How do I make the image background transparent in photoshop cs5

Question

I have an image with a white background which I downloaded, the image has a white background, I want the background to be transparent. How do I achieve this in Photoshop cs5.

What I did was, select the background of the image, using magic wand, I don't know how to proceed forward since both the foreground and the background colors are white.

Answer 1

No one mentioned that after removing the areas to be made transparent, you have to save in PNG format. That means, in PS5, that you have to flatten the image before you can have the PNG option in the Save As dialog. When you flatten it, you will again see white area where you just made it transparent. But, it does save with the alpha channel in the PNG. I have done this, and used the transparent images in other applications, and they are indeed transparent.

Answer 2

If it is a flat image duplicate the layer and delete the "Background" layer you can then delete selections to make it transparent.

If the edges are well defined around the subject in the photo make sure that the Magic Wands "Contiguous" box is checked and adjust the tolerance... that is the amount of levels it selects that are different from the source point so that it selects most of what you want. If it makes a good solid selection you might want to click "Refine Edge..." and feather it a bit. You may want to try the "Quick Selection" tool as well.

After you get it selected you can just hit delete and it will remove the selected stuff you can then go back over it with the "History Brush" and paint back in the parts you want to keep but removed.

Note: There are million ways to accomplish what you want that is the great thing about Photoshop this is just one of them.

Answer 3

this conversation will help you in your need http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173796

the quickest method is first select the background using magic wand tool(try different tolerance level)and then fine tune the selection with quick selection tool with pressing + and - keys. after that you can click on refine edge button on tool property bar while you have any selection tool active.

Answer 4

Keep in mind these images when made in CS5 will not have a transparent back ground no matter what format you save them to use in dreamweaver. They will always have a white background unless you change the color but never transparent.