A quick technique I use almost every day in Photoshop!

In this tutorial, we’ll check out a nice little timesaver for converting black and white to black and transparent, white and transparent, or a solid color and transparent. In just 4 steps, this approach will even preserve the parts of your image that might be off the edges of the canvas. Works great for creating keyable logos, textures for knockout masks, preparing artwork for screen printing, and more. Hope you find the video useful, thanks for watching!
Check out the channel for more in depth Photoshop and After Effects tutorials:
/ texturelabs
For tons of free textures and more:
texturelabs.org/

[@danielsawyer4864]

There are so many ways to do this, here's another option: 1) Select > Colour Range 2) Click on black or white and hit enter 3) Ctrl/cmd + J 4) Ctrl/cmd + U 5) Drag brightness all the way down for black or up for white (this removes any halo effect) Done! Same end result in maybe 3 seconds

[@ec6455]

"There are so many ways to do this"... Yup, that's Photoshop

[@baloobf]

Any demo using Vincent Price as the subject is a definite win in my book. And, a great Photoshop tip to boot! Fantastic job!

[@Texturelabs]

Ha same! You do an image search for the guy and every single photo is amazing

[@satsubatsu347]

@@Texturelabs Dude was fabulous... what more do you need?

[@SarahAndBoston]

This video is SO helpful thank you.

[@ThinkForward0]

my way was to select every white area with the wand tool. and then delete them. That used to take forever thanks for this technique.

[@devineimageworks]

How did I not know this? Take my subscription, sir!

[@SwitchAndLever]

I don't copy into a mask, I copy into a channel, and then just select and fill that channel on a new layer. It leaves the original layer untouched if I need it for other things in the future, and if you do a Copy Merged you can essentially collapse many layers on top of each other (maybe you've worked with multiply to create an image on white for instance) into one transparent layer without the need to collapse everything you've made 🙂

[@ryanjenkyns]

Yeah same, I use this technique at my graphic design job basically every day haha

[@SwitchAndLever]

@@ryanjenkyns since it's such a common thing I am amazed that Adobe hasn't implemented a one click (or right click menu) solution for it yet. Though I guess one could always set up an action.

[@trashbytes]

@@SwitchAndLever I've always wondered the same. I used the aptly named "Color to alpha" option in GIMP all the time back in the day and have to resort to rather complicated methods on Photoshop.

[@thejagman22]

@@SwitchAndLever Oh, now, come on - Adobe can’t be expected to come up with simple time-saving features that would make their users’ lives infinitely more productive and simple? Then who would count all the monthly subscription money?…. I jest, of course… but… only slightly.

[@Texturelabs]

I hear ya on the method... totally works, though I'm not clear on the advantage. Seems like more steps, relies on being in sRGB, crops anything off your canvas, and leaves a rogue alpha channel. As far as maintaining a backup layer, you could always make the copy first... or a merged copy in the multiply case you mentioned. Don't mean to be argumentative, just stating my case for why this is my preferred method! 🙌

[@RedtailMediaPro]

Wow... somehow I've been using Photoshop for YEARS and have never looked at or used the "Blend If" function... crazy! And I had literally wanted to do exactly this, and always just did the "Select-> Color Range." to create a mask. This is much better! Thank you!

[@chipperfield74]

Genius tip - thank-you! The following is even quicker if you're not worried about losing anything from outside the canvas: 1. Ctrl/Cmd-Click the red channel (or blue or green, no matter) to make a selection 2. Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-I to invert selection 3. Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-N New Layer 4. Fill with white (D, Ctrl/Cmd-Backspace) Done!

[@neobaggins3718]

This is so much faster than the process I’ve been using!

[@Texturelabs]

Awesome, never hurts to save a few seconds to enjoy the finer things in life!

[@am6610]

Curious what method you been using?

[@landingo75]

I love blend if! Don't know why I never thought of using it as a masking tool for straight up B/W images like that. Brilliant. Thanks for sharing!

[@Texturelabs]

Cool, no prob!

[@yourrecommend525]

Nice editing. Nice tip

[@DanielHolter]

You. Are. Ridiculous. Best design production content on YT, thanks!

[@Texturelabs]

Really appreciate that!

[@sangio_davese]

Great little quick technique with powerful advantages over copy-paste in a mask. Great stuff as always 🤩

[@Texturelabs]

Thanks David!

[@GEOgraphicdesigner]

Thank you for sharing your techniques Brady! Always happy to learn something new from you

[@Texturelabs]

Absolutely, and thank you for the comment!

[@tatemarshall4973]

Hell yes this is great, just used it and it was the fastest way I've ever done it. THANK YOU.

[@arthousefilms]

Thanks for doing the second recap. That was great.

[@lokiiago_x0x]

Thanks! Good trick 👍🏻

[@Jomester]

I wish I knew this sooner. It would have saved me so much time.

[@JuanPablodelaTorre]

Of course! this seems so obvious now!

[@anilorenzen]

YEAH FINALLY! I have been searching for a way to do this, and now I finally found it! Thank you :D

[@ateljeavesaltus]

Thanks very clean

[@NewbFixer]

Absolutely bangin mate.

[@Texturelabs]

Appreciate that!

[@alloehwishaart8297]

Just tried it! Huge time saver compared to my old methods, thanks for the tip.

[@bubblegumbonnibell4233]

best channel i sub on yt

[@MrFoxInc]

This is pretty neat and has its own use, but I think this is also a good way for a different reason: 1. Click on the black-and-white/grayscale layer you want to turn transparent 2. Ctrl+A to select the entire layer 3. Ctrl+C to copy it 4. Q to enter mask mode 5. Ctrl+V to paste the layer you copied. Since it is a grayscale image, it will be converted into a mask (where black will be transparent and white will be opaque) 6. Ctrl+I to invert that mask (since we want the black to be visible, not invisible) 7. Q to leave mask mode, you should now see the good ol' selection-ants doing a little dance around what looks like your grayscale image 8. Make a new fill layer, it should automatically have your selection as the mask This keeps you from having these white/gray artifacts at the edge, because those will just be turned into different kinds of transparency. No messing with sliders or anything either. And you can always invert the mask by selecting it in the layer (not the layer itself, you have to click on the mask-icon!) and pressing Ctrl+I for inverting!

[@elmacox]

This is how I've been doing it but I when I compared this technique to Texturelabs I found a shift in luminosity values when doing the Quick Mask technique. Ergh... not good:/ I'm thinking it might be related to color management but I'm not about to go down that rabbit hole ...... so I've just done two actions (Dark->Transp and Light->Transp) based on Texturelabs technique and am gonna try those out out. The actions make smart objects of the selected layer so I get the benefits of Texturelabs technique if the layer is larger than the canvas. Also instead of a color layer style I'm using a clipped color adjustent layer both to save a few click if I want to change it and also because it's more clear if it's filled with black, white or a custom color.

[@thejagman22]

Copying and then pasting into quickmask (pressing "Q") is the method I've always used. I'd say if anyone is seeing any weird colour shifts you need to make sure you're in Working sRGB (go to "Convert to profile") - anything else could cause issues (esp. CMYK). One thing I'd add is if you double-click the quckmask icon (it's at the bottom of your vertical toolbar) an options box will come up where you can switch to "Selected areas" instead of "Masked areas" - this way you don't have to constantly invert what you've painted/drawn. You can also set opacity of the quickmask preview - I normally have this at or near to 100% so I can see exactly what is going to be selected/not selected. You can also change the quickmask default colour if red isn't working for a particular image or just because you want to 😊 Sorry, doing this from memory but this should be all good!

[@elmacox]

@@thejagman22 Just tried it out. Working space set to sRGB and color profile for document set to working space (which is sRGB). Still get a luminosity shift (testing on greyscale images). That being said I further tweaked my actions based on Texturelabs technique and I do believe it's more flexible (and non-destructive which we all love) so I'm a pretty happy camper all things considered. Here's the actions if you want to try them out. The neat thing is that if you open the resulting smart objects you can further tweak the opacity non destructivly (in this case a simpel curves layer set to luminosity) since the Blend If settings are set to a containing group. There's some things that may seem unnecessary but are there to make sure it works on both background and regular layers. www.dropbox.com/s/434wwv07tww843h/Light-Dark%20-%3E%20Transp.atn?dl=0

[@thejagman22]

@@elmacox The last thing I was going to say on this but forgot is that for the copy/paste into mask/quickmask technique to work as desired - the colour that you want to be solid, pure colour needs to be BLACK in the source image (as in literally RGB: 0,0,0) if it’s even slightly off, you WILL see a colour shift. The reason is that if it’s not black but more off-black/grey, this technique will interpret that as partially transparent. The way it works is that anything RGB black (0,0,0) is solid colour, white (255,255,255) is 100% transparent and any shade of grey in between is then varying levels of transparency. So basically if you copy say, lineart that is around 50% grey (128,128,128) paste into a mask layer on a layer filled red, the “red” would appear pink as it’s essentially red at 50% opacity… if that makes sense. Kind of difficult to explain in writing 😂. This might not be your issue either, but it’s just something I meant to mention before. Cheers for the action, I’ll take a look!

[@elmacox]

@@thejagman22 Haha, thanks for the additional info but yeah, no, I'm well aware of how masks and transparency works and that's not the issue for me:) I usually only need to convert to transparency for graphic stuff like images of text so it's never been really an issue for me (as in it looked how I kinda expected it to look so I've been asuming it's correct). But for some reason I got curious about the Blend If technique and trying it on greyscale photos and also just simple gradients going from black to white and comparing it to my traditional workflow I noticed the slight luminosity shift. Which thends to be color profile related but maybe it's something with the new photoshop or the new macos. Everythings new, what could possibly go wrong, haha. Anyways... I think these actions, compared to the quick mask way are quicker, more flexible and in my case even accurate(!). What more could I ask for:)

[@NewLakes]

This is a great method especially for those who aren't used to using channels. However once you merge down here you loose the edibility of the layer, you wouldn't be able to change the levels etc. A great method is: Go to Channels 1. Duplicate one of the coloured channels (for example Blue) 2. Click on the Blue copy and invert it ('Image' menu -> Adjustment -> invert or just ⌘i ) This saves the channel as a selection 3. Go back to Layers and load the selection ('Select' menu -> Load Selection -> Blue copy) 4. Fill the selection with a solid colour. For beginners use this at the bottom of the layers palette: and choose solid colour from the pop up menu. That's pretty much it, you can edit the mask add effects etc, maybe roughen or blur etc, everything stays editable.

[@ronnykhalil]

so simple and helpful. thank you

[@jimlad01]

That's a really great tip, I hope I will remember it. Thanks!

[@AlexIsiv]

You can just head to your channels, select the RGB channel: This selects all white. If you want white, just create a new layer and paint with the bucket tool. If you want the black, just inverse the selection and do the same thing, no need to color overlay

[@Flysonfame]

that's a good solution, I'm gonna start using. thx.

[@Texturelabs]

Cool!

[@linnealowden7904]

Photoshop wizard. Look forward to your tutorials.

[@Texturelabs]

Cheers thanks!

[@purks1337]

nice tip

[@OFM21]

Great video Brady I’m definitely using this method

[@Marshimized]

my way of doing this was messing with the layer style, then making a new layer under it and merging the top layer onto the bottom making it rasterized, and then making a new layer and fill it with a solid color, clipping mask, and then one last merge. this will save me tons of time in the future, thank you!

[@antoks6322]

Thanks a lot

[@ptr_mzr]

Awesome!

[@Texturelabs]

Cool thank you!

[@bhavindhandhukiya410]

I know this trick, but some how i lose the gray values. But grouping them and apply color overlay is life saving tips. Thanks for sharing sir ! As usual Photoshop legend.

[@Texturelabs]

Thanks! Ya, I like that grouping gives you a quick way to merge it all together as well

[@VarunKumar]

What tf. So cool 😍

[@MrBrax]

Genius

[@nathaliedrinkstea]

Really cool technique! Thank you! ♥

[@crypso1526]

Amazing tutorial, have been struggling doing the same thing in many steps lol

[@hertzkot]

Thank you so much, what a great tip, level upgrade!

[@clairesvoyant]

What's your go to after effects equivalent of this? Thank you, very nice video!

[@maciejrerek5023]

Hi. This method is ok. I would suggest to try using blending if in RGB channels instead using only gray channel you will get different/better results (and less steps).

[@sirako]

Thanks, I knew I could improve my technique, I was halfway there, I started using the blending options from another of your videos, then I would select, copy, etc, but this is just perfection, thanks

[@JohnMazz]

Love this! Thank you!

[@Texturelabs]

Awesome!

[@lineseeking]

I just unlock the layer and use screen/multiply on a transparent background

[@grizzlybear1633]

If it’s a black image. Just alt click blue channel. Then paint bucket into a new layer.

[@brayanmiranda9158]

for the second step i find better to use a color, gradient or pattern layer on top of the folder and use apply to group (alt+click on the layer) that way you can still edit fast whatever you are using on the art.

[@vassilisstergioudis]

Same here!

[@JonassaintStudios]

Amazing!

[@vexphoto]

Dude! You da boss!

[@kaldmigbaregrevaxel]

I prefer for the most time the other option you are referring to. but that is because I like the mid-tones to be semi-transparent. if I do it that way. it takes around 10 seconds. if I am using Key shortcuts :) (Oh it is not that way you are referring to )

[@kaldmigbaregrevaxel]

I can't actually boil it down to 5 seconds

[@MahbubNur-m4d]

yup i use this tecneque

[@MarkWarnerTV]

Ummm, sneaky - like it :D

[@Texturelabs]

Word!

[@am6610]

Also you can achieve the same by going to *channels* tab and *Ctrl+Click* on *RGB* channel and it will make a *selection* of the *white pixels* in your image and you can *invert selection* to select the opposite color.

[@steprockmedia]

I like using this approach, but I never end up sticking with it since it often looks pretty scrubby in the end result. BUT it's a good one to have in your back pocket, for sure.

[@killemdafoe5651]

I really love this picture. Is there a tutorial on how you would edit a photo like this? I love the spiral a lot.

[@guzc1941]

very useful thanks!

[@Texturelabs]

For sure!

[@chasebros4948]

I realize this video is over a year old, but I wanted add my two cents. As some of you have pointed out, there’s always more than one way to accomplish something in Photoshop. However, I am usually in favor of the the method that results in the highest quality no matter how long it takes. As in turns out, the best method for cutting out a black logo from a white back background is only three steps. Note that this method will only work if the logo is pure black and the background pure white: 1: Ctrl + click on the thumbnail of either the red, green, or blue channel to get a selection. 2: Invert the selection (ctrl + shift + I). 3: Create a solid color fill layer with black. Not only is this method fast, it also gives an EXACT copy of the black logo with transparency. What I mean by that is if you were to create a new layer filled with white behind the cut out/black logo and then compare it with the original, you would notice no difference. Even if you zoom in to say 500% and compare the edges to the original you will see no difference. Many other methods (like copying the image into a layer mask) you will notice a slight change in the edges of the logo, especially when zoomed way in to the pixel level. Just thought I would share anyone who is interested.

[@Aris0281]

This method is fine if you for some reason upscaled it out of the corners and then got to cleaning the sides. But for most scenarios including the one in the video I'd do 1Ctrl A 2Ctrl C 3New fill layer 4Ctrl V on fill layers mask Plus it's indestructible as you can work on the mask and change the fill color and type at any given time

[@yannistath]

damn im working on photoshop for 20 years now and i dint know this technique... Embarrassing lol. Thanks man

[@ItsJustMeStevie]

Mind fucken blowing!

[@jasonpbass]

if your image is B&W just copy it into a mask then set a color overlay on the layer...done...easy.

[@Predoo]

Awesome! Thank you (:

[@Texturelabs]

For sure!

[@HenryKamp]

Love u Brady

[@Texturelabs]

Back atcha!

[@gutobernardo7457]

My tip for a better and faster way to do this: create a solid color layer, select its mask, go to Image > Apply Image, select the layer with the black and white art and choose multiply as the blending mode, hit ok, boom! Now you can choose any color without messing with color overlay :)

[@machinenoise9622]

😧 thank u

[@Texturelabs]

No prob!

[@Vexcenot]

where were you all my life

[@motionwithoskar]

Patreon gang

[@Texturelabs]

Yeeeeaaaaah!

[@Outerwebs]

As Vincent would say, "Easy as 1-2-3."

[@tareqyosef]

did you design the "mayor of kignstwon "title sequence

[@Pcoxproductions]

I wonder if you can script that technique 🤔

[@judgeworks3687]

this is so helpful. thankyou! Do you create an 'action' from this to make it even faster or do you go thru the steps each time you use?

[@Texturelabs]

Nice! One of those things I always just run through the steps, almost like motor memory... It's also nice to experiment with different colors!

[@kixano]

👏👏👏

[@therecluse8103]

I just duplicate the layer, go to color range, select color I want to delete, click ok, delete the color and I’m done

[@GarudaPSN]

This is literally just a button in both CSP and Photopea. Photoshop just lags behind everyone on these "artist" options. Here's ab alternative method i used for years: Background eraser set to Sample Background Swatch, Protect Foreground Swatch, massive brush size. Set my color swatches do default black and white, then just erase. You only need to do the procedure once, after that, you just have background eraser set for life.

[@devonterry9385]

'Select' - 'Color Range' - Eyedrop desired color - Delete Done.

[@deal_4_real]

I just did some testing and realized that the alternate "copy into a mask" method which Brady doesn't prefer (the one on the right side of the screen at 1:43) doesn't result in a perfect translation of the original, whereas Brady's method does. In the "copy into a mask" method, the positive areas are more densely filled with color. It's really obvious if the source image has gradients or blurry areas. Could anyone explain why that would be the case? I would think that both methods should result in a pixel-perfect translation of the original.

[@iamjohnelkins]

But, as seen in your demonstration, there was a lot of scattered filled pixels outside of the image. How do you get rid of those fast and end up with a sharp looking image where you don't see them once you add a background? Hope that makes sense...?

[@Trisepta777]

I use this technique, but I make the layer a smart object instead of making a group. Would there be any differences to the final result doing it this way?

[@Texturelabs]

Nice! Totally the same logic and same result. I like that Grouping has the handy keyboard shortcut and that Cmd-E will merge it

[@Alejandro-qn2cn]

Hi .. please do the text on morbius trailer ❤️

[@Texturelabs]

Nice GFX on that one! Definitely some proper 3d happening there, possibly Maya but more likely Cinema 4d...

[@imsraaia7]

👌

[@Texturelabs]

Thanks Imran!

[@Retrobrio]

I just Ctrl-Click the Blue Channel - quicker. Enjoy your vids

[@Texturelabs]

Thanks! Solid approach if you've got one layer... Out of curiosity, why the Blue rather than Ctrl-Clicking the RGB channel?

[@dancamp6012]

Cool trick but why dont you put what you are doing in the tittle so people who need this can find it? nobody googles the quick techniques peolple use and expect to find what they need

[@Poppaneedsanap]

I use this kind of thing every day, but, not this blend/if method. Always brute force mask and layer fills that continually chop off hidden parts of an illustration. This is such a killer tip. jeez

[@TheUnholyPosole]

Vincent Price was my uncle. 👍

[@Texturelabs]

Legend!

[@derickangel27]

I just use the magic wand tool and select the color

[@cmindel01]

For this image: Magic wand. Point sample. 35 tolerance. Select black part of image. Select similar. To inverse or not inverse. Delete/mask. 5 seconds and done. Why so many unnecessary steps?

[@eamonnbeahan5611]

Magic wand won't catch stuff outside the artboard. Granted your method would work fine for many applications, as would colour range, darken or multiply layer mode, etc. It's just another tool.

[@cmindel01]

@@eamonnbeahan5611 Just make the artboard larger?

[@joostjoost5245]

Lol just select color range and mask

[@emroa4682]

I don't know.. But when I try this method to my graphic. The smooth edges I have when I use magic wand tool. Anybody can help me?

[@Texturelabs]

Magic wand will give you more of a distinct outlined selection based on a certain threshold, whereas this will map grey values to semi-transparent. Definitely will give different results, so just depends on what you're looking for!

[@NormalKinz]

idk man i use BG eraser tool to remove 1 color out of 2 hardly takes 30 sec

[@racerschin]

too much fuzz. simpler: 1. ctrl+A/ctrl+C 2. Q 3. paste 4. Q 5. new fill layer. Done.

[@Texturelabs]

Fair enough - though I'm at your finished result in three steps vs five, and haven't cropped things that may be off the canvas

[@BricktowneMedia]

a LITTLE BIT of TIME?? Dear Adobe, I would like approximately 4 years of my life back. LMAO

[@Pyranders]

This is the fast way? Wow, Photoshop is so clunky and not at all user friendly. - GIMP user