Creating an outer glow around a semi-transparent object

Question

I'm trying to put an outer glow around an object that has reduced transparency, but the issue is that the glow lightens the entire image since it is semi-transparent. Stroke does the same thing. Is there a way to create an outer glow without it lightening the entire object? I just need to create an outline around the image, without it affecting the color of the image itself. I need to do this for about 50 images, so I'm looking for something easy to implement if possible. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Jeff Arola · Answer

Something like this might be satisfactory:

1. Load a selection of the transparent layer by Ctrl clicking on the layer thumbnail in the layers panel

2. Press Q to enter quick mask mode and use Image>Adjustments>Levels to move the selection to the

border of the transparent object. Usually one can do this by moving the Highlight Input Level slider

all the way to the left.

Then press Q to exit quick mask mode.

3. Add a layer mask to the transparent layer

4. Go Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options and uncheck Transparency Shapes Layer

5. Add your Outer Glow

Not my image that was used, however i don't recall from where i got it.

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