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Adobe Photoshop/putting 2 photos together

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Expert: - 12/16/2009


Question
QUESTION: I am stymied. I have a sihoutted image (TIF) I would like to place on a jpg photo. I open both images, drag 2nd onto 1st, and transform by scaling. I then save new image as a jpg. It looks great in photoshop.When I place it into indesign file, background of 1st image (a phone booth), cookie cutters out of 2nd image! Strange. When I direct select image to resize, it turns vector! This is bizarre. Am I doing anything wrong here?

ANSWER: Hi Mary,

It sounds like an alpha channel or a path is interfering in InDesign. Make a copy of your file and go to Layer>Flatten image, then save as a tif to place in InDesign.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

For more Photoshop tips please visit our help pages here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/photoshop.htm

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---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Glen,
Thanks for the prompt response! Your answer made sense: When I did Layer.Flatten Image>save as tif, & placed into indesign file--same thing! It does appear to be a path, just cant figure how that would of happened. Any thoughts on another solution?
Thank you, Mary

Answer
Hi Mary,

InDesign will recognize Photoshop paths, which is great if that's what you want! When you import your tif into InDesign check show import options and deselect any paths or alpha channels in the dialog box - select none.

Even though you have flattened the tiff it can still contain paths and alpha channels. Layer masks are applied to the layer during flattening but a quick mask will be saved as an alpha channel. Also any saved selections will appear as extra channels. Go to the Path palette and Channels palette to delete these extra channels and paths - this is why you should be working on a copy of your image to retain the path/mask for future editing.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

For more Photoshop tips please visit our help pages here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/photoshop.htm

Adobe Photoshop

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Glen Demers

Expertise

I am an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop 7 and can answer any questions dealing with images for print; resolution, color correction, color space, sharpening and retouching. I am a prepress technician for Best Printing Online and if you want to know how to prepare your image for offset reproduction, I can help.

Experience

I've been working in the prepress aspect of printing for 25 years and am currently a prepress technician for Best Printing Online
I've worked with Photoshop since 1994 and have used all versions from 3 to CS3. I'm an ACE (Adobe certified expert) in Photoshop 7.0

Education/Credentials
I graduated High School and took 1 year of College level offset printing course. I've attended 2 Photoshop World conferences and taken numerous seminars pertaining to Photoshop and the print industry.

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