I have recently discovered that despite me owning this pc for over a year now, it has in fact had photoshop on it all the time, which i had failed to notice. So, im trying to use it, but have got stuck on something that i think will be pretty basic to do, but i can't seem to manage it for some reason.

Basically, im trying to add sign writing to my skins, while maintaining the original textures of the car itself, so adding transparency to the newly pasted in layer in order to get rid of the white background seems to be the way to achieve this, which usually works, until i need to do something different.

I usually just select the Layer Style > Blending Options menu. I then select the Multiply option, which makes the pasted in section partially transparent, hiding the white background completely, and allowing the original texture of the car to show through, with only a minimal affect the colour of the writing, which is perfect. (As seen picture 1.)

As i usually race a white car, this problem didn't occur, or should i say wasn't noticeable, until i needed to have a red car for a meeting. When i paste in the layer, i can see the white area around the writing, as you would expect. (See picture 2)


This is where the problem becomes apparent. I select my usual multiply option in the blending options, which gets rid of the white background, but also totally ruins the colour of the writing, as it just turns it black for some reason. (see picture 3)


All i need to do is eliminate the white area, whilst retaining the colour of the writing, but i cant make it work. I am probably missing a blindingly obvious option somewhere to do this, but my photoshop doesnt come up woth anything when you hover the mouse over the icons, which is something that would probably help me to find the option.

This is an old version, CS version 8, from 2003, so im hoping that someone can remember how to do it, or if it is possible in this version.

Many thanks in advance, and sorry for going on a bit, im terrible at explaining things and i didn't want to leave anything out which may be important.

The best way would be to trace around it with the pen tool and remove the white that way.

The easiest way (but not great quality-wise) is to grab the magic wand tool (press W) , select the white area and then press "del".

That works perfectly. God im such a noob with photoshop. Thanks very much!

A more accurate way would be to Select>Color Range, and then eye dropper the white. That way you know you can get all of it, and if need be you can Select>Grow to push the selection right to the edges, getting rid of that typical edge glow you see around selections. The magic wand tool is kind of hit or miss.

thanks alot! I have so much to learn, i'll get there one day! None of the help or tutorial files work for my photoshop, so its even worse! I'm not too sure of the err.... legality, shall we say of whats on here though, as the serial is something like 11111111111. so, that is probably why they are broken.

The polygonal lasso tool is a good "compromise" selection tool. Quicker than using a pen / bezier tool, better than using a magic wand.

Yeah, the polygonal lasso is the only way to go when you need to do a detailed selection of both straight lines and smooth curves.

quick tip, hitting "Q" will bring you into quick mask, where you can fine tune your layer mask before creating a selection from it. Black brush (adds red) takes away selection, white brush (subtracts red) adds selection. When you hit "Q" again to exit quick mask, a selection will appear on whatever you didn't paint red. Really useful for any number of things.

these skin templates are very useful too!

http://www.lfs-gear.com/kitz.html

add a layer for whatever you want to do

I would have made a whole new layer and recreated the graphic from scratch, assuming you did it in the first place. Transparent background always trumps a cut-out image, every time, regardless of your cutting method.

I'm too drunk to explain it, though.