From the course: Photoshop: Channels and Masks

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The origin of the alpha channel

The origin of the alpha channel - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop: Channels and Masks

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The origin of the alpha channel

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- [Instructor] In this movie, I'll introduce you to the alpha channel. So, here I am looking at one of the later versions of that toucan from the previous chapter. And notice that my channels panel is up on screen. Also notice that I'm seeing all of my channels in gray scale. That's very important, by the way. And so if you're still seeing yours in color, then press Control + K, or Command + K on the Mac to bring up the preferences dialog box. And then, switch to the interface sub-panel, which you can get to by pressing Control + Two, or Command + Two on the Mac, and then go ahead and turn off this check box Show Channels in Color. Mine's already turned off, so I'll just click Cancel. Now, in addition to the color bearing channels, red, green, and blue, in this case, the ones that actually contribute to colors inside the image, we have these extra, so-called alpha channels. Now an alpha channel might contain a mask, which is typically a gray-scale representation of a selection…

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