a while during the winter months.  Now the sun is back out here in the UK I thought I'd start up again.
However, I'm having a problem with PSE 18.  Firstly the spot healing brush is not working at all with erasing anything, the lasso tool won't select anything stating 'No pixels are more than 50% selected.  The selection edges will not be visible' and I cannot perform the fill selection function and thirdly, on a recent image, when going to adjust the brightness it is coming up with unable to do it owing to a 'program error'.

Now I'm not sure about all this but, when editing an image shot with my new Sigma macro lens, this is when its happening.  I've just tested with an image shot with my Canon 700D kit lens and the above work fine.  However, the lasso tool didn't work.  Both images were shot in RAW.

I'm really not sure what is going on here?
I would be very grateful for you help.

Very many thanks

Elaine

[Sepiana]

May 29, 2021 16:23:14 GMT elaine21 said:

the lasso tool won't select anything stating 'No pixels are more than 50% selected.  The selection edges will not be visible' and I cannot perform the fill selection function

Hi Elaine,

Try reducing the feather value. I believe the error message you are getting is related to the feather value you applied. It is too high for the size of your selection.

[Chris]

Elaine, hopefully, Sepiana's suggestion to change the feather value should fix it. Otherwise, another suggestion would be to reset PSE 2018. The lens you used to photograph the image on your 700D should have nothing to do with this error. 

helpx.adobe.com/in/photoshop-elements/kb/preference-file-locations-photoshop-elements.html#:~:text=Go%20to%20Edit%20%3E%20Preferences%20(Mac,are%20reset%20to%20default%20settings.

Kind regards
Chris

[Sepiana]

If this happens to be a case of the Lasso tool "misbehaving", I would suggest resetting this tool as the first troubleshooting step. Then, if that doesn't do it, delete/restore the Preferences file. 

The Preferences file is where Elements keeps track of your preferred settings. When you delete this file, Elements will automatically generate a replacement file. The downside is that the replacement file will have the settings back to the default. This means that you will have to redo any changes you made. For example, if you have rearranged the panels, you will have to do it again because they will be back to their original (default) positions.

[elaine21]

Aww, thank you ever so much Sepiana and Chris. I've barely touched PSE in months and must have been randomly fiddling with it. The feathering was set wrong as you said. Its been bugging me for a while but I hadn't properly trouble shot it as I hadn't taken any photos.

Weirdly, I'm able to adjust the brightness now too! 🤔

[Sepiana]

Elaine, you are most welcome! Glad to hear the feather value was the culprit. Problem solved!