Rotating a photo section

Question

I am very new to Photoshop (4 days), having just purchased Elements 10 (I was not told that Vers 11 was available and for the same price!!!!!). Yesterday I started a new project and loaded a photo.
The photo was of a phone cord and was taken against a light blue back-drop.
I wanted to rotate to a steaper angle, a section of the cord and after a degree of searching I discovered how to do this (used the Rectangular Marquee Tool to draw a square highlighting the section to be moved and then discovered the rotational section and the freeform movement option --- these might not be exactly the correct words).
On rotating the marked section to its new angle, under where the box originally was, there was showing a grey/white checker board pattern --- why was this there?
I decided to use the Clone tool and colour in the checker board pattern, but the clone tool could not do it --- it could clone  within the still highlighted masrquee section but not in the now showing portion from where the image initially was. Why could I not clone these small sections?
I then decided to see if I could slide the photo to the right (the canvas size was somewhat larger than the image size). As I slid the image to the right, appearing under the section where the photo had been was the checker board pattern. Where did this pattern come from and how do I remove it?
Or, have I done it completely wrong!!!!!!!
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.
Brian

Answer 1

Thank you for the information --- obviously a lot to learn for a non graphic artist person (actually no visual artistic feel at all --- all artistic skill lies in music).
When I get home tonight I will give it a try.
I was actually trying to do a VERY rough draft/idea for a real graphic artist, of a proposed CD cover for one of our upcomming artist's first CD.
Brian
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2012 02:49:19 -0600
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Rotating a photo section
    Re: Rotating a photo section
    created by 99jon in Photoshop Elements - View the full discussion
Hi Brian The checker board effect indicates transparency – that’s a good thing when working with layers. It indicates that the layer below can be seen through the transparent parts. Try opening your image again and keep the layers pallet open so you can see what’s happening. If you can’t see it click the menu: Window >> Layers Create a background copy layer by clicking: Layer >> Duplicate Layer >> OK Now select your rectangular marquee and draw your selection the press Ctrl+J You should see in the layers pallet that your selection has been paced on a new transparent layer. With that layer highlighted at the top of the layers pallet select the move tool from the top left of the tools pallet and move or rotate it into the position you want. To deselect the bounding box siply select another tool such as the hand or zoom and that will deselect the move tool. Now highlight your background copy layer (the middle layer in the layer stack) and choose the move tool again. You can now drag around that layer independently to re-position the background.  
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