trouble with pp113 step 15

[John S]

was going along fine until step 15. thanks for the help

[Richard_Lynch]

Looks like you are still going fine. Press CTRL+E. The Saturation and Commit layers will merge to commit the change.

What is happening there is the upper color layer is 'projecting' on to the gray background, giving you a look at the pure color. If it were white or black you'd see nothing. the saturated areas will stand out, and the next steps will help create the mask.

[John S]

except nothing happpens with the merge.

[Richard_Lynch]

Do you mean the merge does not occur or nothing changes on screen? If the latter, that's exactly what you want (you are committing the color change--if you look at the layer on its own, there is no committed change).

Let me know.

[John S]

i just dont think i have the prepation steps right. at least i have questions about them. step 4 is that a menu->layer->new->layer?and if it is when making it do you turn opacity to 0%since it says remain transparent? the attachment shows the layer stack before step 15. thanks for the help.

[John S]

oh yes, the attachment

[pmarchant]

Your "mask" layer is in the wrong position -- it needs to be just above the "background" layer. Viz:
* saturated colors
* commit mode 1
* commit mode 2
* mask <<-----<<
* background

Cheers,
Paul.

[Richard_Lynch]

Also, the Mode of the Saturated Colors layer should be COLOR not Normal if you are on step 15.

[John S]

before step 15 the merge option is grayed out. am i right step 4 is menu->layer->new->layer? step 5 says "another" new fill layer. which isnt clear to me.

[Richard_Lynch]

Please have a look at the errata:

http://hiddenelements.com/errata.html

""another" new fill layer" should just be "a new fill layer" it was probably "another layer and fill with 50% gray" at sometime during the editorial passes.

layer->new->layer is fine...so is any other way that you create a new blank layer.

The order of layer creation is usually pretty important. If you are creating a new layeer and then a fill layer (without doing anything in between) the fill layer will come out on top of the blank. That series probably should have included a shot of the layer stack...

Though there are some errors, there is the errata and usually about enough information in the step otherwise to complete the series. For example, I goofed when inserting an HSB value as 50,0,0, when it should have been 0,0,50...but the step says fill with 50% gray. That can only be one thing.

Let me know if you continue to have trouble.

[John S]

thanks richard, found the saturation masking thread and what 2003blink said got me past that problem. i didnt complete it (one eye on the football games). but im seeing progress.

[toddmt]

First off in step 5 when you create a new fill layer it links to the layer mask unless you first reactivate the background layer and then do step 5. I did not see this distinction in the errata.

The above was just FYI. In step 15 the merge is not availabe in the layers menu nor will it take with CTL+E.

I also used 2003blink's suggestion to just create a new layer and then fill it with 50% gray and it worked.