Easily seperate individual elements of an image to their own layers

[Guest]

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone knew of any tricks to quickly seperate individual elements that are all on one layer in to multiple layers. 

Example of a file I am working with attached - I want all the butterflies on individual layers, is there any quicker way to achieve this than lasso tooling each one and extracting to a new layer?

Another example of a time where this would be helpful would be when designing a yardage/pattern print, say I have drawn up a range of floral elements in procreate/photoshop but they are on one layer or for whatever reason get flattened, would there be a way to easily/efficiemtly isolate these out to seperate layers to be able to move them around individually/maniuplate colour etc?

Thanks heaps in advance.

[mglush]

Yes, it's very easy when you have a transparent background. Just use one of the selection tools, like the Rectangular Marquee, or the Lasso Tool, to make a selection around the image you want to put on a new layer and from the Layer menu, Choose New>Layer Via Cut (Shift-Command-J). It will automatically take that image and put it on a new layer.

Let us know if you have any other questions,

Michelle

[Stephen Marsh · Accepted solution]

I can't view the screenshot, however, if the "unique" elements are separated on a transparent background, the following script can automate the process:

https://photoshopscripts.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/split-to-layers/

[oridonat]

Thank You Stephen_A_Marsh!!

That script is so halpful i can't belive it's not build-in the software!..

[nick_0239]

i attempted to do this on a gray scale photograph and got 500+ layers.. any tips to get it down to around 6?