Expert: LizaL - 12/16/2004

Question
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Followup To
Question -
I am an aerial photographer.
I have to add a JPEG drawing as a layer onto an aerial photo.
How can I make the drawing background transparent?
I can choose the drawing's background color in the process of converting from DWG to JPEG.
Hope I have made myself clear.
Thanks for your help.

Beni Mor

I am using the Photoshop cs
Answer -
Hi Beni,

Wow, what a neat job! I'd love to do aerial photography. Do you do this for yourself and sell the pics, or do you work for a company?

ANYway -- to answer your question, I think I understand what you mean. Tell me if these suggestions are what you're looking for:


1. If you have a layer in your file already, say, a JPEG -- and you're creating a new layer that you want to be transparent, but maybe have writing on it, above the picture -- just make a new layer and change its opacity in the Layers palette. Then  you can add text, etc. to that layer, and retain a transparent background, with that layer.

To do this, click on this new layer in the Layers palette to make the layer active. At the top of the Layers palette, you'll see Opacity, with a slider underneath, and an input box to the side. Slide the slider and you'll see the contents of the layer change, according to the changes you make. Or if you choose to be more precise, type a value in the input box.



2. On the other hand -- if you want your Photoshop document to have all transparent layers to begin with -- When you select New from the File menu, you'll be presented with the standard dialogue box that asks you to list your specs for that file. Near the bottom part of the top section of that dialogue box it says "Background contents," and there's a pop-up menu to the right. Click and hold, and you'll see Transparent as a choice. Choose that and your background layer will be transparent. And every layer you create in that file, thereafter, will be transparent.

Of course if you drag a picture into that layer, it won't be transparent any more. But if you create a new layer on top of that layer, for instance, it will be transparent.

Go here and look at the little movie for a visual explanation:

http://little-works.com/all_experts/trans_layers.mov


I hope this answered your question, but if not, please post back and tell me!

Lisa

Hello Lisa
Thanks for the quick response.
yes, you are right. It is a nice job and very enjoyable.

As for my question.My fault, I should have explained in more details.
1. I have a photo in jpeg format.
2. I have a second photo in jpeg format which contains some construction drawinds.
3. I have to merge the second on top of the first, by making the background of the secong transparent, so that the drawing is clear on top of the photo.
Hope this makes it clearer.
Thanks again for your help and patience.
Beni

Answer
Hi again Beni,

Thanks for making this clearer! But the answer's going to still be pretty much the same. Once you drag one photo into a layer on top of another layer, the only way you can merge the two and have them both be legible is to change the opacity of the top layer.

So if I were you, and if I understand you correctly, you could remove from the top layer what isn't needed, or what would obscure the picture underneath. Leave only what's needed in that top picture and change the opacity of the top layer.

This is about all you can do, to be honest.

But if you can make the top layer more of a drawing instead of a photo, you'll have the most success. That is, if what you're putting on the top layer is text combined with line drawings, that would be much more readable than if you're trying to combine two pictures.

I hope this makes sense! If not, please post back.

Lisa