drewrocks

I have an image that was created in illustrator and imported into photoshop that uses several transparency gradients in the image. I have figured out how to create a separate channel for the alpha (transparency) but I am trying to find a way to strip the alpha from the image to save out a solid color image so when the alpha map is projected on top of the image file, The gradation will be the same. Flattening the image doesn't work because it flattens the gradient in with the image. To get the same transparency gradient, the background needs to be solid color underneath the transparency map.

Combustion(compositing program) does a great job of this (taking an image created with transparency and separating it out into a full color channel and a separate alpha channel) but I cannot find a way to do it in Photoshop. Again, I have the alpha channel covered, just looking for a way to strip the transparency Photoshop uses to create the transparency we see in the image.

To give you all an example of what I'm after, if you take any layer with transparency in a PSD file and go under Edit>Preferences>Transparency and Gamut and check the "use video alpha" box, it displays the image stripped of its transparency. This would be great, but Photoshop will not let me save the image out like this...its just for viewing purposes on the screen.

Thanks in advance for any help.

ronmatt

Sometimes, if you also explain why you want to do something, it helps me ( us ) get a bigger picture and possibly come up with a solution. [righton] It could be that I'm just dumb, but I have no idea of what you want to accomplish and how you intend to use or apply it.

Silky

Are you trying to save the image as a 32-bit .tga? Or, is it in a case where you have to save a flattened psd, and you cant just turn off any layer masks (if that's how you are achieving the transparency gradient)?
Anyway, I have an action here that might help. It basically takes a translucent image and converts all 255 transparency levels into solid color.