How do I cut a circle out of my picture and keep the leftover (PSE4)?

[heatherly]

I know I have read threads regarding this before, but all the ones I can find talk about cutting out and saving a circle. I want to cut out the circle and remove it so I can see the paper behind my photo. I have been trying with the cookie cutter shape tool, but that gets rid of all of the photo that is not in the circle. I want to do the opposite. I have heard some people mention the inverse command, but that doesn't seem to be available while I am using the cookie cutter tool.

Is there another way to do this, or am I just missing something?
Thanks!

[Hom74]

Hmmm...I have PSCS2 and I'm sure there are many ways to do it.

--Use the elliptical marquee (in the same spot as the rectangle marquee in the tool box) to draw a circle (hold down the SHIFT key while dragging out your circle)
--Ctrl + Shift + I to Inverse the Selection (or go to Select ==> Inverse)
--Make sure the layer you want to have cut out is selected
--Ctrl + X (Edit ==> Cut)

Hopefully you can find something similar for PSE4

[AimeeWrites]

Heatherly, I'm not very familiar with PSE4, but in PSE3, I have an Elliptical Marquee Tool option...if you click and hold the Rectangular Marquee Tool, it should give you that option. You can then draw your circle (holding the shift key), and hit delete. That's the fastest way I've found!

[ChristyHC]

Yah - you don't want the cookie cutter - you want the marquee tool. That is the dotted square or circle tool on the left tool bar. Click the tool and then at the top, left you can pick square or circle. Pick circle, click and drag to make the circle where you want to cut (with shift key down to create an even circle). Then you can delete or go to file - cut.
Note: If your picture is the background layer, it will cut the picture out where the circle was and leave a colored background. If your picture is just a regular layer, it will cut out the hole and you will see whatever is underneath.

[heatherly]

Ahhh...the elliptical marquee tool. I didn't know this existed. Thanks for all your replies. It worked perfectly!