Fading An Image

Apr 28, 2004

Morgan,

Try changing your forground colour to white. To do that take a look at the two coloured squares (one black and one white) on the bottom left hand side of your tool bar … just above them you will see a curved line with an arrow on each end … click on that and the foreground and background colours will switch over.

Wendy

Byron Gale

Apr 28, 2004

rm’

If your image is a Background layer, double-click it to turn it into a plain layer.

Then, create a new layer and drag the new layer below the original in the Layers palette.

On the new layer, create a color-to-transparent gradient (any color will do), with the colored portion of the gradient in the same orientation as you want your image to show. i.e. if you want the image solid at the top, and transparent at the bottom, the gradient layer should be colored at the top and transparent at the bottom.

In the Layers palette, select your image, which is now above the color-to-transparent gradient layer.

On the menu, select Layer > Group with Previous. This causes your image to be "clipped" by the gradient, so that you will see your image only where there is content on the gradient layer.

You can go back to the gradient layer and re-draw the gradient using different angles or start/stop points until you are satisfied with the result.

If you are wanting to use the image outside of the Photoshop world, you’ll probably have to save it in a format which suppports transparency, like GIF… otherwise, your background color will be substituted for transparency when you save as JPG, or the like. Of course, PSD format will preserve your transparence quite nicely!

HTH,

Byron

Schraven_Robert

Apr 28, 2004

rmorgan,

There are two ways you can create a fading in your images. It takes a bit of experimenting to get them under control.

1) Go to layer styles and choose photographic effect, then go to orange gradient. Once you activated that gradient you will see the fading effect but only in the orange colour.
This probably is not excactly what you want so here’s the second option.
2) Got to "new layer" and click on "new fill layer". then choose solid colour or gradient layer. This time you will have to experiment a bit with the settings as there are quite some options. You should also try to hide the gradient layer behind the image layer and then vary the opacity of the image layer. That may bring you a faded effect.
If all this is of no help, please do not hesitate to come back and ask again. No doubt some one else can explain things better.

Robert

rmorgan1016

Apr 29, 2004

I think I’ve got the effect I need. Thanks to all for such quick and thorough replies…now I just have to go figure out why it worked!

Chuck_Snyder

Apr 29, 2004

rm:

re why it worked: I try to figure it out, then usually just chalk it up to magic…

🙂

Mark_Sand

Apr 30, 2004

Byron,

You said "On the new layer, create a color-to-transparent gradient (any color will do), with the colored portion of the gradient in the same orientation as you want your image to show."

Is this gradient built into PSE2 (I couldn’t find it) or is it something you create yourself? Under the Gradient tool I see a New button to create a gradient but I don’t know how to proceed from here.

Mark

Beth_Haney

Apr 30, 2004

Mark, first click on your foreground/background color box at the bottom of the toolbar so it goes back to its default black and white (makes what you’re looking for easier to find!) Then click on the Gradient Tool in the toolbar. Now look at the left of the Option Bar, and there will be a long, narrow rectangle showing a gradation of black to transparent if the current selection happens to be at foreground to transparent like mine is. There’s an arrow at the lower right corner, which you can click to get more gradient options. That’s where you want to poke around to see the various options.

I didn’t read Byron’s post, but if he said "color to transparent", that probably means he had something besides the default black/white set for the foreground/background colors.

Mark_Sand

Apr 30, 2004

Beth, Byron’s post is #2 of this topic.
What is the Foreground to Transparent gradient supposed to do? When I draw this gradient on a new layer, the entire layer is filled with the foreground color. I was expecting to see a gradual transition of the color to transparency, just as is appears in the Foreground to Transparent icon.

Byron Gale

Apr 30, 2004

Hi, Mark.

Beth’s guidance is right on target to get to the gradient. If your gradient doesn’t come up with "Foreground to Transparent", you will be able to select it by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the gradient chip on the Options bar. It should be the second gradient listed in the default set.

Once you have the gradient tool selected, to apply the gradient click-drag from near the top edge of the layer down to near the bottom edge before releasing the mouse. You’ll see a line while drawing, but that just shows the angular direction the gradient will have.

HTH,

Byron

Mark_Sand

Apr 30, 2004

Byron, here’s what happened when I did the steps per your msg #2:
1. Started with original picture (just the Background layer)
2. Renamed Background layer to Layer 0.
3. Clicked "Create a new layer" icon, which created new transparent layer called Layer 1 which I then moved below Layer 0.
4. On Layer 1, activated the Gradient tool and selected the "Foreground to Transparent" option. Drew the gradient line. This completely filled the layer with the foreground color (NOT a transition from color to transparent as I expected).
5. Grouped the 2 layers as you described, but this had no effect. The end result was the orignal picture without any gradient.

A couple of points:
1. What did you mean by "create a color-to-transparent gradient (any color will do)"? Is this different than what I did in my step 3?
2. If I created a new Gradient fill layer above Layer 0 (instead of creating a new layer and applying the gradient) I do get the desired gradient effect.

Byron Gale

Apr 30, 2004

Mark,

wrote

4. On Layer 1, activated the Gradient tool and selected the "Foreground to

Transparent" option. Drew the gradient line. This completely filled the layer with the foreground color (NOT a transition from color to transparent as I expected).

Look at the Options bar while you have the Gradient tool selected – I suspect that you may not have the Transparency setting selected at the far right. If I un-check this on mine, it operates the way you describe. I presumed that it would be checked by default. Sorry.

1. What did you mean by "create a color-to-transparent gradient (any color

will do)"? Is this different than what I did in my step 3?

No. You are doing exactly what I was suggesting. You can customize the gradient to fade from any color to transparent. It does not matter for the purpose of this exercize, because the gradient will only be used to mask, or clip, the image. It is the "graduated presence" of color which does the trick, not the specific color.

2. If I created a new Gradient fill layer above Layer 0 (instead of

creating a new layer and applying the gradient) I do get the desired gradient effect.

I suspect that the difference you are seeing may be attributable to having the Transparency option un-checked on the Gradient tool, as opposed to using a Gradient Fill layer. You could use the Gradient Fill layer as a clipping layer instead of manually drawing a gradient on a blank layer — as long as the layer is placed below the image layer, and then they are Grouped.

Byron

Chris_Rankin

Apr 30, 2004

Here’s an option without Gradients that will work if you have a seperate image that you would like to fade into a background:

You can use you favorite selection tool, set the feather to around 50 or 60 and make a selection of part of your image, copy this as a new layer. Go back to your original image, change the feather to a lower number and repeat the process but this time don’t select as much of the image. Repeat as needed.

Now you’ve got a bunch of layers that are not in the right order, staring with the last layer you made, make it your top layer. Keep changing the order until you have the reverse of what you started with.

Almost there.Now you’ve got them in the right order but it should still appear as a solid image with all the layers turned on. Start with your bottom layer and adjust the transparency for each layer until you fade them in how you like.

The key is to make your selections so that you you wind up with the most solid part opposite the direction you want to fade it in.Play with the feather settings and how much you select. Once your satisfied with your layers you can merge them and still maiintain the fade.

There’s probably a better way to do it or or a better way to explain it but if you play around with this method it may work for you.

CR

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Related Discussion Topics

image fade-in

Adding faded border to image

Image Ready animation fading?

How to fade away the edges of an image??

How to transfer skin tone from good image to faded one

Image to Transparent Fade

Help: Digital images look faded after years

Fade Image to transparent

Why Can’t We Fade a Filter After the Image Is Saved?

How to fade image into background colour

Fading edges of a rectangular image

HELP: How do I fade an image to transparent?

images (jpgs) are fading when saved in PS CS

Help! Fade to another image.

how do fade one side of an image