About Preserving grays as well as black

[daniellt]

I ran across a tip the other day which was handy for line art with shades of gray. Then I forgot it, and the site I saw it on. Which is always good right? Anyways in this tip it allowed the removal of white pixels but kept black and grays. Blacks stayed solid while the grays were made a bit transparent. It was a single command done in the channels panel. I never bothered with what Photoshop version that was needed, but tried it on mine. Which is CS5 and worked perfectly. It did not need you to do selections or additional steps as other methods show. Simply was going into channels, hitting a single command, and grays were made transparent and black stayed solid. I kept looking for the longest time online to see if I could discover this tip again to no avail. As others talk about layer properties, masking in some instances, to selection, to various other methods. Not one mentioned this tip. And for myself this tip was perfect. So if anyone knows what it was and can tell me, that would be great. Seems as most tutorials and videos do not know of it. Thanks.

[D Fosse]

White-to-transparency action here:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1395311

Some skeptical comments following, but the action works. The lighter the pixel, the more transparent.

[D Fosse]

Ah, I think you're simply referring to a luminosity selection/mask. Just ctrl-click the channel you want (RGB or individual), and it's loaded as a selection. You need to click the thumbnail.

[daniellt]

@D Fosse As stated above it was a simple command that produced the result upon executing it. I already know of the command to do selection via the channels. Which also does not produce the result in the same way as the command I had found did. Thank you for trying to answer though.

Key points again for understanding

1. Be in Channels

2. Hit command

3. Done (automatically from there it turns grays to transparent, blacks stay solid)

4. No additional steps needed

I have done selections and masks before. I have been using PS for years and just stumbled upon this command. Oddly seems most sites and tutorials also do not know of it. Outside using selections, masks, etc. Which I also did not know. So having done illustration for years makes me feel all 'new' again.

[davescm]

Depending on the image, "blend if" in layer styles may do what you want.

Before :

Right click the layer and open blending options. Then use  "Blend If" (click with  ALT to separate the triangles and introduce a gradual transition)

After :

Dave

[davescm]

I just realised you wanted to keep blacks so just move the white sliders the other way

Dave