Warning: No pixels are more than 50% selected.

[tonymuffin]

Why sometimes when I am doing a focus stack merge in PhotoShop I get the following message?

Warning: No pixels are more than 50% selected.  The selection edges will not be visible

What does this mean and how do I fix this?

Thanks

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Hi @tonymuffin that warning generally means when the process was running it could not find enough pixel data to make a selection. In terms for Focus Stacking, it means there wasnt enough unique data to select and make a mask. It could be due to a duplicate layer or two layers with very similar pixel data/depth.

https://creativecloud.adobe.com/cc/discover/article/focus-stacking-in-photoshop?locale=en

[tonymuffin]

Thanks for your quick response Kevin

However, I am still not clear exactly what is causing this.  I do know how to do focus stacking in Photoshop and each of the images I use are unique shots.  So I am confused.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@tonymuffin check your results when its complete - do any of the layers have nothing masked?

[tonymuffin]

All layers have something masked.

[D Fosse]

The key in that message is "50%". That boundary is what the selection edges (marching ants) mark.

There can still be a lot selected 49% and less! So there may still be an active selection, there is just no visible marching ants boundary.

[tonymuffin]

Thanks D Fosse, I apprecaite your response here.  However, I have no clue what you just stated.

[D Fosse]

Ah, well, no, absolutely right. That message has no business in a focus stack. No idea why it pops up here.

But if you ever do make a selection and this message comes up; then you know what it means 😉

[sareh-1364]

When you enter a large number in the feather section, this error appears because the selected range cannot be feathered to that amount because the selected edges are not recognizable at all.

[tonymuffin]

I really appreciate your response however, I have absolutely no idea what you just said.

[Ernest_7519]

I am new to PS but if I understand correctly this error is generated during a focus stack when one of the layers has less than 50% of the pixels different than the other layers in the stack. Meaning that it will not contribute much to the combined focus stack. Depending on your application there is nothing really to fix in terms of creating a focus stack.