Issue with Pen Tool selecting border of entire project and deleting selection

[SASPRICOM]

Hi All,

I have been using PS to remove backgrounds from product images and place on a transparent background. I use the pen tool to select the product image, Click "Make Selection" feather the edges and then create a layer mask. I have been using this method for all of the images on our company website and it has been working great! But now, all of a sudden instead of deleting everything around the selection PhotoShop is deleting only the selection. When I go to make the selection I noticed that it is now creating a feathered line around both the selection and the outside of the entire image...any suggestions? 

It changed randomly one day, I don't recall changing any settings, I was working on an image and it worked just as it always has and not five minutes later I started the next image and it was suddenly working this way. 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

»It changed randomly one day«

It seems more likely that you accidentally changed the Path Operation. 

Please provide meaningful screenshots with all pertinent Panels and all the Path elements selected so we can see the Path Operation setting in the Options Bar. 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

You very likely want »Exclude Overlapping Shapes«. 

But why the Selection anyway? 

If you apply a global Feather a Vector Mask would work just as well. 

[enzo_6407]

5 years later, ChatGPT appeared :

Fix: After making the selection, go to Select > Inverse (Shift+Ctrl+I / Shift+Cmd+I) before applying the mask, or check the "Invert" option in the "Make Selection" dialog.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

SubPathItems Path Operation can be changed individually if they don’t match the intention, no ChatGPT necessary. 

[modesta_1982]

When you notice the feathered line appearing around both the selection and the outside of the entire image, it usually indicates that the selection might be inverted or that an adjustment to feathering or anti-aliasing was applied differently than before. One quick thing to try is to go to Select > Inverse after making your selection to see if the correct area is being masked. Also, check the feather settings in the “Select and Mask” panel or the options bar when you’re creating the selection—sometimes feather values carry over from a previous project and cause unexpected results. Resetting the selection tools (right-click the Pen Tool icon and choose Reset Tool) can also resolve random changes like this. If nothing else works, try resetting Photoshop preferences back to default, which often fixes sudden unexpected behavior.