Create a Transparent Background

How to insert a free-floating object into a Web page or a slide.

Dave Johnson

Feature: Create a Transparent Background

Many photographers know that one of the golden rules of photography is "the background breaks the picture." No matter how great the subject--no matter how sharp, well-composed, attractive, or colorful--a lousy background will ruin the scene. The opposite is also true, which is why we go to such great lengths when composing a shot to make sure the background is every bit as photogenic as the foreground.

But some photos don't need any background at all. Perhaps you want to insert a free-floating object into a Web page or Microsoft PowerPoint slide. For this, you'll need an image with a transparent background. It's a common trick, but it's not at all obvious how such a thing is done. Reader Tom Cline from Dulles, Virginia recently asked how to add transparent-background images into PowerPoint, for instance: "There's a lot of talk in the manual about it, but I can't quite come up with the complete recipe."

Isolate the Background

The recipe, it turns out, starts with a common digital image-editing trick: isolating the background with some sort of selection tool. Suppose that you're making a PowerPoint presentation and you want to include some product photos in the slides. You might start by taking a picture like one I took of the Dell Digital Jukebox, using some plastic foam board or another nonreflective plain white background.

You could simply insert this image into PowerPoint, but the background shows up as kind of gray--not white like the background of a typical PowerPoint slide. Instead, we'll start by loading the image into an image editor; for our example, we'll use Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 8.

We want to select everything except the Dell DJ. You can use any method you like; but for an image like this, I think the easiest solution is to use the Magic Wand tool. It's located in the toolbar on the left side of the screen, in the fifth slot from the top. It shares its spot with the Selection and Freehand Selection tools, so if it isn't displayed, click the down arrow to the right of its cubby, then select it from the list.

Before you start applying the Magic Wand, set the Tolerance level in the Tool Options palette at the top of the screen. (If you activate the Magic Wand and can't see the Tool Options, turn it on by choosing View, Palettes, Tool Options from the menu.) Increase the Tolerance to 75, which should be perfect for this particular image. How did I know what Tolerance level to choose? Good old trial and error--which you'll have to use on your own images.

Now click the Magic Wand anywhere in the background of the image. The entire background should be selected, leaving just the Dell DJ. With some image editors, we'd now have to manually paint the background a specific color and then set that color as transparent. Paint Shop Pro 8 has a much simpler solution, as you will soon see.

It's All About the GIF

To get a transparent background in our PowerPoint presentation or Web page, we need to use a file format that supports transparency. JPEG does not, so we'll switch to GIF, a graphics format created by the CompuServe online service. With the background still selected, choose File, Save As. In the Save As Type box at the bottom of the dialog box, choose CompuServe Graphics Interchange (*.gif) from the list of potential file formats. We're not done, so don't click Save yet.

Now click the Options button. Make sure that the format is set to Version 89a, then click the Run Optimizer button. On the Transparency tab, answer the question about what area of the image to make transparent by selecting "Inside the current selection." Click OK and then click Save. That's it! The new image will have a transparent background, which you can prove by loading it into PowerPoint. I've loaded the two images side-by-side in a PowerPoint slide--clearly, the one with the transparent background looks far more professional.

Dave's Favorites: Charge Anywhere With Digipower

As digital cameras have evolved, I've watched fewer and fewer models use traditional AA-style batteries. I've resisted this change because the utter ubiquity of AAs makes them easy to replace anywhere in the world. (And you can always buy a charger and rechargeable AAs for everyday use.) Digipower's new line of World Travel Chargers has made me rethink my opposition to the newfangled lithium ion rechargeables showing up in new cameras.

The Digipower charger is compact and highly portable. It includes a cleverly designed set of pop-out plugs that work in over 50 countries--and that's pretty much anywhere I can envision traveling to. This little critter has all the bases covered: It's small; it's light; and it charges anywhere. Oh, and did I mention that it can top off any battery in about an hour?

I've seen these chargers selling in stores for about $40. Digipower sells four models that work with a broad range of camera batteries, from Canon to Sony to Minolta, Olympus, and Nikon.

Q&A: Better Print Quality Means Ditching Word

I have had terrible luck printing pictures. I want to make a collage of multiple images, so I have been loading them into Microsoft Word, arranging the images, and adding text captions. The problem is that no matter how I set the print quality, they come out poorly. My printer is new, so I don't think that's the problem. Do you have any recommendations?

--Cliff Guerin, Buffalo, New York

Indeed I do, Cliff: Stop using Word for that task. Microsoft's word processor is not optimized to make high-quality photo prints. The moment that you load a picture into a Word document, the app lowers the image quality. And Word's print engine shaves more quality off as well.

Instead of using Word to print, I suggest that you stick with an image editor like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop Elements. Microsoft Publisher is a great option as well, especially for collage projects.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.

Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.

This week's Hot Pic: "Sentinel Tree," by Michael Bale, Wheeling, Illinois

Michael captured this awesome photo with his Sony Mavica digital camera at Sentinel Point in Yosemite National Park. "I took this picture near sunset in August," he says. "In the distance, you can see the sheer cliffs of Yosemite Valley, including El Capitan, which is the most vertical cliff face in North America."

Interestingly, this is not a single exposure. Michael explains that since the tree and the bright sky needed two very different kinds of exposure, he took two photos and combined them with Adobe Photoshop to re-create the original scene. If Michael had exposed for the sky only in a single shot, the tree would have been underexposed and silhouetted. Instead, he managed to reveal a great amount of detail in the tree while also preserving the sky. Great job!

We want your feedback! Send your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself to comments@bydavejohnson.com. If you have a question that you'd like to see answered in the weekly Qamp;amp;A, send it to question@bydavejohnson.com.

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