Cut circle out of photo

[jordank8028345]

I have a photo. I want to cut a circle out of that photo. So I made a circle with the shape tool, then held down control and clicked on the layer thumbnail to make it a selection. I deleted the circle and then hit control-x, in an attempt to cut out the circle from the photo but it didn't work. Is there some basic step in this process that I've completely forgotten? I used to do this all the time...

[Trevor.Dennis · Accepted solution]

What do you want to fill the cut circle with?  White, black, transparent (PNG)?

Do you want a drop shadow?  

Having made the selection, you can simply hit the Delete key to remove what is inside the selection like this.

Note I have placed another layer blelow the picture layer and filled it with white

Whatever is on the lower layer will show through

A better approach is to use a Layer mask, because that is 'non-destructive'.

With the selection in place, click on the layer mask icon. It initially does the opposite

So you need to invert the layer mask (Ctrl I)

Whoops, I forgot to show you the layer mask icon.  It has the cyan square around it below.

Is this answering your question, or am I miles off?

[Trevor.Dennis]

I have just read your post again, and I see you used the Shape tool.  You might want to use the elliptical marquee tool instead.