Last updated on 5 July 2022
Do you know that moment when you’re working on something and you suddenly can’t deselect in Photoshop? Well, it’s quite a common dilemma, so I’ll show you exactly how to do it.
Photoshop can be very tricky, especially if you’re just starting to work with it, so you need to know how to deselect.
After you select something in Photoshop, you will notice that sometimes, no matter what you do, it just sticks with you. Of course, you can try making another selection, but you’ll get stuck in a loop of selecting and not being able to deselect.
I’ve made a random selection for this tutorial, so I’ll start with it. I can, of course, make another one and another one, but in reality, I want to go ahead and work on something different with it.
Quick guide
Make sure you click on the selection tool in the left panel (click any of them), then right-click on your image and click ‘Deselect’. That’s it!
Detailed guide
1. Click on the selection tool
The first instinct when this happens is to try and switch to all the tools you have in order to deselect that section. In reality, you need to keep your tool selected, whether it’s the lasso tool, marquee tool, the quick selection tool or the magic wand.
2. Right-click > Deselect
In order to deselect, you need to right-click and choose “deselect”. You can do it pretty much anywhere on the canvas and your selection will disappear. If instead of this you choose to make a ton of other selections, you may need to undo everything step by step, while trying not to undo any adjustments you made to the picture.
In order to deselect in Photoshop, you can also tap “Ctrl-D” on your keyboard while your selection is visible. This is the shortcut and you will be able to deselect in a matter of seconds.
Tips & tricks for deselecting
Reverse the deselection
Sometimes though, after working for a long time on a selection and you accidentally deselect it, you will need a way to reverse that process so you can keep working on your project. If you want to reselect that same section, you can right-click again with your tool and choose the “Reselect” option, or simply tap “Ctrl-Shift-D” on your keyboard. This will simply undo your action and you will have your selection back.
Invert selection
From the same menu, you can save, hide and invert your selection if you want ot choose everything around it instead.
Can’t deselect your layer?
Of course, you may be in the position where you can’t deselect the layer you’re working on. In order to deselect a layer in Photoshop, you will want to click on it while holding down the “Ctrl” button or, if you don’t have too many layers, just click under them. When you’re done, you can easily merge your layers and have everything structured.
Conclusion
Even though it can be tricky to figure out, it can actually be very easy to deselect in Photoshop. After a while, you will automatically do it without thinking about it, and all your projects will have smoother progress.
