Transparent background has shaded box?

[marisavdl]

Can somebody please tell me what I am doing wrong.

 

It was a jpeg which I made a PNG. I removed the white background, so have the transparency, but when I put it on the shirt it still shows a shaded box? how do I get rid of it?

Thank you

Shirt_example.afphoto

[firstdefence]

If you used Filter > Colours > Erase White Paper it doesn’t always remove it all and can leave this translucent effect instead.

You would be better making a selection of the background and deleting it, or using the erase brush to carefully erase the background.

[marisavdl]

Thank you, may I ask something else please, I am very new with this all. Is there any other way of using the erase brush tool or to copy the picture without the background to new layer. I have tried the selection tool but it deletes parts of my picture, or takes parts with it. What I mean, how to do it more precise, or is the only way to zoom in and erase with erase brush? Thank you

 

[nrx]

8 minutes ago, marisavdl said:

Thank you, may I ask something else please, I am very new with this all. Is there any other way of using the erase brush tool or to copy the picture without the background to new layer. I have tried the selection tool but it deletes parts of my picture, or takes parts with it. What I mean, how to do it more precise, or is the only way to zoom in and erase with erase brush? Thank you

 

Can you maybe post an example picture?

[marisavdl]

It is the same picture as in the first message. or do you mean example of me trying to erase the background?

Thanks

[PaulEC]

To be quite honest I think you are going to find that it is almost impossible very difficult to to what you want to do. The problem is that your design has soft edges and thin lines, so selecting it / cutting it out from the background will inevitably either leave bits of the background behind, or remove parts that you want to keep. Using "Erase White Paper" will only work if the background is pure white and, if it is, will also remove the white parts of the image itself. (Actually this is a good thing if you want the shirt to show through the image.) The problem is down to the paper, which you obviously can't do much about at this stage. Anything other than pure white, with no texture will be very difficult to remove completely. 

Ideally it would be best to try to re-scan or re-photograph the original painting and try to get the background as white as possible (maybe try different settings). After you have put it on the shirt image, play around with the Levels setting to match it to the shirt as best you can. Rather than using the Erase Brush (which is destructive) use a Mask to manually remove any background still visible. Use a soft brush to remove large areas, then go in really close, take your time, and remove the rest. If you go wrong, you can always "paint back" any parts of the image that you remove accidentally. Another alternative would be to add a frame to your artwork and make it a feature of the design (but, to be honest) I think it looks better as it is. Best of luck.

I had a quick go, but it needs a lot more work! (PS - I assume your original image is a higher resolution image, which would help a lot.)

[thomaso]

In your illustration layer you've already deleted pixels within the flowers, probably to get rid of the background around the flowers. – Another 3-step workflow might help here: 

1. On a not-edited illustration layer apply Filters > Colors > Erase Paper White

2. To get rid of the remaining parts in the removed paper white apply Select > Alpha Range > Select Partially Transparent.

3. Delete those selected pixels. (optionally refine the selection before deleting)

[firstdefence]

Might be an idea to upload the unedited version of the illustration so we can have a play and see if we can’t get a workflow that will remove the background better. Personally I’m not a fan of the Erase white paper filter, it needs settings/options to get the best out of it instead of a "one size fits all” affair.

[marisavdl]

Hi,

Thank you for all your help, I appreciate it.  This is the original image. 2nd where I saved it as PNG.

 

[firstdefence]

Forget Erase White Paper 😐

(Letter) = keyboard shortcut

The only way I found to make a decent cut was...

1. Change the primary colour to black (Conceal) and the secondary/stroke colour to white (Reveal) (D)
2. Select Quick Mask (Q)
3. Select a Basic brush
4. From the context bar above the work space set Opacity to 100%, flow to 100% and hardness to about 75% 
5. To create the mask you need to have white set so Press (X) to switch between primary and secondary colours, you will know you have white when the brush shows through the ruby quick mask overlay
6. Now start to brush over the flower-heads to reveal them, as you get to the edges you can adjust the brush hardness to a lower percentage to make a softer edge, this is trial and error I’m afraid but worth sticking with to get a good cut.

A few tips: when doing the acute points of the flower you don’t need to make the brush minute, you can mask the outer edge instead, like this...

Over mask

 

…and trim back

 

The result of your labour will be something like this and a new set of skills to boot. 

[marisavdl]

This is awesome.

Thank you for your time and effort, I really appreciate it.

I will let you know how I go  

One more question, I want to see if I can make the colours darker etc, should I do that before removing the background? I suppose easier to see with the white background still intact.

 

[firstdefence]

It’s a case of either, either, whether you do it before or after, personally I’d make the mask first and then improve colours.

[marisavdl]

ok, thanks