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mecdos
Inspiring
January 12, 2017
Question

Opening PSD applies alpha channel

  • January 12, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 2486 views

Hi,

I have a few renders with alpha channels saved as PSD. I used to be able to open this files just fine - the background would open without transparency and then i could use the alpha if i wanted to to create transparency. But now upon opening the file, the alpha is applied to transparency, the alpha channel is gone and i lose the information in the transparency.

how do i open the files without transparency?

i can open them in other applications like Preview, and it displays correctly, then i can copy and paste back into photoshop but that's just ridiculous. also placing images into illustrator show up with alpha applied as transparency.

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    2 replies

    M
    mecdosAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 12, 2017

    oops, my memory failed, the behavior i remembered was for TIFFs

    TIFFS retain the alpha and the background while PSDs always applied alpha to transparency.  But in Preview it's the other way around. the TIFFs open transparent, and PSDs ignore alpha.

    PSD preview

    PSD opened

    TIFF Preview

    TIFF Opened

    i guess i should be rendering to tif from now on. as i'm able to apply hdr toning without destroying my alpha information.

      JJMack
      Community Expert
      JJMackCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 12, 2017

      The Photoshop Background does not support transparency it can not be masked.  Some features  in CS6 and newer version of Photoshop may automatically convert a background layer to a normal layer if you try to mask the background layer. You can see in CS2 the background layer is locked and menu layer>Layer Masks items are grayed our.  I have to convert the background layer to a normal layer to mask it. If the bottom layer has transparence and not layer mask it sounds like your masked layer was rasterized which removed the layer  mask channel and delete the masked pixels.  I have never seen Photoshop do that on its own.  However I have see sctions and script rasterize layers.

      JJMack
      M
      mecdosAuthor
      Inspiring
      January 12, 2017

      yeah i understand that, but that's part of what's happening. the background layer is turned into a regular layer and it's still called "background"

      c.pfaffenbichler
      Community Expert
      c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 12, 2017

      A possible work-around might be using Layer > Layer Mask > From Transparency.

      And quite frankly I suspect the rendered psd have actual transparency instead of an Alpha Channel, psd being an »Adobe file format« it seems likely Photoshop interprets it correctly and Preview might not … mind you, I could be wrong.

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