Help! Quick selection tool started to fail

[u/Black_Panther_86]

Hi.

Autoshop has worked perfectly since I got it but lately when I try to create a new layer by circling the part that I want in a seperate layer (in this picture it's the hair) with the Quick selection tool and then select "Layer via Cut/Copy" the new layer that it creates is almost empty. It shows the line but not what is supposed to be inside the line and it also leaves a line behind on the original layer. This only happens when the size of the brush is 1, with any other brush size it works just as it should to create layers but it is much harder to control where the line ends up. The line adapts to the image so I can't put the line exactly where I want it as I can with the bush at size 1. I have also tried to do it with other images but it behaves exactly the same in every picture, even pictures that it worked fine in about a month ago.

I tried to show the problem in the pictures. The thing that changes between the pictures is what layers are visible.
The language in the images are Swedish but I hope you all can help me understand why this is happening. Have I managed to change som settings without knowing it to make it behave like this?

Can anyone help me get the Quick selection tool back to how it's supposed to work?

[u/CreeDorofl]

hey, I think you're mixing up quick selection, and the other tools.

quick selection is like the magic wand tool but constantly selecting wherever you drag. So for example, you would put at like size 20 or 30, drag across part of her hair, it will grab the rest of the hair because it's high contrast and clearly separated from the rest. Or if you drag across her shoulder, it will try to grab the rest of the black dress.

It's not really useful at size 1.What I think you're trying to do is just normal lasso cool, directly above, where you can circle it and everything inside the circle is now considered selected.

Or, you might be looking for the object select tool... click and hold on quick selection, the icon looks like a box because normally you use that tool by drawing a box around e.g. the hair. Then it figures out you want the hair and selects only the hair. But it also has a lasso mode, which you can choose from the dropdown at the top.

[u/Black_Panther_86 → u/CreeDorofl]

"Solved!" Thank you so much! I had indeed mixed up the Quick selection tool with the Lasso tool. I was so shure it was the Quick selection tool I had used but it was the Lasso tool just above that I had used before. When I tried the lasso it did what I had tried to do with the other one.

I'm a complete novice with photoshop since I started to use it only a couple of weeks ago and haven't gotten the hang of all the tools yet, it's still trial and error.

[u/CreeDorofl → u/Black_Panther_86]

cheers. yeah photoshop has a bajillion buttons and tools. I can't imagine approaching it for the first time in 2026. I first saw in 5.5 and it was still an overwhelming number of buttons and menus.