How do I cut this out?

[SWBoatman25]

I am trying to cut this yellow light from the background in Adobe Illustrator and place it on an image in Photoshop. I was told to use Illustrator to take the background out of vector files. Please, can someone show me how to take this smooth glow out so that it doesn't look choppy once the light is removed.

- Spencer Boatman

[michelew83603738]

Hi Spencer,

Is this a vector image or is this a flattened pixel based image? It is hard to tell from what you posted. If the checkerboard is part of the image, then you are going to have a more difficult time isolating the sunburst. It would be best to take it into Photoshop and see if any blend modes work with the image that you are trying to use it with. If it is truly a vector image and the checker board is just a transparency grid, then you should be able to just copy and paste the vector image into Photoshop.

[SWBoatman25]

This is available in vector or jpeg it says. It was downloaded as a vector file from:

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/vector-transparent-sunlight-special-lens-flare-1855210747

When I drag it into a photoshop or illustrator it seems that the checkerboard is attached to the sunburst. I just tried adjusting the blend mode but yeah, it also retains the checkerboard. I am not sure why so many photos on shutterstock have the desired object but are so hard to separate from the background/checkerboard pattern. I might be missing something but I can't seem to figure it out.

The new attachment is when it is dragged and dropped into a blank photoshop project.

- Spencer

[Doug A Roberts]

In your first image, did you open the file or place it?

It's a <link> in the layers panel. Usually you'd see the check pattern on a separate layer or at least a separate group.

What file type is it?

[John Mensinger]

What is the extension on the file you downloaded from Shutterstock?

When I drag it into a photoshop or illustrator . . .

The new attachment is when it is dragged and dropped into a blank photoshop project.

I'd ask you to try this without using any drag/drop methods. Open the file you downlaoded using File > Open in Illustrator. If it is indeed a vector based "flare" object (I have doubts), it will be on its own layer, and you should be able to click-select it and Copy it for Pasting in Photoshop.

Also, I'm inlcined to mention that the content of your Shutterstock download would be super easy to make yourself on a layer in Photoshop. It would take a minute or two and you'd have none of this drama.

[SWBoatman25]

Thank you guys for replying and helping. This would be possible to make yes, but I wanted to also get the method down for things that would be hard to recreate in the future.

Instead of dragging dropping I opened it with Adobe Illustrator and found that it did separate the checkerboard from the sunburst but when I kicked to hide the checkerboard it looks like the screenshot attached. I am guessing the only thing I can do is export this to photoshop and try different blending modes to hide the black ellipticals? 

The file extensions from Shutterstock when downloaded as a vector is:   eps

[John Mensinger]

Yes, these blend mode-dependent "vector" graphics peddled by Shutterstock and others frequently show up here because they are inescapably problematic. How you'd go about getting the desired result is highly dependent upon the nature of the underlying image you'll be putting it over in Photoshop. All you can really do is experiment with blend modes and other layer based blending techniques.

[SWBoatman25]

That's exactly what seems to be the issue with all these "vectors" on Adobe Shutterstock. Thank you for helping me out and teaching me all this!