LR import with alpha channel

<Lightroom novice> Can I import a tif image with a alpha channel in it? It seems as though LR will accept the image and allow development but when I export it as tif or psd it goes out as RGB only - the alpha channel is gone. I don't really "need" to do anything with this channel in LR but I can't have it disappear either. Maybe a import/export setting issue - I hope so...

TLL... wrote:
"All file "edits" are kept in LR's catalog, which should be backed up along with the unmodified "original" files."
OK, got that too. We probably won't save this once the exported images are approved and backed up.
It sounds like you don't need LR's database tools for organizing, adding metadata, or the various Export modules. You could still use LR to expedite Development editing of the RGB image. One possible solution is to Export the LR edited RGB images full size to a separate folder with the same bit depth and colorspace as the original files. Then use a PS Script to Batch Merge the LR export image to a new layer in the original file, something similar to this one:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/546727
This way you still have the original RGB image backed up as a layer, which can also be unselected in the merge script.
TLL... wrote:
"At a later date the Alpha Channel information can be applied "non-destructively" in PS using editing layers to "blend" the IR image data."
This is where I'm getting lost. Are you talking about stripping the 'original' alpha channel from the pre-LR image and inserting it into the LR processed RGB image via PS batch/script? That's my thinking as an one approach.
"These PS modified files can be re-opened in LR and will now show the applied Alpha channel editing layers. Make any further edits you desire in LR and use the most appropriate LR module to "tailor" the output for your specific usage."
No they won't, or do these steps involve only psd files w/alpha channels? The alpha channel (IR data) is still ignored by LR, I have no way to even just keep that information once inside LR nor can I "taylor" a way to save an image with 4 channels of color information inside LR.
I have no idea what you will be doing with the Alpha channel IR image data, but I was suggesting to convert the Alpha channel to a layer mask in PS with 'Blending.' This leaves the Alpha channel as a backup of the IR data. Here's a simulated example using a an IR layer mask I created using LR's B&W IR Develop preset:
You can use PS actions with the Batch processor and/or build scripts to do just about anything. In LR you can create Develop presets to apply adjustments across 1,000s of images with a couple of mouse clicks, but no Actions or scripting capability. Like I said, PS & LR are complimentary, but different. I'm not sure which processing methodology is best for your image "end-use" but I hope this gives you some more ideas.

Similar Messages

Can no longer import QT files with alpha channel

I have been using these client supplied QT with alpha channel files just fine for weeks, then all of a sudden, after a crash the other day, I was unable to open sequences with these files and exoprt them, the exporter would just freeze. the clips played in the timeline, but VERY sluggish.
On the reccomendation of a few posts around here, I removed the clips from the project, and now I cannot import them back in, I get a "the importer reported a generic error" message. I am able to open in QT pro and export to a new file that will import to PPro, but I lose the alpha channel.
As always, I'm up against a deadline and any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have installed QT 7.07, no help.
I'm on a windows 7 machine running CS master collection 5.0, Quad core AMD with 8 gig RAM.
These files worked fine just days ago!!!!
BTW, I just switched over to Premiere a few months ago and to honest I can't understand how anyone would stick with this buggy software, as a professional I've never used anything this bad before.

Welcome to the forum.
Try these. Attempt to re-import after each one:
Clean the media cache database via Edit | Preferences | Media
If step 2 doesn't work, then find all the .qtindex, .mpgindex, .cfa and .pek files associated with the media that's supposed to be in your project and delete them. Then clean the media cache database again.
Launch Pr and while it's launching, hold down the Alt + Shift keys until the Welcome screen appears. Alt resets your preferences and Shift resets the plug-in cache.
To address the other issues you say you've been having with Pr, you should start a different thread (or threads). Coming from other editors, there may be a difference in the way Pr does things that produce unexpected results that may be seen as bugs. More serious issues, such as crashes, can often be caused by 3rd-party hardware like AJA, Matrox or BlackMagic and the associated drivers. Outdated or incorrect drivers for audio and video cards can also cause problems. I recommend that you start troubleshooting those areas first.
Other issues may have workarounds. If you have serious, reproducible problems that have no workaround, then please file bug reports here:
Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form
-Jeff

Sudden problem with importing tiff files with alpha channel (CS5)

OK this is driving me nuts. For years I have been importing image files that have an alpha channel into FCP as.tiff files. I use Photoshop files only when I want to use the layers as they are too cumbersome otherwise). I have recent upgraded Photoshop, etc. to CS5 and now FCP won't import them anymore. I get a message saying: "File error: 1 file(s) recognized, 0 access denied, 1 unknown"
I am not doing anything different and tiff files created in just the same way in an earlier version of Photoshop import and work just fine. Is this a CS5 bug? Does anyone know of a work around. I want to keep using tiff files as they seem to work best for me with alpha channel work (and I don't see why I need to reinvent the wheel).
Thanks
A

I've had a similar issue recently. Same TIFF files downloaded from the same server, different FCP project, new error. I either see"File error: 1 file(s) recognized, 0 access denied, 1 unknown" or I get the even stranger, "Unrecognized file type."
I can open them in PS and save them again as TIF, same results. I know these are not CMYK files but even if resave the TIF as RGB, I get the same results, they are not recognized by FCP.
But if I open them in PS and save them as PNG with alpha, they improt fine.
I have no idea what's going on.
bogiesan
Message was edited by: David Bogie Chq-1

Import QuickTime with Alpha channel into Flash CS3

Is it possible to import a QuickTime movie with alpha channel into an FLA and have the FLA recognize the Alpha channel? When I've done this, it just shows opaque black instead of an alpha channel. I need that black to be transparent so I can see the layers below the video layer.
Thanks in advance for any help.

I don't know the answer to your question.
Do you have a video player where you can verify that the alpha channel in the video is displaying as you expect?.... that is, the background is transparent?
I have used flv files with alpha and a NetStream vid player to overlay Flash video on a Web page.... but not directly in the timeline.:
http://www.mrfilmbiz.com/
the walkon... could have had other action (like Flash artwork) going on in the background... but that may not really be what you are looking for.
But lacking any other solutions, you could have your alpha channel vid file playing in one Flash file over the top of a second Flash file doing the artwork stuff.
Adninjastrator

Using video with alpha channel

I purchased a video clip from istock, the video clip is an .mov and has a alpha channel included. The video clip is santa clause over a black background and tagged at the end is a white solid of the video (I assume this is the alpha channel) How do I use the alpha channel to help key out the vidoe clip that I need. here is a link to the actual video clip I purchased. http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-video-11011749-santa-claus-with-alpha-channel-ntsc.php
Thanks Ja

As Szalam said, the b/w image can be used as a luma matte.
Also check if the actual piece of footage has an embedded alpha channel, i.e when you import it AE should know there is an alpha channel and let you know in the top of the project window when you select the element (or "interpret footage").
Alternatively just drag the footage to a comp and enable the checkerboard background to see if there is transparency. These three approaches are the same...just different ways of finding out about the alpha channel.

What codec to convert .MXF and MP4 files into to use with alpha channels in Ae and Pr CS6?

When I import .mxf File, shot on a Canon C300, into after effects, the alpha channel options are greyed out, when I look in, interpret footage, main. This also is the case importing .MP4 files, shot on a Gopro hero 3. I used to use final cut and using compressor convert the files to pro res 4444 or 422. What's my new workflow for preparing files with alpha channels to use in After Effect and Premiere and do I use Media Encoder to do it?

When I import .mxf File, shot on a Canon C300, into after effects, the alpha channel options are greyed out, when I look in, interpret footage, main. This also is the case importing .MP4 files, shot on a Gopro hero 3.
Better question: Where do you expect that Alpha channel to come from and contain any useful info for transparency? You're making a fuss over a non-issue. Unless you apply keying or other methods of creating transparency, even if there were an Alpha channel it would be fully opaque and then what's the point?
Mylenium

How to render with alpha channel?

Hello,
I am trying to render a comp with alpha channel QT PNG. When i play the clip it's with black BG but if i imported in AE is with alpha channel. How to render in such way that i can play in Quicktime without the black BG? Am i missing something?
Thanks!

robert_ro wrote:
Hello,
I am trying to render a comp with alpha channel QT PNG. When i play the clip it's with black BG but if i imported in AE is with alpha channel. How to render in such way that i can play in Quicktime without the black BG? Am i missing something?
Thanks!
You've successfully rendered the alpha channel. Alpha information is not displayed as expected in some players. IN QT Player, your alpha is transparent but the player has no background so it defaults to black. Check the playback operations and settings/prefs for QT Player, there may be a way to tell it to show alpha information.
bogiesan

Automator or Applescript using png files with alpha channel

I have hundred of png files with alpha channel.
I want to suppress alpha channel.
How can i do it using Automator or Applescript ?
Thank you very much.

You can use the free command line image processing tool ImageMagick in your Applescripts or Automator workflows, as well as from a Terminal shell.
You can download ImageMagick from http://www.imagemagick.org, but Cactuslab has simplified installation by putting together an installer package. It’s available at http://cactuslab.com/imagemagick/. Download the package and double-click on it. Follow the instructions to install. It will install ImageMagick into /opt/ImageMagick and add it to your $PATH by creating a file in /etc/paths.d/. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
The two ImageMagick commands we’re concerned with are “convert” and “mogrify”. Convert is more efficient for multiple and piped operations on the same image file, and mogrify is more efficient for batch processing. Generally speaking, convert will output a file separate from the input file. Unless a path is specified, mogrify will overwrite the input file with the output file. An important distinction.
You can perform various operations on the alpha channel using arguments after either the convert or mogrify command. Two of the available arguments are:
-alpha off - Disables the image's transparency channel. Does not delete or change the existing data, just turns off the use of that data.
-alpha remove - Composite the image over the background color.
Also of use are the -flatten and -background options:
-flatten - overlay all the image layers into a final image and may be used to underlay an opaque color to remove transparency from an image.
-background - sets the background color.
Start off using the convert command with a single image to see the effect and adjust to your liking. Once you’ve achieved the desired outcome, then use the mogrify command to batch process the chosen images.
Before getting into how to use Automator or Applescript in your workflow, use Terminal and the command line to see the effect on a single image. Copy one image to your ~/Desktop. In Terminal change the directory to ~/Desktop by typing the following command and pressing the Enter key:
cd ~/Desktop
Then choose the option you are looking for, -alpha remove for instance, type the following command and press the Enter key:
convert input-photo.png -alpha remove output-photo.png
You can check the alpha channel (transparency) and background in the Preview app, go View > Show Image Background from the menu bar.
Once you’re ready to batch proces, place all the photos you want to convert with the same command into one folder. Copy the folder to your ~/Desktop. Let’s assume you’ve labeled the folder “InPhotos”. It’s prudent to manipulate copies in case something goes amiss. In that event you can copy the folder with the originals again and start over. Create a new empty folder on your ~/Desktop and call it “OutPhotos”. Let’s also assume your home directory is called “Me”. The following command will process the photos from the InPhotos folder and put them in the OutPhotos folder:
mogrify -alpha remove -path /Users/me/Desktop/OutPhotos/ /Users/me/Desktop/InPhotos/*png
According to Apple Technical Note TN2065:
"when you use just a command name instead of a complete path, the shell uses a list of directories (known as your PATH) to try and find the complete path to the command. For security and portability reasons, do shell script ignores the configuration files that an interactive shell would read"
So, you need to use the full path to to ImageMagick commands, unlike in the shell where you can just use the command name.
To batch process using Automator, use the “Run Shell Script” action (note: retain the single space at the beginning of the last line):
/opt/ImageMagick/bin/mogrify \
-alpha remove \
-path /Users/Me/Desktop/OutPhotos/ \
/Users/Me/Desktop/InPhotos/*png
To batch process using Script Editor (Applescript), use the “do shell script” command:
do shell script "/opt/ImageMagick/bin/mogrify -alpha remove -path /Users/pd/Desktop/OutPhotos/ /Users/pd/Desktop/InPhotos/*png"
Further info on ImageMagick:
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-options.php#alpha
http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/masking/#remove
http://www.imagemagick.org/index.php
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-tools.php
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-options.php
Examples:
The original PNG image:
-alpha off:
-alpha remove:
-background black -flatten:
-background blue -flatten:
-channel alpha -evaluate Divide 2:
-channel alpha -evaluate Divide 2 -background black -flatten:

SWF doesn't play with alpha channel

I have a 500Kb FLV file that plays as a progressive download through a 12Kb SWF. This FLV was encoded using On2 VP6 codec to maintain alpha data. This is a logo animation for a website so it is essential that the video plays with alpha channel intact. Just to make sure my animation had an alpha channel, I brought it into After Effects to test with a colored background behind it and sure enough, the alpha channel was there, perfect!
Now in Dreamweaver, when I tested, the FLV plays through the SWF, as it should. However, there is a white square around my video now and the alpha channel is lost.
I even made sure to select Wmode "transparent" and double-checked my code and saw that I had the correct tag <param name="wmode" value="transparent"/>
View my site at http://www.customchromefx.com
I have played many embedded SWF's with alpha's before. I think the FLV still has the alpha, and the problem is in the SWF that plays the FLV that is giving me the white box? Is there a way around this, perhaps a transparent SWF player or something? Thank you for viewing...

Okay, so I figured out a way to make my compressed FLV video play with alpha.
I imported into Flash. Checked the box to "Embed FLV in SWF" and clicked next, and Finish. I made sure the stage area and FPS was set to the same settings as the FLV video.
In publish settings I used Flash 9,then un-checked compress movie and Published. This new SWF maintained the same file size as the FLV, while also playing with the alpha channel.
I then imported the SWF into Dreamweaver, and set Wmode to "transparent."
I now have a 45 second video (originally a 115Mb quicktime) squeezed down to a measly 500Kb SWF that also has an alpha channel. Sweet!

DNxHD (.mxf) export with alpha channel

Hello!
I'm working with one Finnish children's feature film which will star end of this year as an DIT. Movie will include lot's of green screen and the production want's me to do chroma keyed DNxHD 36 renders with alpha channel for AVID editorial. So far I have found out that neither davinci desolve nor assimilate scratch can't do it. Is it possible to render DNxHD with alpha channel from AE? And can Avid import these files with alpha channel? All help is needed and appreciated.
Cheers
Antris

Are you sure your alpha is there? (check by pressing "a" with the mouse over the view window).
Did you try telling FCP that there is an alpha channel? If you did "Send to Shake", Final Cut Pro doesn't expect that the QuickTime it's getting back will contain an alpha channel (It's meant to match your sequence settings). You might try dragging the output directly into the browser to re-import it and see if it recognizes the alpha...
As a matter of fact, maybe you can check in QT Player, load it into QuickTime Player, cmd-j, click on the video track and play with the transparency setting. Try Straight Alpha - that should lead to the background going white - then you'll know its coming out of Shake properly and concentrate on getting FCP to recognize it...
If all else fails (I did just try it here and it worked), maybe try a TIFF or TGA sequence?
post back,
Patrick

Layered Photoshop files with alpha channels

I wondered if anyone had a work around for the problem of layered PSD files with alpha channels not previewing properly in Aperture 3.1.1. I know it's been an issue in previous versions of Aperture but I thought Apple would have sorted this by now, or am I asking too much?

I tested a file last night as follows:
Sent file via 'Edit with Photoshop CS5' (as PSD 8-bit, sRGB color space) > changed background to normal layer > created circular selection around subject and inverted to remove most of image leaving transparent area (about 70% of image) > saved file > closed Photoshop > file updated in Aperture with black filling in the transparent area.
Resent the PSD back to Photoshop (which opened correctly with transparent area) > created two new layers and sent one to background > filled new background layer with White and left top new layer transparent > saved again and closed Photoshop > file updated in Aperture with white showing in transparent areas (no black).
AFAIK, this is how it is designed to work.
My only other suggestion would be for you to create a new empty library (press Option while launching Aperture > Create New..) and then import one RAW or JPEG file and test.
Note - you can reset Photoshop by holding down 'Command + Option + Shift' immediately after launching Photoshop and clicking 'Yes', then set the 'Maximize Compatibility...' to 'Always' again. Doing this prior to sending the file from new library would probably be best.
Apologies in advance if you have already tried this and for outlining procedures that you are already familiar with (just not sure what level Photoshop user you are).

No Method of Batch Export for Clips with Alpha Channels?

Good morning,
As many a flustered editor has eventually discovered, in order for FCP to export sequences with alpha channels to a 32-bit format, the timeline has to be un-rendered at the time of export, or else the transparent parts will appear black in the outputted file. This sort-of makes sense if you know how FCP and render files work, but in a perfect world I think I'd have designed the export interface a bit differently. Now that I think about it, I'm actually working in an Animation (Millions of Colors +) sequence, so converting transparent areas to black makes no logical sense at all.
Anyway, I have several sequences that I would like to export as 32-bit TGA QuickTime files, preserving their transparency. If I Export Using Compressor, the process results in pre-rendering of the sequence, turning the transparent areas black. The same problem occurs if I export QuickTime reference movies from FCP and open them directly with Compressor.
Does anyone know of a way to avoid this silly phenomenon or am I stuck individually exporting each sequence from FCP, one...at.......a................time?
Thanks,
Zap

Thanks, Andy, "Batch Export" eventually did the trick!
I forgot about that tool because I've never actually had to use it before! After playing around with it for a while, I found that as long as the sequence settings for each sequence in the batch are set to a codec with an activated alpha channel, it works just fine.
Thanks again,
Zap

ImageIO PNG Writing Slow With Alpha Channel

I'm writing a project that generates images with alpha channels, which I want to save in PNG format. Currently I'm using javax.ImageIO to do this, using statements such as:
ImageIO.write(image, "png", file);
I'm using JDK 1.5.0_06, on Windows XP.
The problem is that writing PNG files is very slow. It can take 9 or 10 seconds to write a 640x512 pixel image, ending up at around 300kb! I have read endless documentation and forum threads today, some of which detail similar problems. This would be an example:
[http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6215304|http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6215304]
This surely must be resolvable, but after much searching I've yet to find a solution. If it makes any difference, I ONLY want to write png image, and ONLY with an alpha channel (not ever without), in case there are optimisations that that makes possible.
If anyone can tell me how to address this problem, I'd be very grateful.
Many thanks, Robert Redwood.

This isn't a solution, but rather a refinement of the issue.
Some of the sources I was reading were implying that the long save time might be due to a CPU heavy conversion process that had to take place before the BufferedImage could be saved. I decided to investigate:
I loaded back in one of the (slowly) saved PNG images using ImageIO.read(file). Sure enough, the BufferedImage returned differed from the BufferedImage I had created. The biggest difference was the color model, which was DirectColorModel on the image I was generating, and was ComponentColorModel on the image I was loading back in.
So I decided to manually convert the image to be the same as how it seemed to end up anyway. I wrote the following code:
      * Takes a BufferedImage object, and if the color model is DirectColorModel,
      * converts it to be a ComponentColorModel suitable for fast PNG writing. If
      * the color model is any other color model than DirectColorModel, a
      * reference to the original image is simply returned.
      * @param source The source image.
      * @return The converted image.
     public static BufferedImage convertColorModelPNG(BufferedImage source)
          if (!(source.getColorModel() instanceof DirectColorModel))
               return source;
          ICC_Profile newProfile = ICC_Profile.getInstance(ColorSpace.CS_sRGB);
          ICC_ColorSpace newSpace = new ICC_ColorSpace(newProfile);
          ComponentColorModel newModel = new ComponentColorModel(newSpace, true, false, ComponentColorModel.TRANSLUCENT, DataBuffer.TYPE_BYTE);
          PixelInterleavedSampleModel newSampleModel = new PixelInterleavedSampleModel(DataBuffer.TYPE_BYTE, source.getWidth(), source.getHeight(), 4, source.getWidth() * 4, new int[] { 0, 1, 2, 3 });
          DataBufferByte newDataBuffer = new DataBufferByte(source.getWidth() * source.getHeight() * 4);
          ByteInterleavedRaster newRaster = new ByteInterleavedRaster(newSampleModel, newDataBuffer, new Point(0, 0));
          BufferedImage dest = new BufferedImage(newModel, newRaster, false, new Hashtable());
          int[] srcData = ((DataBufferInt)source.getRaster().getDataBuffer()).getData();
          byte[] destData = newDataBuffer.getData();
          int j = 0;
          byte argb = 0;
          for (int i = 0; i < srcData.length; i++)
               j = i * 4;
               argb = (byte)(srcData[i] >> 24);
               destData[j] = argb;
               destData[j + 1] = 0;
               destData[j + 2] = 0;
               destData[j + 3] = 0;
          //Graphics2D g2 = dest.createGraphics();
          //g2.drawImage(source, 0, 0, null);
          //g2.dispose();
          return dest;
     }My apologies if that doesn't display correctly in the post.
Basically, I create a BufferedImage the hard way, matching all the parameters of the image I get when I load in a PNG with alpha channel.
The last bit, (for simplicity), just makes sure I copy over the alpha channel of old image to the new image, and assumes the color was black. This doesn't make any real speed difference.
Now that runs lightning quick, but interestingly, see the bit I've commented out? The alternative to setting the ARGB values was to just draw the old image onto the new image. For a 640x512 image, this command (drawImage) took a whopping 36 SECONDS to complete! This may hint that the problem is to do with conversion.
Anyhow, I got rather excited. The conversion went quickly. Here's the rub though, the image took 9 seconds to save using ImageIO.write, just the same as if I had never converted it. :(
SOOOOOOOOOOOO... Why have I told you all this?
Well, I guess I think it narrows dow the problem, but eliminates some solutions (to save people suggesting them).
Bottom line, I still need to know why saving PNGs using ImageIO is so slow. Is there any other way to fix this, short of writing my own PNG writer, and indeed would THAT fix the issue?
For the record, I have a piece of C code that does this in well under a second, so it can't JUST be a case of 'too much number-crunching'.
I really would appreciate any help you can give on this. It's very frustrating.
Thanks again. Robert Redwood.

Flash Player for FLV files with alpha channel encoded

My goal is to play the the transparent background flash video on the bottom right hand corner similar to the video on this website : http://www.dropshipblueprint.com/
I already have the FLV file with alpha channel encoded. I was made to understand I will need a special flash player that can read alpha channel in the flv file to make the background transparent? Is this correct? If yes, then how to accomplish this or where do I get that player, maybe opensourece player? If the player is not a solution then how do I accomplish my end objective taking into consideration I have the FLV file with the alpha channel encoded. Thanks for your help. Sam

Sam,
Welcome to the forum.
Where do you need to play this "sprite" (the name for such a Flash video)?
If you need to add that to a Video, then there could be a few challenges in PrE.
If you need to add it to a Web site, then Flash Player (free from Adobe) should be able to display that.
Can you please give us just a bit more info, on how you wish to use the sprite?
Good luck,
Hunt

Question: Quick Look in Finder; problems with alpha channels

Hi
"Quick look" in Finder is great for quick presentations of a folders selected contents but it only works with images that contains no alpha channels or masks. Is there any way to work around this to display say PhotoShop documents with alpha channels? Or any plug-ins/applications that can help?
thanks.

This has been broken forever in OS X, and I don't know why, because it used to work just fine. I suspect the engineers did something to QuickTime that causes this problem, but it has been borked for so long I don't remember when the ability to correctly display files went wrong. I just remember that once upon a time all sorts of things from Apple worked correctly in displaying such files, but pretty much nothing does now. This includes the Finder, Preview, QuickLook, and various third-party image browsers that use Apple's own system level image handling abilities, such as VitaminSee or CocoaViewX. When I need to actually see what's there, I browse with Adobe's Bridge.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

LR import with alpha channel

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