Making backgroud of image transparent???

TM
Posted By
Thomas Minter
Mar 15, 2008
Views
498
Replies
2
Status
Closed
I purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 because someone
told me that I could make the background of an image
transparent. I have a picture of a woman reading to a
child. It is a pen & ink drawing with a white background. I want to make this background transparent so the background is whatever I put the picture on. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Tom
Related Tags
image transparency

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JA
Jay Argee
Mar 15, 2008
You certainly can – but the "tricky"part is removing the background. That’s the purpose of the "magic wand" and "lasso" tools. You will have to work on a non-background layer, so before you begin duplicate the original layer and then turn off the original layer. Once you have the background removed, use the save for web option and save it either as a .png or .gif file. (Be sure to check the "transparent" box)

Bottom line, you are not so much making the background transparent as you are removing it and saving the image with no background.

Hope that helps,
Jay
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"Thomas Minter" wrote in message
I purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 because someone
told me that I could make the background of an image
transparent. I have a picture of a woman reading to a
child. It is a pen & ink drawing with a white background. I want to make this background transparent so the background is whatever I put the picture on. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Tom
SV
sheila.vihlidal
Mar 23, 2008
On Mar 14, 9:35 pm, Thomas Minter wrote:
I purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 because someone
told me that I could make the background of an image
transparent. I have a picture of a woman reading to a
child. It is a pen & ink drawing with a white background. I want to make this background transparent so the background is whatever I put the picture on. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Tom

Easy with PSE6, Just drag your photo into the photo bin. Go up top to the Image button and choose Magic Extractor from the dropdown list. Your photo will come up inside the extractor. Click the plus tool on top and draw with it inside the part you want to keep. It will show red over your photo. Then choose the minus tool and draw on the part that you don’t want to keep. That brush leaves blue over that portion of your photo. You can change the size of your brush on the right to fine tune if you need to. When you think it’s like you want it, press the preview button to see if it extracted what you wanted. If it took more away then you wanted there is a little "add to selection brush" to fill in those parts. When you’re satisfied press the ok and save as a .png. I find this is the easiest way and after you "save as" a .png it’s simple to pull the arrows and manipulate the size without losing resolution.

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