How to make the background transparent. How to make a transparent background in Photoshop
By default, all new layers in Photoshop are created with 100% opacity. But the degree of transparency of the layer can be changed using the settings Opacity And Fill located at the top of the Layers palette.
Opacity(Opacity) is a setting with a 100% scale that allows you to change the degree of transparency of the entire layer, with all the applied effects. If the value is different from 100%, the underlying layer will be visible. A transparency level of 0% indicates a complete absence of visible images.
The transparency of the layer can be compared to tracing paper, which is applied to drawings in order to copy them.
Fill(Fill) is a 100% scaled setting that allows you to change the visibility of a layer without affecting its overlays.
What transparency looks like in Photoshop
Logically, transparency digital image- This is a lack of color saturation and density. If you imagine color as a film, then transparency is the intensity of light shining through it. But How to show translucency on a computer?
Photoshop introduced symbol transparency to the world computer graphics — chess background.
Now this convention has become a standard. Many programs and web services use checkerboard backgrounds when it comes to transparency. For example, Yandex.Images or Google Images show images with transparent elements on a checkerboard background.
3 ways to make an image layer transparent
To begin with, you need the necessary layer. The technique of selecting two or more using Ctrl keys or Shift .
Note
Fo new layer(with a lock icon) cannot be transparent. For him, these settings are inactive.
One more note
The layer thumbnail will not change, no matter what opacity value you set.
Method 1 Entering numbers
Enter the required transparency value in numbers from 0 to 100 in the special settings window on the palette. Since both settings have almost the same effect, you can use either of them, just remember what they are.
Method 2 Slider control
A little to the right of the numbers there is a button with a small arrow. If you click on it, a slider will appear. You need to move it with the mouse left or right to decrease or increase the transparency of the layer, respectively.
The number display will show the current value, and the image itself will change with the movement of your hand.
Method 3 Using the keyboard
For a number of Photoshop tools, it is possible to change the opacity of a layer using the keyboard. Select a tool, for example, or (there are also a number of other tools, you can find them by brute force).
Now press the numbers on your keyboard:
- The number 1 will change the opacity to 10%, 2 to 20%, 5 to 50% and so on;
- The number 0 means 100%;
- Dial 55 and you get 55%, 67 is 67% and so on
To use the same technique to change Fills, hold down the Shift key along with the numbers.
How to make a separate section of a layer transparent
To make not the entire layer transparent, but only it separate plot, it will take some effort. There is no tool as such for this purpose. However, depending on the problem, there are at least two solutions.
Both solutions are united by the initial, perhaps the most time-consuming work - creating a dedicated area. The logic of the action is simple - you need to select a fragment of the image with which further work will take place.
In our example, let's say you need to make a gray round background transparent. To do this I will use the tool. On the settings panel you need to set the parameter Add to selection, and then click on all the desired areas until you select them all.
After the selected area has appeared, you can make this fragment transparent.
Method 1 Cut out the desired area of the image onto a new layer
First you need to make sure that any of the tools for creating a selected area is not active. For example Wand , which was used in the previous step.
Now you can right-click on the selection. A context menu will appear. We are interested in the team Cut to new layer.
As a result, this fragment will be separated from the current image and moved to a new layer. And then you can do whatever you want with that new layer, including changing the transparency.
Method 2 Using an eraser
This method is suitable if you need to achieve not a uniform reduction in transparency, but a floating one, that is, make this effect stronger in some places and weaker in others.
Select , in the options bar set the value Opacity different from 100%. Then erase areas of the image that are in the selected area. The tool will only affect those pixels that you have selected.
Change the value Opacity, if you need to achieve an uneven effect.
How to save an image with transparency
There are many, but only two of them support transparency - PNG and GIF.
GIF has a limitation - the pixel must either be transparent or not, there is no third option, that is, a transparency value, for example, 59% will no longer be supported. This format also has limitations on the number of colors used - there can be no more than 256.
Therefore, the image must be saved V PNG format . Only it is devoid of all shortcomings and is capable of showing translucent pixels.
To create a PNG image in Photoshop, you need to run the command: File - Save As. A dialog box will appear in which you need to specify a location to save on your computer, and also select from the drop-down list File type — PNG(*.PNG).
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Greetings, dear readers of my blog!
Recently I needed remove background from the picture, I'm not particularly good with Photoshop. And I’ll tell you that I don’t even have it on my computer. (Well, actually, that’s right, why do I need something that I don’t know how to work with).
But the background from the picture had to be somehow removed, so I started surfing the Internet, looking for a solution to my problem. There are actually a lot of options, but I was looking for something easier)). I found a very easy and simple way to remove the background from a picture.
So, let's get started. We'll need Photoshop, but I don't have it. I use online photoshop. It’s a very convenient thing, I’ll tell you. And of course, the picture whose background we want to make transparent.
I’ll show you an example of this picture, we’ll remove the white background
Let's go to online Photoshop. I used this one PIXLR
Select: Upload an image from your computer.
Now in the window on the right "LAYERS" I need to open the lock
Click on it 2 times with left button mouse, a check mark should appear in the box.
Now go to the panel on the left and select the tool "wand" and set tolerance to 21.
That seems to be all, but I’m not completely satisfied with the picture, there are still remnants of the background, I again click on the place that I want to remove. Then “edit” ---- “clear”. And so on until you remove everything you need.
When you work on website design, you often have to deal with the fact that the found image, which would ideally suit your site, has a different background that it would be desirable to remove.
And so, open our picture in Photoshop.
1.
The first thing you need to do is create a work area for the image with a transparent background. To do this:
- in the layers window, double-click on our layer (with the lock)
- In the window that appears, click OK
The lock should disappear
If the background is plain:
Select the tool " Wand"is a very flexible tool for highlighting the desired area. Our task is to highlight the entire background except the picture. To do this, adjust the settings of the magic wand (parameter admission), until we get desired result. We also use it Shift key to select an area other than the one already selected. Press Del and the selected area is deleted.
If the background is multi-colored:
We use the tool " Quick selection
". Here our task is to highlight not the background, but the object itself, which should remain. Click until the desired area is highlighted. If too much is highlighted, hold down Alt and minus the area. You can view the result by pressing the Q key.
When the selection is ready, copy it with Ctrl+C. We create new document with a transparent background (Ctrl+N) and paste the object Ctrl+V there.
3 . If there is something extra left in the picture, use the “ Eraser“, just erase the extra background.
4 . Save the image for Web (Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S) select GIF format or PNG (in others our transparent background will turn white).
Useful video on the topic:
Before you make a transparent background in Photoshop, you need to find out everything well about the capabilities of this program. And then suddenly, instead of the background, your clothes in the photo will become transparent.
Basics of working with backgrounds in Photoshop
Photoshop is rightfully considered the most powerful tool for working with raster images. Sometimes it seems that you already know everything about the possibilities of this graphic editor. But then again and again you come across something new:
Most in demand area Photoshop Applications among ordinary users is to change and edit the background part of the image. As if anticipating this, the program is already in the first stages of creating a new graphic file asks how to make its background layer:
Creating a new graphic file in the graphic editor is carried out through the menu “File” - “New”. In the dialog box that appears, you can set the dimensions and basic parameters of the future image. Setting the Background Content field to Transparent is the main way to remove the background while still creating the drawing.
The ability to edit images in Photoshop is built on the use of layers. Each of them is a separate independent object. Changing any of the layers will not affect the content of the others. The layer structure of the image is displayed in the Layers panel:
But all this is a theory that can be quickly learned in practice. So let's get creative, the power of expression of which will be enhanced by Photoshop.
Using an adjustment layer
Let's look at an example of how you can change the background in Photoshop using an adjustment layer. At the start we have this image:
The positive side of using an adjustment layer is that it saves time by customizing the effect on the entire color scheme drawing. You can create it by clicking on the black and white circle at the bottom of the Layers panel. In the menu that appears, select “Curves”:
By moving a point on the curve and adjusting color channel You can achieve various options for changing the entire photo. With a skillful approach further editing may not be needed. This is probably the most quick way How to change the background of a photo:
Using an adjustment layer, you can easily change the time of day throughout the city.
Removing the sky
We're tired of the boring sky over the city. Therefore, let’s remove it using the “Background eraser” tool. It's in the left sidebar:
Of course, the example above lacks a little precision. Therefore, in order not to remove the necessary details in the drawing, you should use a thin pen.
All changes affected only the main layer. Before changing the background, through the menu “Layer” - “New” we create a new one:
Now, to make a new sky over our city, you can use your imagination and various Photoshop tools. For example, some kind of gradient. Here's what you might end up with:
But the contours of the city are very difficult to cut out exactly. Therefore, to demonstrate the next tool, we will use a photograph of the desert. The task is still the same: changing the sky:
To select the cloudy sky over the desert, we will use the " Wand" It is suitable for use in cases where the design consists of several distinct color shades.
Before replacing the sky background with another, activate the magic wand on the toolbar and click on the sky with it. In this case, it is better to set the sensitivity of the instrument to the maximum value. Otherwise, the background will not be selected correctly:
After that, right-click on the selected area, and in the appeared context menu select " Layer via clipping»:
It seems like nothing happened. But if we look at the “Layers” panel, then there we will see new element. To delete a cut out background, select the layer containing it and select the “Delete layer” command in the context menu. This is what our desert looks like now:
Now you can add a new layer and fill the sky over the Sahara with bright colors:
Blur the background
But I still want to practice not only on cats, but also on people. Let's look at how to blur the background in Photoshop. For editing, let's take a photo of a person. According to the unwritten laws of the Internet, a photo of a beautiful girl is most often used for such a demonstration:
Now let's try to do background the photographs are blurred so that all attention is focused on the female beauty. This effect can be obtained if you use expensive DSLRs for photography. But we will achieve this with the help of a graphic editor.
The main problem is to correctly highlight the contours of the body. Let's try to use a magnetic lasso for this.
If you drag the Magnetic Lasso tool along the contour in the image, the silver outline seems to be attracted by a magnet to the boundaries of the selected object.
After activating the tool, carefully move the cursor along the contours of the girl’s figure. And then in the context menu select the item “ Invert selection»:
Before making the background blurry, apply the built-in filter of the graphics editor. To do this, in the “Filter" menu, select the item "Blurring" - " Gaussian smear»:
It turned out, of course, not without flaws. But all of them can be removed using the Blur tool. And this is what happened:
Now we take a different approach and use a mask to highlight the girl’s figure. First, let's create a duplicate of our layer. To do this, mark it in the “Layers” panel and select the item “ Duplicate layer»:
Then apply the filter “ Gaussian smear" And add a mask to the copy of the layer by clicking on the icon in the form of a rectangle with a white circle inside it. This is what a photo of a girl should look like at this stage:
Hello dear visitors. In this lesson I will show how using Photoshop you can remove background and make the photo transparent. You don’t need any special knowledge of this Photo Monster, since everything here is very simple. The main thing is that you have Photoshop installed and you repeat all the steps after me.
So, how to make a transparent background in Photoshop?
Launch Photoshop and open the experimental photo. Click the File – Open menu and specify the location of the image.
Great, the photo is open and let's start cropping the background. First of all, we need to unlock the layer. Pay attention to the lower right corner of the program. There you will see the main layer of our photo and small padlock.
This lock needs to disappear, that is, the layer is unlocked. To do this, straight to the lock make one click with the left mouse button. And the lock is gone!
Now we need to remove the background. To do this, take some kind of selection tool, for example, Wand.
Click the tool on the background of the photo, thus selecting the object we don’t need.
A dotted line appeared (running ants). All you have to do is press the DELETE key on your keyboard and the background will be deleted. See how it turned out:
Super! Now deselect it by pressing the keyboard shortcut CTR+D.
Well, in general, how make a transparent background in Photoshop We figured it out and now all that remains is to save this photo correctly.
To do this, click the menu File – Save for Web. Or just use ALT+SHIFT+CTR+S.
You will see a window in which we must select the PNG-24 format and only then click the Save button.
Now look what happened and what has become:
Finally, it’s worth saying that in some cases, when you decide to make a transparent background in Photoshop on some picture, you may have to use other selection tools, for example, Pen or Magnetic Lasso. I used the tool Wand, since in my photograph the person was easy to separate from the background. If you remove the background from complex images, you will have to work a little harder.
That's all for today, good luck!