How to Easily Apply Transparency to Black & White Images

Photoshop Tips & Tricks

As you may already know, there are many ways to achieve the same end result in Photoshop. Turning a black and white image to a black and transparent or white and transparent (or any color and transparent) is not an exception. Although all methods are valid, the one I will show you here is one of the less used, even when is the quickest one. Today, I will show you how quick and easy you can turn your black and white images to transparent ones in less than 5 minutes.

Step 1

Open you image in Photoshop.

Step 2

In the Layers Panel, click over the Padlock icon next to the layer's name to unlock it.

Step 3

With the layer selected, go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options.

Step 4

Hold the "Alt" key on your keyboard. On the "Blend If" tab, and under "This Layer" slider, click and drag over the right part of the black slider all the way to the right and click OK.

Step 5

Press "Ctrl+G" on your keyboard to make a new layer group.

Step 6

With the layer group selected, go to Layer > Layer Style > Color Overlay. Be sure to have the Blend Mode set to "Normal" and the Opacity to 100%. Pick any color you want for your image and click OK. In this case, I will be using #000000.

Step 7

Lastly, and optionally, go to Layer > Merge Visible.

Some Final Notes

Compared to other methods to turn your black and white images to transparent ones (like selecting the color range, copy to a mask or even using channels) using this technique you will get a good end result while saving a few steps on the process. And of course, making your work faster and easier.