Export from Lightroom with a transparent background

[margueritew46131361]

Imported a picture with transparent background, exports with a white background. I chose to export in Tiff format (that was original) with "save transparency" but background is still white. HELP!

[JohanElzenga]

Lightroom does not support layers, so any export except ‘as original’ will flatten the image.

[margueritew46131361]

I wonder why they have a "save transparency" setting if it won't save the transparency!  LOL  Frustrating!

[John R Ellis]

I think the Save Transparency setting is for preserving transparent pixels in the single image layer. For example, LR can create panoramas that have transparent pixels along the borders.  The transparency of those pixels will be preserved by Save Transparency -- otherwise they'll be turned into white pixels.

[Jao vdL]

Exporting with transparency works just fine for me. It works from png image originals with transparancy defined and from tiff images that have transparency done by using a layer that has "holes" in it and no background layer. It also works from warped images in Lightroom generated panos and images that have geometry transformations done. How are you doing the transparency in the original tiff?

[margueritew46131361]

I extracted an image from green screen, saved as a .tif then imported into lightroom to do some processing as some of my needed presets wouldn't show up in Camera Raw.  When I tried to open back into PS, the transparent background had been replaced with white thus nullifying the extraction!  I tried to save as tiff with save transparency but that didn't help.  Ended up going back to my original extractions and manually entering the presets I needed for Camera Raw.  Basically a loss of half a day!  for some reason, my Brush Adjustment presets in LR have stayed in the LRTemplate file path and are not recognized by CR.  I usually do my processing before extraction but the green screen can get distracting and I didn't realize those presets wouldn't be available!  Oh well.....

[Jao vdL]

Ah. Yeah that will happen when you open it back in Photoshop while choosing "Edit with lightroom adjustments" while having done brush adjustments in Lightroom. If you choose to edit the original, the transparency should be intact.

> for some reason, my Brush Adjustment presets in LR have stayed in the LRTemplate file path and are not recognized by CR.

The brush presets (as other presets) are not shared between ACR and Lightroom. You have to specifically install them in both places.

[margueritew46131361]

I did actually save the adjustments in LR using the tif "save transparency" setting hoping that the transparent background would save but did not have any luck there.  Not sure what else I could do.  as for the brushes, I tried to install them directly into CR but they are in the wrong format to be recognized so I guess I'm out of luck until Adobe auto changes those pathways as well.  I have manually added the ones I used the most but what a pain!  lol

[JohanElzenga]

The transparency seems to be the key. If you just have a normal layer (Layer 0) and no background layer, then the file gets flattened on export with Lightroom adjustments. But if you have real transparency (so some holes in that layer), then 'preserve transparency' does work.

So maybe what you think is transparent, is not really transparent but has a very low opacity. If that is the case, then the file will be flattened.

[margueritew46131361]

The background was completely transparent as the image was "cut out" from the original background in PS so I don't think that is what is causing the image to be flattened.  It was saved as a tiff then imported in LR Classic.  There has to be something I'm doing wrong with the way I'm saving it.  LOL  I'll just remember to edit first then cut out or make sure the presets I need are in Camera Raw! 

[Jao vdL]

It's very strange that it doesn't work for you. I tried it pretty

extensively now and no matter what I do development wise in Lightroom, the

transparency is retained after export when I check the checkbox. You can

even scale the image upon export and it scales the transparency just fine.

Perhaps the presets contain some setting that disables this? Does it set

the process version to an earlier version perhaps? I haven't tried whether

that matters.

On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 7:53 AM margueritew46131361 <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[Jao vdL]

Hmm,

just tried a file that has transparency (a photoshop tiff file with just a layer0 with holes in it and brushed all over it in Lightroom (including the transparent areas) and exported this file with the save transparency checkbox enabled and it maintained the transparency correctly. What version of Classic are you using?

[margueritew46131361]

version 7.5

[Mattia 13]

The fact is that you have to save the original tiff in wich you have transparency with the option "save Transparency" checked. If you are no sure how your tiff is saved just save as and overwrite the original with a new tiff with save transparency checked. If you do that LR export with correct transparency applied, that is:

- no matter haw many layers you have in the original tiff, LR flatten out visible image into one layer, transparency remains

- you can have clipping mask on the original tiff in visible layers, they will be applied

- you can develop original tiff changing whatever parameter in LR, it will affect only visible part during export

- final tiff will be all correction + developing preset in LR + clipping mask in original TIFF flatten out in single layer TIFF with transparency

Hope this would help,

cheers

[jmmsfa]

Thank you Mattia,

It looks that when edited from LR, PS does not save the file with the "preserve transparency" by default. I needed to "save as" and checked the "preserve transparency" box to make it work.

It helped! Thank you.

[richardplondon]

The checkbox to include "transparency" isn't always sticky in my experience and may need to be checked again. 

It's not enough to include "layers" when saving this TIFF, since LrC cannot interpret pixel transparency, nor layer opacity setting / layer masking, directly. LrC is completely reliant on the preview bitmap which PS includes whenever an image is layered (as all PS images with 'transparency' must be, by defnition). Unless Photoshop is told to include transparency when saving, it will substitute white for transparency then. So LrC won't have "seen" any transparency in the first place.

But provided that save has happened correctly out of PS, then provided the format to be eventually exported is capable of representing it - hence PNG, but not JPG - in my own testing that transparency does seem to get preserved by LrC. Even though within LrC those transparent areas can only be previewed in white.

[jmmsfa]

Thank you, that clarifies things a bit more.

I did not get into detail but my problems happened because of my workflow.
I use LrC and there are some raw imagens that I need to edit in PS, so I do it directly using the “Edit in…” command from LrC.
When on PS I edit the images and create some layers with objects without background.
When done I just save them and go back to LrC and a new TIFF version of the image appears next to the raw version, witch is good.
Finally when exporting, in some cases I need a JPG (no transparency) and also a hi-res TIFF with transparency, but the transparency does not work by default.
I need to go back to PS and ask to “Save as” and then check the transparency box.
I don’t know if there is a way to make PS save the edit raw in TIFF with trasparency, by default.
That would be perfect.

[lukak72401968]

What made Lrc exports opaque for me, was that I edit images in PS by making masks!

Masks cannot be read by Lrc, so it always exports them with white in place of the masks. When I apply the mask in PS, everything stays transparent in Lrc TIF export.