Photoshop trouble

[serai]

If there's anyone who can help me here, I'd really appreciate it.

I have a picture. I would like to cut out a small part of it and put it onto another picture. It's not a square part, it's a freeform bit. For that, I always used the pen tool, with which I would draw the outline, making sure to connect the line up to make a whole, then use the Move tool to grab it and move it onto a new layer in the other picture.

Except now it doesn't work! When I use the Pen tool to make my cut, I get a solid mass filled with white (or black or whatever color is on the palette at the moment) instead of a clip of the picture I'm cutting. I can't figure out how to make the tool do what it used to - just cut out a piece OF THE PICTURE.

Is there something I don't know about here? Something I should be selecting or clicking that would change this? Because I've used PS for years and never had this problem before.

Help!!

Comments

[green-ghost.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you have Shape Layers toggled on. Look to the floating tool bar when the pen is selected. To the very left there is a picture of the pen, and then a little square with a dot on each corner... click on the picture to the right of that... a smaller square with a dot each corner and a picture of the pen inside. That is the Path icon.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

THAT'S IT!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was driving me CRAZY. I swear I was about to rip the damn computer apart with my bare hands.

*runs off to play*

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you got answered! But feel free to ping me on twitter if you ever have questions. I'm more immediate there, and usually catch up on LJ at night.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the offer, hon, but I don't have a Twitter account.