Select and Mask not working [2017]

[likeitsounds]

Running cc 2017 on El Capitan v. 10.11.6 with 64 gigs of memory.

After I've made a selection and then opened the masking refinement panel, i am not able to preview the adjustments I make. WORSE, is the fact that after I've made the adjustments (choosing New Layer w/mask) the mask does not take; in other words, when i've clicked out of the adjustments panel, a new layer mask appears in the respective layer, but it has no selection, just a mask covering the entire canvas.

i've turned off the Use OpenCL option, as well as also turning off Use Graphics Processor, but nothing seems to help.

Can you? (hopeful face)

Thanks.

[SteveWeinrebe · Accepted solution]

If it helps, make sure you have the correct layer targeted in the Layers panel (not an adjustment layer, for instance) before launching Select and Mask. And in Select and Mask, make sure you have the Opacity slider dragged far enough to the right so that you can see the mask clearly.

Steve

[Guest]

thanx you

[Jocelyn_Simmons]

I'm having an issue with Select and Mask... It just doesn't work... not at all. Period.

[miked98932561]

Mine isn't working either - here is what happens  please help! 

"Select and Mask" tool problem - Photoshop - YouTube

[SteveWeinrebe]

The video was helpful, thanks. Not 100% sure but I see a few things going on and can suggest what would probably be a better workflow to get you going.

1) I don't know your system specs but you have a 600MB file with lots of unused duplicate layers. You can always speed Photoshop up working on smaller files, allowing more memory for the tools, so you might want to do a Save As... and save a version without all the hidden layers, since you only need 2 layers. If you have 16 or more megs of RAM and lots of free hard disk space then that's not your problem.

2) Start out with a better selection of the mountains. Use the Quick Selection tool to select the mountains; or use that tool to select the sky and then go Select > Inverse, to make a selection of the mountains.

3) Skip making the layer mask first. Select and Mask will do that for you, in the output settings at the bottom of Select and Mask.

4) Don't use such a high Smoothing amount, and 1 px feather or less should be fine.

5) If all that fails to speed up or make Select and Mask work, revert to the old Refine Edge by first making the selection of the mountains, and then holding down the Shift key while going to the menu Select > Select and Mask.

[miked98932561]

thank you!