Hi!I have an image which is a drawing of black lines and i need to put it over a picture without loosing definition in both of them,like the drawing and the picture are one.How can i do that?can someone help me please?I do work with CS6.Thanks!

Question

Photoshop General Discussion

Answer 1

Why has nobody suggested the "Blend If" solution yet?
- double-click on the layer thumbnail of the dragon line art
- Hold down <Alt> and drag the left half of the "This Layer" slider to the left, and the right slider as well, but not as much for a nicer blending.
Done. The only trouble is that you cannot add (for example) a color overlay effect to recolour the lines directly because this layer is not considered truly transparent by Photoshop (in Photoline this is not an issue luckily). In Photoshop's case you will have to merge it to a new layer, and only then does Photoshop treat the transparent pixels as "real" transparent ones. Some tips to do that can be found here: Create A Composite Layer | Planet Photoshop
Alternatively, convert the layer to a smart object, and you can apply layer effects and the like without issues. I would choose the latter option, since it is non-destructive.
This method, however, does not take the pre-multiplied edge pixels into account (which are multiplied with white), and thus you lose those pixels. This may be an undesired side effect, especially for more delicate art work. A better approach is to use an "unmultiply" effect.
In Photoline a non-destructive adjustment layer will allow us to do exactly this with any background colour, and with additional controls as well. Unfortunately, such a filter is unavailable in Photoshop. Luckily enough an action for Photoshop is available: http://www.ayatoweb.com/download/down04.html
- download the action (zip file) and load up the actions in Photoshop (I have no idea if this action still works in CC and above - I own a license of CS6 only).
- since this will unmultiply BLACK, you must first invert the artwork with <CTRL> <i>.
- run the action "unmultiply English".
- The black background is removed, and you now invert the artwork back to its original black.
Done! Notice how all of the original edge pixels remained unaffected. Those are now truly semi-transparent, and blend nicely with the background layer(s). A bit of a shame this is a destructive workflow, but the result is great.