Photoshop Problem.

[johntwo]

Polly suggested that I share the details of a problem with Photoshop.

The November update of PS introduced a new option called "Select and Mask" which shows itself in the top tool bar any time you select one of the selection tools (Quick Select, Marquee, Lassoo etc.)  Primarily designed for portraiture, it will select a portrait from the backgrount even to the extent of detecting individual hairs if you use the right brush.  It works amazingly well and separates the selection onto a new layer and of course it is not confined to portraits.  This means that you can process subject and background seperately, useful for instance if you have a difficult sky.  That's how I have been creating those images where the subject is normal but the BG is manipulated.  Since the big January update, the tool has been misbehaving in that on a regular basis but not all the time, there is an offset between where the cursor is on the screen and where the processing is taking place.  The image is also elongated when the tool is selected and this offset occurs.  It makes it impossible to make accurate adjustments to the mask before creating the new layer.  Rebooting sometimes corrected this but mostly it doesn't and hence my marathon with Adobe support who I have to say, have shown a rare willingness to bottom the problem.  They have now escalated the problem to a higher level and I await further news. Once things move on (I hope), I will post an update.

P.S. It would be useful if any other members who use PS and see the same problem, could let me know.  Two possibilities have been raised.  The first is that Windows 10 had a major update at around about the same time and the second is the thought that there could be an incompatibility between my Graphics Card and PS as a result of the last PS update.  If anyone detects the problems, it might be useful to compare  notes.

Edited February 29, 2020 by johntwo

[loki]

i'll have a look at it later tonight when i get home.

have you done a complete reinstall of photoshop?  what else have you tried to fix this?

 

 

[johntwo]

Thanks Loki.  Yes, it was the first thing I tried but it is a pain to do because I have to reinstall quite a lot of plugins.

Edited February 29, 2020 by johntwo

[loki]

it works for me.  not saying you don't have an issues, just saying i can't reproduce it on my machine.

are you using a wacom tablet or some input other than a mouse and keyboard?  after reinstalling did you try the mask and select tool before reinstalling your plugins?

do you use windows 10?  if so right click on your desktop, choose display settings.  scroll down to where it says change the size of text, apps and other items and make sure it's set to 100% and not 125%.  other than that i have no idea what's going on.

[johntwo]

Thanks for doing that Loki.  Your suggestions are completely valid in that you are listing most of the things that were investigated during the marathon session.  The only other thing that was tried was that if you boot PS whilst pressing the shift key, it loads without any plugins (useful to know).  That produced no cure either. nor did a complete reset of PS to factory settings.  I've taken the graphics processor out of the loop and that seems to cure the problem but although I do have a spare card to try a swap in order to prove the point, it is a 2Mb version of the same 4Mb card that I am using at the moment.  I have also loaded PS onto my laptop which I can do legally and that does not display the same problem using the native GPU which also suggests that my desktop GPU is the cause.  The trouble is that some of Photoshop's tools will not work without graphics processor support so leaving things as they are currently configured on my desktop , is not really an option.  However, I am waiting to see what Adobe come up with before considering the purchase of a replacement card.  Thanks again.

[loki]

is your graphics card running hardware acceleration?

[johntwo]

Yes?

Edited March 1, 2020 by johntwo

[loki]

try turning that off.  it causes a lot of problems with video games, so i wouldn't be surprised to see photoshop having issues with it.  

[johntwo]

Can't be turned off unfortunately.  Thanks for the thought though.  I think I will just wait to see what Adobe come up with.  I've had this problem for a bit and it comes and goes every time there is a Major PS update.  I can't believe that I am alone with this.  there must be others and I can only hope that they are looking for a solution.  Thanks again Loki.

[loki]

good luck, hope they can solve it for you.