SEARCHING FOR: RemoveBlack.8bf / RemoveWhite.8bf

[Hirnsausen]

Hi there,

a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away, I had two filters that I found very useful:
- RemoveBlack.8bf
- RemoveWhite.8bf

But as time went by, my hard drives failed, and I lost those filters and even the knowledge where I got them from originally. I think, they were been freeware.

Is here anyone who can assist me to obtain again these two very useful filters? Thanks.

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @Hirnsausen

I have never used those filters so unsure if the option below will meet your needs or not yet here is one path to consider.

Using the Blend If sliders in Layer Styles might meet your needs.
Open you image in Photoshop and make sure it is not a background Layer
Open up Layer Styles and in the Blend If option set to the default gray level, on the top slider on the right side Option+Click (At+click on PC) the left side of the upward triangle and slide it to the left until you have the right amount of transparency you want.
This will make total white completely transparent and anything with lower lumiosity proportionally transparent.

This image below show an example. Not sure if this is sufficient explanation or not If not just ask for clarification where needed. BTW - you can do the same with blacks except starting with the slider at the black end.

Hope this helps
John Wheeler

 

[Hirnsausen]

Hi, thanks for your answer and my apologies for my slow response. I open the Layer Styles (Blending), and used ALT-LMBC to move the slider towards the left side, but the only result is, that the entire wooden structure gets transparent, and not only the lighter parts of it. I am sure I do something wrong.

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @Hirnsausen
Not sure where the issue is yet I explained my approach in the screenshot below showing the Layer Stack and the Layer Styles panel along with your image.
I isolated just the wooden structure to the upper Layer where I applied the Layer Style with the Blend If sliders.
The middle Layer is the remainder of your image.
The bottom Layer is just yellow so that shows through where there is transparency.

I moved the Top Blend If slider (marked as current Layer and moved the white sliders to the left until it made just the lighted portions of the board transpareny with yellow coming through at those points to make it more visible.

Hope this helps you better understand the approach yet if not just continue with the questions
John Wheeler

 

[Hirnsausen]

Yes, finally I found out what I did wrong: I moved the wrong slider previously and experimented with that one. Now I used the 2nd lowest slider, and got half of what I wanted. Thanks for your patience.
But I am not yet where I want to be. I need a little bit more help. First, look at the screenshot. I used, following your good example, a yellow layer below. I moved the 2nd lowest slider and all lighter areas became fully transparent. And there is the problem: It should be a gradual transparency. Meaning, white becomes full transparent, light gray would turn o a combined slightly grayish yellow, dark gray areas would become a slightly yellowing gray, and black areas remain black. Meaning, the amount of transparency is not 100% all over up to the threshold, but a gradual one: the darker the less transparent. Do you understand what I try to express? English is not my natural language, so I may make mistakes in expressing what I mean.

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @Hirnsausen
That can be done as well. Note that each of the sliders are actually a left slider and right slider. They are initiallyparied together though you can spearate them by holding the Option key when clicking and dragging (Alt key on PCs). What that does is cause a transition of transparency rather than all of a sudden all transparent.

I move the top Layer White slider to the left until I started to see just a bit of transparency. Then I sued the OPT clidk on the left side of the slider which separated it out and moved that to the left. That creates a partial transprency basied on the Luminosity value or partial transparency.

I have circled the slider as well as the numeric calues used for each



I suggest you give that a try as the next step.

If that is not clear just let me know

John Wheeler

 

[Hirnsausen]

Yeah, it works! Thanks a lot! Problem solved!

 

[thebestcpu]

Yeah, it works! Thanks a lot! Problem solved!

Perfect! Glad that worked for you @Hirnsausen
John Wheeler

 

[MarshySwamp]

The following topic may be informative:

Photoshop needs "Color to Alpha" button

I was just chatting with a group of other artists about the need to convert a color into transparency sometimes, and we've all needed such a function, then somebody said that in GIMP there's just a simple button for it, "Color to Alpha." It does exactly what we need and very easily. In...

community.adobe.com

I create an English version of the Japanese action to create transparency and partial transparency from white or black backgrounds:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[Hirnsausen]

The following topic may be informative:

Photoshop needs "Color to Alpha" button

I was just chatting with a group of other artists about the need to convert a color into transparency sometimes, and we've all needed such a function, then somebody said that in GIMP there's just a simple button for it, "Color to Alpha." It does exactly what we need and very easily. In...

community.adobe.com

I create an English version of the Japanese action to create transparency and partial transparency from white or black backgrounds:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

THANKS - I will check it out!

 

[dannac]

The following topic may be informative:

Photoshop needs "Color to Alpha" button

I was just chatting with a group of other artists about the need to convert a color into transparency sometimes, and we've all needed such a function, then somebody said that in GIMP there's just a simple button for it, "Color to Alpha." It does exactly what we need and very easily. In...

community.adobe.com

I create an English version of the Japanese action to create transparency and partial transparency from white or black backgrounds:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Please explain what your action does ?

 

[Hirnsausen]

THANKS - I will check it out!

Okay, thanks. I just downloaded it and will now scan it and then use it.

 

[MarshySwamp]

Please explain what your action does ?

It makes the Japanese action work in English versions – but I also added the option for a black version in addition to the original white. It will create transparency and partial transparency from white or black backgrounds. This is not the same thing as using blend if sliders or layer masks.

The rest is in the linked topic if you care to read, it is educational as the native feature doesn't exist in Photoshop, so it was hard to know what the Krita or GIMP users were talking about until they posted clear examples.

Here is the native GIMP feature that the black or white action emulates, however both GIMP and Krita can do this for any targeted colour:

https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-filter-color-to-alpha.html

 

[MarshySwamp]

Okay, thanks. I just downloaded it and will now scan it and then use it.

I am not sure if it does exactly the same thing as those old plug-ins, however, it was worth mentioning.

 

[dannac]

It makes the Japanese action work in English versions – but I also added the option for a black version in addition to the original white. It will create transparency and partial transparency from white or black backgrounds. This is not the same thing as using blend if sliders or layer masks.

The rest is in the linked topic if you care to read, it is educational as the native feature doesn't exist in Photoshop, so it was hard to know what the Krita or GIMP users were talking about until they posted clear examples.

Here is the native GIMP feature that the black or white action emulates, however both GIMP and Krita can do this for any targeted colour:

https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-filter-color-to-alpha.html

Thanks for the info and the action ... works well