From the course: Photoshop Masking and Compositing: Fundamentals
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The origins of the alpha channel - Photoshop Tutorial
From the course: Photoshop Masking and Compositing: Fundamentals
The origins of the alpha channel
In this exercise I'm going to introduce you to the Alpha Channel. I'm looking at the final version of the toucan from the previous chapter, I've gone ahead and called this file Last- seen toucan.psd and I'm going to switch over to my Channels panel. Notice that I'm seeing all of my channels in grayscale, that's very important, by the way, if you're still seeing errors in color then press Ctrl+K or Command+K on the Mac to bring up the Preferences dialog box. Switch to Interface and turn off the Show Channels in Color check box. Mine is already off so I'll go ahead and click the Cancel button. Now in addition to the color bearing channels red, green, and blue in this case, the ones that actually contribute to the colors inside the image we have these extra so-called Alpha channels. Now an Alpha Channel can contain a mask which is typically a grayscale representation of a selection outline. It may contain a layer mask which conveys transparency to a layer, or it may contain some other…
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Contents
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The origins of the alpha channel3m 40s
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How a mask works7m 10s
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Making an alpha channel4m 2s
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Using the new channel icons6m 27s
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Saving an image with alpha channels4m 23s
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Loading a selection from a channel4m 7s
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Putting a mask into play3m 55s
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Loading a selection from a layer4m 27s
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Loading a selection from another image4m 36s
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The alpha channel is home to the mask1m 40s
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