Making background around subject transparent

FC
Posted By
Fred_Clewis
Jan 6, 2008
Views
296
Replies
8
Status
Closed
I have been using the help, but cannot yet do this basic task. I’m new to this, I may be off track somewhere:

1. using Quick selection tool, I select the subject.
2. select Layer > new > layer via cut
3. Delete background layer
4. File > Save for web devices, tried several things here

the resulting save always gets a white background even though I see the checkerboard background in PS.

thanks for any tips or more appropriate techniques to do this, fred
Related Tags
background transparency

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JJ
John_Joslin
Jan 6, 2008
If you are saving for the web you have to use a format that supports transparency (GIF or PNG, not JPEG).

It all depends what you intend to do with the picture though.
FC
Fred_Clewis
Jan 6, 2008
Thanks John,

My source is a .gif.

If you can select a portion you do not want to be transparent, how would you turn the rest into transparent?

thanks,
fred
JJ
John_Joslin
Jan 6, 2008
Rename the Background layer by double-clicking it.

Select the portion you do not want to be transparent.

Invert the selection (Ctrl+Shift+I).

Press delete.
P
Phosphor
Jan 6, 2008
Sounds like that’s kind of what he’s doing.

Save for Web as gif. Make sure the Transparency box is checked.
FC
Fred_Clewis
Jan 6, 2008
Thanks All,

I still don’t have it working, but your tips are geting me closer.

1. Open .gif
2. duplicate, work with dupe
3. the only layer, background has a lock on it, so I double click and rename layer 0 and the lock goes away.
4. using Quick selection tool, I select the subject.
5. invert the selection (Ctrl+Shift+I).
6. Press delete.
7. File > Save for web devices
8. transparency is checked, image has a checkerboard background.
9. save
10. new gif shows in Bridge still having the white rectangle background. 11. Also when I import into After Affects and layer over a dark solid layer, it still has white rect background.

thanks for any ideas,
fred
FC
Fred_Clewis
Jan 7, 2008
I never did produce a transparent gif. Or if I did, Bridge and AE would not show them that way.

Then I remembered about how nicely CS3 apps integrate. I saved as a .psd and AE imported and there was my transparent background.

thanks to all for your tips, I learned a lot,
fred
JJ
John_Joslin
Jan 7, 2008
You won’t see the transparency in Bridge but, as you discovered, you will in applications that can show it.
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Jan 7, 2008
I think your problem is that you are opening a .GIF file and then working from that. The problem is that a .GIF file is locked to a color index, which is not changed automatically for you. If working from a .GIF file source, you must go Image>Mode>RGB as the first thing when opening it in Photoshop.

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