PSE Question

[phenixdragon]

I am going through scanning a bunch old photos and so far things are turning out pretty well but there are a lot of photos that have been cut around the edges so that the photos are not in perfect square or rectangle shape. I was thinking of just going through and cropping them all to it but would rather not and really want to try to preserve them in the shapes they are in. And some have rounded sides where cropping just isn't an option. When I scanned the photos it added white areas around the photos that are not part of the photo. What I want to do is see if there is a way to select the areas around the photos and delete it from the photo. I am using PSE and when I just do a delete, it just creates a white area and what I want is that entire area removed from the photo. Basically I am just trying to delete the checkered area left behind.

Any idea on how I can do this?

I hope I explained it so you guys can understand.

 

[TheDrift-]

I am going through scanning a bunch old photos and so far things are turning out pretty well but there are a lot of photos that have been cut around the edges so that the photos are not in perfect square or rectangle shape. I was thinking of just going through and cropping them all to it but would rather not and really want to try to preserve them in the shapes they are in. And some have rounded sides where cropping just isn't an option. When I scanned the photos it added white areas around the photos that are not part of the photo. What I want to do is see if there is a way to select the areas around the photos and delete it from the photo. I am using PSE and when I just do a delete, it just creates a white area and what I want is that entire area removed from the photo. Basically I am just trying to delete the checkered area left behind.

Any idea on how I can do this?

I hope I explained it so you guys can understand.

Not sure I get you, but you want to delete the checkered area's behind your pictures?

Thats just the background PSE uses ?????? IE you screen has to be some colour, you can change it to be plain and any colour you like??? If you save the image as a PNG file and open it in anything else eg preview or iphoto you should not see the chequred area....that is if i understand right....which is by no means certain lol.

basically open them up in anything but photoshop and you should see no checkeredy bits.

 

[phenixdragon]

Yes but when I open the photo with any other application, such as Preview, it shows the checkered area as white. Only PSE shows it checkered while PSE shows it as checkered. One photo I am looking at has it much larger around the photo then the photo. I can crop it out, but this one photo I am looking at is more of an oval photo so cropping is no good.

 

[ergdegdeg]

I've never used PSE, but maybe this option from regular PS is also there: Image > Trim > Transparent Pixels. It should crop off all the transparent pixels around the image (in rectangular shape!). To preserve the transparent background for oval images etc. (and not have it appear white in Preview), save the images as PNG.

 

[phenixdragon]

I don't see an option for that but when I do save it as a PNG or even as a TIFF but to save with transparency it works properly. But I am concerned that when I save it as a TIFF with saving transparency that it is cutting the image quality. It is about 60% smaller in file size, and a small bit smaller with PNG.

 

[admwright]

It is about 60% smaller in file size, and a small bit smaller with PNG.

Are you comparing the file size between a psd and tiff or png? If so then this might be due layer and other photoshop specific data. If you are saving flattened files then this could explain the size difference. Another reason could be if you are saving with compression for the tiff and png files but not the psd. Note that this compression does not have to be lossy, there are lossless compression used in these files to keep sizes down. Tiff and png are great file formats for scanned images keeping all of the data.

 

[phenixdragon]

I see. Well the original scans were larger so I guess with PSE it is just saving it with better efficiency. I think I will just save them all as PNG.

But I am wondering, is there a way to save these as JPEG with it not showing the checkered area? I'm guessing not.

 

[TheDrift-]

I see. Well the original scans were larger so I guess with PSE it is just saving it with better efficiency. I think I will just save them all as PNG.

But I am wondering, is there a way to save these as JPEG with it not showing the checkered area? I'm guessing not.

You could just put them onto a plain white or plain black background maybe? Not ideal but would maybe look a bit nicer

 

[phenixdragon]

You could just put them onto a plain white or plain black background maybe? Not ideal but would maybe look a bit nicer

Well I could but also the checkered isn't checkered except in PSE. It's white with anything else. I mean I am okay with using PNG. I just want hoping to use JPEG and keeping the PNG (or TIFF) stored away and untouched but really it doesn't matter.

 

[emorydunn]

Well I could but also the checkered isn't checkered except in PSE. It's white with anything else. I mean I am okay with using PNG. I just want hoping to use JPEG and keeping the PNG (or TIFF) stored away and untouched but really it doesn't matter.

The checkered background in Photoshop means that that part of the image is transparent. When you save it off to another format (like PNG which has an alpha channel) the checkered pattern will not be part of the image.

For example: http://cl.ly/1WPp and http://cl.ly/1WTy
The first image is in Preview and the second is in Photoshop.

Now. If you want the transparency then you can't use JPEG and with TIFF you have to make sure you have the "Save Transparency" turned on. http://cl.ly/1WCP