How to make a picture translucent in Photoshop. How to make a translucent background How to set a transparent background in Photoshop
Good day to everyone, my dear friends and readers. Every day I write articles on my blog, and accordingly, each of them needs some kind of introductory picture. To do this you have to look for special images on the Internet. Ideally, there are images with a transparent background. This makes the work much easier, since they fit perfectly into the picture without unnecessary objects.
But it happens that I found some awesome image that would fit the general theme, but she, such a dog, is with unnecessary objects and background. And then what? Score on good graphics? No way. and just today I will be happy to show you how to make transparent background pictures of several pretty in simple ways.
You can see my article where I wrote about. This method suits our purpose (you also select the object and drag it to new document on a transparent background), but I would advise using it specifically for such complex discharge. For the usual removal of unnecessary background (that is, creating a transparent one), we will use more simple methods.
Before you start the main work, open the image and try to crop it until the element fits into it. It will be easier, believe me. Moreover, it is easy to do. Just take it and reduce the boundaries.
Creating a new document
If you expect to do something from scratch, then initially make sure that when creating a new document you have a transparent background. To do this, create a new document and after setting all the parameters, be sure to set "Transparent background". And then we work as usual
Magic wand
This tool is best used to remove the background when it is homogeneous or has a similar structure. For example, I took a photo of a monkey on a rope. As you can see, it is on a white background, but we need a transparent one. Then we crack our fingers and start doing everything step by step.
If you see that the background stands out either too little or too much, then play with the tolerance. The larger it is, the more similar pixels it will capture, i.e. more if the tolerance is minimal, then it will highlight strictly one color, and if you increase it, then the range will also include shades that are close to this color.
Just don’t forget that such images must be saved in the format PNG, otherwise transparency will be lost and you will again have White background.
If the background is very heterogeneous and it is clearly visible that even tolerance will not help, then use others, for example, or even a lasso. By the way, I already showed this on.
Eraser
You can also erase the background with a regular one. Yes, yes, exactly them. Just don’t forget to remove the lock from the layer, otherwise everything will be painted white instead of transparency.
The process is of course quite tedious. After all, you need to select the normal hardness and wash it calmly without touching the element itself, in this case the leopard. In any case, it cannot be ruled out as an option. Do you agree?
Of course, there is a simpler way, namely a tool "Background Eraser". The only thing is that it is better that the background and the element are sufficiently different from each other in color and saturation. So I took a photo of a tiger jumping against the sky. Great option.
Well, at the same time, I won’t forget about one more eraser. In the same group of tools, select "Magic Eraser". Again, we look at the clearance. With such a composition you can put high level clearance, even 80-90 .
Now we just need to click on the sky once. Do you see what happened? We no longer need to wash anything. Most of the palate was shaved with one press.
Click on the remains of the sky to completely remove it. The tiger should only be on a transparent background. Well, then everything goes according to plan. Clear everything to transparency and save the image in the format PNG.
Well? Isn't it beauty? All. Now it can be used for any collages or other types of images. You can even make it look like he is trying to attack you))). Well, that’s as your imagination tells you.
Well, if you seriously want to learn how to make beautiful, interesting and professional collages, then be sure to watch course from Elena Vinogradova, a professional in creating collages on this topic. The course is really excellent and looks like a breeze.
Well, with this I say goodbye to you. I hope that you liked my lesson today and that it was useful to you. Don't forget to subscribe to blog updates and share with your friends on in social networks. And I'm waiting for you in my other articles. By the way, have you forgotten about the competition? I'll announce the results in a week. So let's hurry! Well, I wish you success. Bye bye!
Best regards, Dmitry Kostin.
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 with a transparent background. For 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 " Magic wand"is a very flexible tool for highlighting the desired area. Our task is to highlight the entire background, except for the picture. To do this, adjust the settings of the magic wand (parameter admission) until we get the desired result. We also use the Shift key to select an area in addition to the already selected one. 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. Create a new document with a transparent background (Ctrl+N) and paste the object Ctrl+V into it.
3 . If there is something unnecessary left in the picture, use the “ Eraser“, just erase the extra background.
4 . Save the image for the Web (Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S) and select the GIF or PNG format (in others, our transparent background will turn into white).
Useful video on the topic:
Do you like to take photographs and make different collages from photographs and pictures? Or perhaps you want to make a header with several photos for your website or VKontakte group, but the problem is in the background, because it interferes with the overlay of pictures on top of each other.
In this article I will tell you two methods at once, how to use the Photoshop program to make a transparent background for a picture, to remove both the white background in pictures and photographs - this will be very easy and quick, and the general background, but here it will be a little more difficult.
As an example, I downloaded two pictures from the Internet with different backgrounds - a photo of a cheetah hunting and a snail. You can download them. Let's start with a picture with a white background - a snail.
Removing the background white background in the picture
I will say right away that this will happen very quickly and very easily. So, of course, everyone can handle this job. Well, friends, let's go.
1. Open Photoshop and upload an image with a white background into it.
2. Go to the “Selection” item, then to the “Color Range”.
3. Select “By samples” and click with the left mouse button on the white area of the picture. Set the spread to 40 and click “OK”.
3. We now have the snail circled. But if you enlarge the picture and take a closer look, you will see that the white silhouettes in the snail are also outlined.
4. Go to the Quick Selection tool. By pressing the ALT button, use the left mouse button to remove unnecessary selection.
5. Before deleting the background, you need to unlock the layer. Unlock it by double-clicking with the left mouse button. If this window is not there, go to the “Window” menu item and check the “layers” checkbox.
6. Delete the background by pressing the “Delete” button. After right-clicking on the picture and selecting “Deselect”, if that doesn’t work, press Ctrl + D, the selection will be removed.
7. At this stage we have finished removing the white background in the snail.
Be sure to select the file type “.PNG”, otherwise the background will be white, not transparent. Save.
Open it and admire the picture without a white background.
Removing a complex background in a picture
Let's throw our cheetah into Photoshop. Now let's try to cut out the cheetah and its prey from the background in the picture, in other words, remove the background.
1. Go to the “Quick Selection” item and select the brush parameters you need for this tool. One of the main parameters is the size of the brush. Choose the appropriate size to make it easier to highlight the background. In this case, the rest can be left as default.
2. Now, with the left mouse button, select the background that we want to delete. If the selection doesn’t go where we want it, in our case on the cheetah and its prey, then hold down the “ALT” key and left-click to remove the selection that has gone in. To zoom in and out, hold down the Shift+Alt keys and roll the wheel on your mouse. To “walk” through the image while selecting, hold down the space bar.
Once selected, click right click mouse without leaving the “Quick Selection” tool and go to the “Refine Edge” item and in the edge settings, in the Smooth item, in our case we indicate somewhere around 10 and click “OK”. After that, unlock the layer and press “Delete” to delete the background.
The “Smooth” function is needed to ensure that the edges are smooth when deleting.
If you need to erase a little, use the Eraser
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Most often, a transparent background is required to overlay one part of the image on another or on the illustration itself. Colorless backgrounds are actively used when designing websites. Many photos in online stores also require White color behind the main image, which can only be achieved using a transparent one, since the camera is not capable of creating a pure white background of 255,255,255 RGB color.
Using a magic wand
The easiest way to make a transparent background in Photoshop CS6 and newer versions is to use the " Magic wand" or " magic wand" Next is given step-by-step instruction:
Eraser
Tool " magic eraser» removes similar colors, moreover, it automatically converts background layer to normal. Below are step-by-step instructions for creating a transparent background for a picture:
- Then you can use a regular eraser remove leftovers background and finish editing, allowing you to make a picture on a transparent background.
Replacing the background
This function allows you to replace the background or even make it transparent. detailed instructions on its use:
How to save a picture without a background in Photoshop
It is not possible to save an image without a background in the usual JPEG format; after saving the illustration, the background will be created automatically. To save the desired illustration with a transparent background, you need to use formatPNG. To use it you need to follow the path: file — save as– when saving, specify PNG. 
The translucent image can be used in a variety of areas. For example, such pictures can often be found on websites, on social networks, when designing a design product, etc. Creating a translucent image is quite simple if you use special programs. In this case, let's look at how to work with Adobe Photoshop.
How to make a picture translucent in Adobe Photoshop
Depending on what kind of transparency effect you want to achieve, you need to choose a further course of action. Perhaps you need to make some area of the image opaque, and not the entire picture, or perhaps you need to make smooth transitions. All this can be easily implemented in Adobe Photoshop. Below we will look at exactly how.
Option 1: Change transparency for the entire image
The simplest method, applicable only when you want to make the entire image transparent. You can implement it as follows:
Option 2: Set partial transparency
The situation is a little more complicated when you need to make sure that only part of the image is transparent. In this case, you can use masks.
The algorithm itself looks like this:
There are also situations when you need to make a sharp transition from an opaque image to a transparent part. Unfortunately, the presented method of doing it is very difficult, so let’s consider some “modification” of the actions:
Option 3: Gradient Overlay
This is similar to the previous method, but allows you to make smoother transitions by changing the transparency of the image. Implemented according to the following instructions:
How to save finished work
Regardless of which implementation method you choose, you need to correctly save the result. Many users make mistakes when saving, which leads to partial or complete loss of transparency. To avoid this, follow these short instructions:
- When finished, click “Save As”. This item can be found in context menu when you click the "File" button.
- In Explorer, be sure to select PNG, PNS next to the “File type” column. These are universal file types that can be used on websites and preserve image transparency.
- Set a name for the file and use the “Save” button.
Using the methods discussed in the instructions, you can make both the entire image and some part of it transparent. If you still have any questions about the instructions, then ask them in the comments. We will try to respond as quickly as possible.
