I need help with using the ellipse tool

[CdnRebel]

I am trying to create a vignette. The problem is when I go to use the elliptical tool, the area I select gets coloured in my foreground colour instead of giving me an oval cutout of my picture. What should I be doing?

[Lesa]

...the area I select gets coloured in my foreground colour instead of giving me an oval cutout of my picture.
Are you filling the oval with a color? What you need to do is create a layer mask once you have drawn the oval with the Ellipse tool (click the circle within a square icon at the bottom of your layers palette). Take a peek at these tutorials and see if they help. One was written for Photoshop and the other for Photoshop Elements. Let us know if you get it to work :)

Soft Edges: Add some interest by softening those image edges (http://www.graphicreporter.com/tutorials/photoshop_softedges.html)

How to Create a Layer Mask in Elements: Use Group with Previous instead (http://www.graphicreporter.com/tutorials/elements_layermasks.html)