[Gimp-user] Having trouble creating transparent background

[Accordeoniste <forums gimpusers com>]

> Yay!
>
> Here's something that might be interesting to try:  Make a copy of
> your
> masked layer, turn off visibility of the original layer (click the
> eyeball icon in the Layers dialog), and click the mask on the visible
> copy to make it the active selection.  Then, blur the mask and check
> the
> visible result.  A few pixels of blurring might give a more realistic
> blending with the background.  As always, Control+z (undo) is your
> friend, try a couple of different values - maybe just 2 or 3 pixels,
> maybe more - and see what happens.
> Ah yes - this technique is often used to make a foreground object
> stand
> out in a picture.  It simulates a sharp focus on the foreground object
> with a relatively flat depth of field.  Don't overdo the blur if you
> want a "realistic" looking result though.
>
> Another way to make the foreground stand out is to slightly reduce the
> saturation and contrast of the background, again careful not to overdo
> it unless you want the finished product to look manipulated, vs. just
> a
> little extra eye-catching.
>
> Yet another method - a favorite of mine - is a vignette.  Put a new
> layer over your background, give it a layer mask, and use the Ellipse
> Selection tool to draw an ellipse around the foreground object, with
> its
> edges maybe halfway or so between the outline of the foreground object
> and the edges of the image as a whole.  Do Select > Feather and pick a
> big value - maybe about half the distance from the edge of the ellipse
> to the foreground object.  This will, in effect, "blur" your
> selection.
> Then drag and drop black from your color selector to the image canvas
> with the mask selected in the Layers dialog.  This will make your new
> layer transparent in the area including your foreground image.  Then
> select the image component of the layer in the Layers dialog, drag and
> drop black to the image canvas, and viola:  The result is your
> foreground object visible in an oval surrounded by black.  Finally, in
> the Layers dialog, use the transparency slider to turn the visibility
> of
> your new layer WAY down.  Adjust until the effect of the vignette
> layer
> on the visible image is barely noticeable.  Viola, all eyes on the
> foreground object.
>
> Some combination of the above methods should give you results you
> like.
> Again, don't overdo it unless you want a "bold" a.k.a. unnatural
> looking
> result.  The beauty part:  You can come back later and, if you don't
> like the result after a break from looking at it, open up the XCF file
> and make any changes needed - you still have all the original parts of
> the un-messed-with image available to play with.
>
> :o)


Hi Steve,

I'm satisfied with my photo as it is with a transparent background. Later on,
when I have more time, I'd like to try out your suggestions for a more
eye-catching look. Thanks very much for those new suggestions, though! For now i
have something else in mind I'd like your help with. I don't know how much you
know about HTML, but since I want the photo to appear on my website, this may
require manipulation of the HTML code on the site. I wrote much of the code
myself.

Since I last updated this thread, I superimposed my photo with the transparent
background onto another image in the background. To give you a better idea of
what's involved, I'll tell you that the background image is a picture of the
Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. To make the bridge appear longer, I changed
its scale so that the width is 2 1/3 X
the height, instead of 1 1/3 x the height as it was originally. Then I added
some text to the combined image. I didn't create another layer for my photo,
only for the text.

When I inserted the name of this file in my index.html file in the header
section, the combined image I created either looked distorted, or didn't fit
properly in the header space. Sometimes it was out of alignment with the other
header image, sometimes it didn't fill the remaining header space. I tried
different CSS and html combinations with varying widths and heights, and nothing
I tried caused the image to come out just right. When I created the combined
image with the bridge at its original scale, inserted it in the header and
increased only the width in my html file, the bridge looked okay but my own
image looked out of proportion.
 
I thought of simply enlarging the Golden Gate Bridge image using the original
scale, that would make the bridge appear longer, but then I'd have to increase
the height of the header space. That won't do because the other header image is
an animated image that I don't know how to resize. Anyway, I want a balanced
look with the header composition, and even if the animated image is resized, the
header would appear unbalanced, I suspect.

Until I find a way to insert the combined image in my header, as it appears in
GIMP, so that it fits properly in the space, I'm using a version of the image
with the Bridge photo in its original scale. The text appears next to the photo
instead of on it. The view isn't as dramatic as it would be with the re-scaled
bridge photo, I admit, but at least it looks well-organized and interesting. If
you want to see it, I'll send you both PNG files created in GIMP, since I
haven't uploaded the modified HTML file and images to my website yet.

If this would take up too much of your time to assist with in this forum, just
tell me, or don't reply. I'll completely understand. It occurred to me that you
may have dealt with this problem before and you might be able to recommend a
good solution without going to much trouble, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to
ask you about it.

Gary

-- 
Accordeoniste (via www.gimpusers.com/forums)