PhotoShop helo problem

Hi Peeps,
I'm having a tough time trying to get rid of a white halo around things I cut out and save as a transparent .gif. Heres a link so you can see the mess I'm making of this great program. http://www.mcd4x4.com/test.html I usally figure everything out , this ones kicking my butt.

I would use the magnestic lasso tool to cut the image out. Be sure you have the selections in the top tool bar set so it follows the exact outline of the truck. A little experimentation and it will cut it out with no excess. I would also suggest feathering the edges into the background color a vit before you svae it also.

MNS

You can feather the edge to the background, yes -- but you may also want to cut out the outside of the truck, without anti-aliasing it. The reason for your white border, is since anti-aliasing is on for the selection in photoshop (not to mention that you need to improve your cut out line for the image). If you do a selection, you will notice in photoshop that the active bar on top will have a feathering option. Choose 0px and you won't get that in your gifs. This creates a hard edge, however, and I would recommend cleaning up your cut line before you do this.

I did one without the white edge line for you, but I don't have time at work to redo your cut line.

http://www.dotfive.com/truck/index.html

I tried the magnetic lasso, it didn't work. But thanks for the try. Brandy, setting the feathering option on 0px gave me this http://mcd4x4.com/test2.html. I cut very well, I just did that truck fast so you could see the halo. Have a look at the edges now I cut through a bunch of different colors so you can see clearly, its there. Someone mentioned to me that there's a way to inverse somehow and take off 2px to clean up the halo. I just don't remember what they said.

Originally posted by MCD4x4
Someone mentioned to me that there's a way to inverse somehow and take off 2px to clean up the halo. I just don't remember what they said.

If you select the truck, you can go to Select -> Modify -> Contract. then just set your contract to about 2 px. From there you will want to inverse your selection (so that you don't have the truck selected, but everything around it). You may now wish to feather your selection just a couple of pixels. Once you've done that hit delete. I think that is the method you were describing. Sometimes it works well...sometimes it doesn't.

Also, just so you know, this method doesn't work too well when you are using a transparent gif. The anti-aliasing is lost when you make a gif transparent (as bradyj explained) and thus you will get a halo.

Let me ask you this, whats the best way to cut something out and save it as a transparent .gif? With a sharp edge. I'm using PhotoShop 7.0. Thanks

The best way is with the magnetic lasso tool. Upload the original image (the one you are cutting the truck out of) here as a jpeg and I will show you that it can be done. I use PS 7 also.

MNS

Hi MNS,
If I did it right, heres the original picture.

The professional way of doing it is this:
Make one layer your truck, and another layer underneath it that is some odd color (like a bright green or blue). On the truck layer, add a mask to it.

With the mask selected, use the paint brush tool (either feathered or not, depending on the proper effect you want) and paint with black to delete the image as you wish. Using the paintbrush, you can now control how the edges are hard or feathered, and you can paint away as much or as little of the image as you want. You can make the paint brush small and zoom in close to get hard edges, or big and zoom out to dump alot of the image.

When you are done, you may apply the the mask and that's that. That's the proper way, and much more precise than a selection tool.

Still, you will always get a halo, if you have a feathered layer and a transparency. You will always get a halo, if you don't cut into the image enough.

I figured out part of the problem. Your are taking a low resolution image and enlarging it. I did this in a few minutes with the magnetic lasso tool but it is the same size as the original you posted. If you want to enlarge it you need to find a larger pic or increase the resolution in the original before you cut it out and enlarge it.

MNS

Originally posted by pardicity3
If you select the truck, you can go to Select -> Modify -> Contract. then just set your contract to about 2 px. From there you will want to inverse your selection (so that you don't have the truck selected, but everything around it). You may now wish to feather your selection just a couple of pixels. Once you've done that hit delete. I think that is the method you were describing. Sometimes it works well...sometimes it doesn't.

Also, just so you know, this method doesn't work too well when you are using a transparent gif. The anti-aliasing is lost when you make a gif transparent (as bradyj explained) and thus you will get a halo.

I concur with this option .... But it does make for a pretty unnatural edge most of the time. Usually I take care of it this way .... duplicate the layer and set the levels of the bottom layer to black. Then Gaussian Blur by 3pixels or so and that will sofen your line.... you can also move the bottom layer just a smidge for a drop shadow effect. There is probably a better way of doing this in newer versions of photoshop, but I have stuck with this one and am generally pleased with the results.

try contracting it a 2px then feathering the selection. then invert it and delete. you may get something acceptable

I don't have photoshop 7 but in version 6. Click file, save for web, choose gif. In the gif dialog it allows you to choose a matte. Select none and it removes most of your white line. http://www.sundanceresort.com/posts/Untitled-1.gif

Also consider this:

i think your aim is to cut out the image and use it on a web page. Right.

> Select the truck carefully with whichever tool u r comfortable with- lasso, magnetic lasso
> select inverse
>edit>cut (this will cut the background away)
>new layer
Choose a color in the color pallette that matches exactly with the page color (you may have to copy hex values)

>with paint bucket fill the new backgroud layer
>layers> merge/flatten image> save

touch up the edges if necessay.

Hope it works for you.

and jpegs hold more colors - I think

All the best

RHS