How to make black background transparent for a black and white drawing?

[Clay25991967es2o]

I'm still very new to photoshop - I have an image (I've attached below) and I want to print the white portion of the image onto black cloth. Currently, when I try to do it, I get the white and black on the image printed on top of the black cloth and it just looks off as the two shades of black are different. 

I'm wondering how I can remove the black portion of the background entirely so I can just print the white portion on black cloth with nothing else. I've attached an image of what I'm using below. Thank you very much in advance for any help!

[J E L]

Hi @Clay25991967es2o, well, with that image, it's not going to be easy. Illustrator might be a better place to work. Basically, you want to change the black to transparency and save as a PSD file (see my test file attached). Because there are so many small areas to erase, it's going to take time and care. There are several methods to remove backgrounds in Photoshop. I tested a few, but the best results were with the magic eraser tool set to a Tolerance of 15. I added the red layer to easily see where I'm erasing. When you are done, turn off or delete that layer before printing. Others may have some better ideas for changing black to transparency when it comes to an image with such detail. I hope that's helpful!

[Trevor.Dennis]

Hi @Clay25991967es2o, well, with that image, it's not going to be easy. Illustrator might be a better place to work. 

By @J E L

Jain, every time I see someone recommend Illustrator in this forum, I wonder what percentage of the 26 million people who now have a Creative Cloud subscription have the Photoshop and Lightroom only Photography plan?  I can only guess, but I suspect it will be a significant number.  It also feels reasonable to me that a person paying US$85 a month for a full subscription, rather than US$20 a month for the Photography plan, would be aware of the differences and be asking their questions in the Illustrator forum.  I can't claim to have never suggested Illustrator in this forum, but I always ask if the OP at least has it. 

[Bojan Živković]

It seems Blend If sliders from Layer Style dialogue can do the job. See screenshot. Split left hand slider when working with it and try to match position on screenshot.

[J E L]

That works perfectly! Still a slight gray outline but printing on black material, it may not be noticed.

[Clay25991967es2o]

Hi JEL, 

Thanks for taking the time to contribute and help me with my issue. I may have understated how much of a novice I am though. I've been trying to replicate Bojan's suggestion but am not having any luck. If you have a moment, would you be so kind as to break down the steps for accomplishing this? I would be eternally grateful! Thank you!

[J E L]

Sure. To add a temporary background layer so the white shows up, from the top menu, select Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color and select a shade (I used a red). Drag that layer underneath your original black and white image. On the black and white layer, right click to bring up the menu and select Blending Options. You can do the same by clicking on FX at the bottom of the layers panel. When the options window opens, press the Alt key while clicking on the little black (left) slider to split the slider into two. Then follow the position settings as Bojan explained. Please let us know if you need any more help.

[Jeff Arola]

You can also use a White Color Fill Adjustment Layer

1. Go to Select>Select All

2. Then Edit>Copy

3. Select>Deselect

4. Go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color and make the color White RGB 255,255,255

5. Alt or Option click on the Color Fill Layer Mask

6. Then Edit>Paste

Turn off the visibility of the Background layer to see the white minus the black

[Clay25991967es2o]

Hi Jeff, 

Thanks for taking the time to try and help with my issue. I've followed your steps as best as I've been able to but I seem to be missing something. I'm not sure how you got the reds background or how to accomplish "turning off the visibility of the background layer to see the white minus the black". If you have a moment - could you elaborate on the steps you've written above? I would be incredibly appreciative for any further help! Thanks again, 

Clay

[Jeff Arola]

You can turn off/on a Layers or Groups visibility by clicking on the Eye to the left of the layer thumbnail in the layers panel.

I got the Red layer by going to Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color.