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Color to transparency


quailrancher

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I thought this would be easy, but apparently it isn't. I have two images of motorcycles against a yellow background. I want to make the yellow transparent so that I can position the motorcycles against a background image (road, scenery). The images are jpeg, which I understand will not preserve the transparency. I am using Photoshop 5.0 (the old, old one).
 

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  • Copy of Copy of Harley Blackline transparent.jpg
    Copy of Copy of Harley Blackline transparent.jpg
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salvadore

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You could go to "select" from the menu bar and choose "color range" click the yellow back ground, adjust the "fuzzyness" and hit ok.

Then hit the "command/control"+"I" to select "inverse" and then delete the yellow. then save it as a png, or tif, if you choose tiff make sure to include layers.

Also you could just put the background before saving, or drag the motorcycle into the background image document.

Hope this helps, check out my website for more useful photoshop tips tricks and tutorials at, iammrknowitall.com
 

Vetoed

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Or you could get a nice clean cut out using the pen tool? The easiest way to use the pen tool is to make two points then add one in the middle, hold shift or ctrl cant remember which one :'( and use it to curve the pen line into the correct position. Simple as, also its best to zoom in to give your self an easier parth to draw along.
 

Zeealex

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motocheif's attachment is a PNG file it may have a white BG on here, but when you save it it will be transparent
 

quailrancher

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You could go to "select" from the menu bar and choose "color range" click the yellow back ground, adjust the "fuzzyness" and hit ok.

Then hit the "command/control"+"I" to select "inverse" and then delete the yellow. then save it as a png, or tif, if you choose tiff make sure to include layers.

Also you could just put the background before saving, or drag the motorcycle into the background image document.

Hope this helps, check out my website for more useful photoshop tips tricks and tutorials at, iammrknowitall.com

Thanks. Step by step is what I need. My brain is too old for geeky stuff.
 

quailrancher

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i know there is a plugin that allows you to select a colour and delete any instance of it, if i can find out what it's called i'll let you know.
EDIT:
found it!

That looks handy, if it will work with my old Photoshop 5.0. I'll find out. I assume one selects the most vulnerable color to protect (in the case of the motorcycle, the whitish chrome), and the colors with pronounced color contrast will take care of themselves?
 
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Zeealex

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that sounds about right, yeah, not sure if it will work with PS 5.0 or not but hey, worth a shot.
 

Furio

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I am using Photoshop 5.0 (the old, old one).

I have Photoshop 6, 7, CS2, CS3, CS4 on a virtual machine (to support others) and CS5 on my main system and you happen to have 5...bummer, otherwise I could have told you the exact steps, because there have been some huge changes between 5 and 6.

EDIT:

Ok, I decided to do you a little New Year's favor by installing PS 5 to know exactly what we're dealing with, because it has been a long time ago that I had a look at this version of Photoshop.

Go to Select / Color Range and use the settings in the screenshot below and make sure that Yellows is selected beside the entry that reads Select. Press OK and press the delete key to remove the background.

Does the result satisfy you? Personally I think it's pretty good and if it's not good enough for you, then I have to show you a slightly more advanced technique. Normally I would never advise people to use the delete key, but in this case I wanted to keep it simple.

So let me know what you think.
 

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  • bike.jpg
    bike.jpg
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Last edited:

quailrancher

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Furio...

That removed the yellow completely. I'll have to wait a while before I try to place it on a background because I get all messed up working with layers. I have a couple of books coming in to provide some artificial intelligence. Sure is my kind of method, though. Thanks.
 

quailrancher

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that sounds about right, yeah, not sure if it will work with PS 5.0 or not but hey, worth a shot.

I installed it into a folder in plugins, opened Photoshop and it showed up in filters. I ran it and it didn't do anything, but that's probably user error. I'm good at that. Will experiment more later. Thanks for the gizmo at any rate.
 

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