Hello and welcome to another of my tutorials. In this, we will be covering how to use the alpha layer in Photoshop. I will be using CS3, but this same principle can be applied to all the versions (you may have to adjust for different names and/or tool setups)
I will be using an image of fire on a black background. This works great when using images with very contrasting colors like lightning, fire, fireworks, ect. Load your image into Photoshop.
Open the Channels tab (next to the Layers tab) and find the layer that has the most contrast between the subject you want to keep and the background. Click once on the layer you choose to select it. After it is selected click once more on it, and without letting, go drag it down with the mouse over the ‘New Layer’ icon and release to create a new layer.
Notice the name of your new layer.
Click on the RGB layer to select all 4 again, and click on the eye of the new layer to hide it. Then go to Select –> Load Selection, and in the drop down box choose your new layer and hit OK. Now your image should have a moving dotted line around the selection.
Switch back to the Layers menu, make sure the correct layer is still selected and hit ‘Delete’
*if the wrong selection was deleted it is because you have a white background which, to Photoshop, is considered the solid color as opposed to the blacks transparency. Just hit Edit –> Undo to undo the deletion and the go to Select –> inverse and then hit delete.
Now it should look like this:
Add your background to the composition, make sure it is underneeth your original layer.
Doesn’t that look good. There is one last thing we can do to blend it in a little more. Go to Layer –> Matting –> Remove Black Matte. That removes anything else left over from your original background.
Now you should have something like this:
Now go and experiment and see what great images you can create.
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