Photoshop, making a selection transparent ?

[Jelster]

Hi,

On vacation last year I took 2 images of the same place, exposing one for the distant sea/beach, the other for the cliff face close to me.

I want to merge the two to get a "full" picture, and have successfully managed to select all of the cliff face in the first image, but rather than delete it, I want to make the selection transparent. Any clues on how that's done as I've been trying all morning.

I'm running Photoshop CS 8

[Jonnyreb]

Hi,

On vacation last year I took 2 images of the same place, exposing one for the distant sea/beach, the other for the cliff face close to me.

I want to merge the two to get a "full" picture, and have successfully managed to select all of the cliff face in the first image, but rather than delete it, I want to make the selection transparent. Any clues on how that's done as I've been trying all morning.

I'm running Photoshop CS 8

You're better off adding a layer mask and painting 'through' using black. This will effectively delete the image on the layer you are 'painting' and reveal the layer underneath. With this method, when you make a mistake just switch to white paint to paint it back.

[marko400d]

note though when painting a mask that the black must be 100%key, there must be no cyan, magenta or yellow in the swatch.

[Jelster]

You're better off adding a layer mask and painting 'through' using black. This will effectively delete the image on the layer you are 'painting' and reveal the layer underneath. With this method, when you make a mistake just switch to white paint to paint it back.

Aha!

Thanks, it worked, but the results didn't turn out as hoped. But now I know the technique I can try again.

Thanks..

[Jonnyreb]

yeah, but you really dont want to be picking from the palette, use the black whitte toggle on the tool bar.

[Jonnyreb]

Aha!

Thanks, it worked, but the results didn't turn out as hoped. But now I know the technique I can try again.

Thanks..

Easy when you know how Jelster - total confusion when you dont. The wonderful world of Photoshop :lol:

[Jonnyreb]

If you didn't get quite what you were looking for reduce the 'hardness' of the brush and the opacity of the paint - it will give you much more control over the blending of the effects. Nice smooth edges with 50% opacity and soft brush v straight line edge with 100% opacity and hard brush

[moomike]

A better method in this case may be to use a combination of the gradient tool set to foreground to transparent & black to gradually remove the area you wish to er... remove.
You can then tidy up your masking using Jonny's brush method :thumbs:

[marko400d]

the black swatch in the toggle isnt always 100%k!

[pxl8]

It is when you're editing a mask - the palette tools switch to greyscale automatically :thumbs:

[marko400d]

so it does!!!!! thanks for the tip!!!!!

[hillwalkinggirl]

You're better off adding a layer mask and painting 'through' using black. This will effectively delete the image on the layer you are 'painting' and reveal the layer underneath. With this method, when you make a mistake just switch to white paint to paint it back.
Quick method
On the layer where you have made your selection, go to layer, add layer mask, hide selection. This will hide the cliff you want to remove. Then if you do need to get anything back just paint on the mask with white.