Cannot delete a selection in a Photoshop layer

[Melanie22700049iorp]

Hello, 

I'm having trouble deleting a selection from a layer. I've attached a picture to show what I'm working with (unfortunately the screenshot didn't capture the selection box -- just imagine it is around one of the faces in the picture).  I used the pixels in "Layer 1" to define the selection on "background copy". Then I contracted the selection by 5 pixels and tried hitting the  backspace key to delete the selection (pixels) on "background copy" layer. Would not work. Tried going to Edit>Clear - would not work. 

Is this a bug? Am I doing something wrong, or is there a setting I might have on that I'm unaware of?

I'm inclined to think it's me because I had the same trouble on my last computer with photoshop a few weeks ago. 

Thanks in advance for the help...

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

I will have a guess- Because you are working on the top copy layer- when you delete a face from a selection on the top layer you will then see the same face on the background layer- so nothing appears to change.

[Leslie Moak Murray · Accepted solution]

I agree. OP try deactivating the bottom layer. I think you'll find the deletion happened.

[Melanie22700049iorp]

Thank you! This worked!!

[Bojan Živković · Accepted solution]

Do you se change after clicking on eyeball to close it on the left side of Background layer? See screenshot below.