Saving and Cleaning Up the Alpha Channel

Follow these steps to repair and save your selection as an alpha channel:

1. Click the Save Selection As Channel icon in the Channels palette to quickly save the selection. A thumbnail labeled Alpha 1 appears in the palette. Deselect.

2. Click the thumbnail to display the alpha channel in the image window. Notice that there are some flaws ”areas that you missed or edges that are not sharp (see Figure H4.5). Choose the Paintbrush, choose white as a foreground color , and paint out the flaws in the white area of the alpha channel.

   
   Figure H4.5: The flaws in the alpha channel

3. While making repairs to the edges, you might want to see the image. Click the eye icon next to the RGB composite channel to reveal the image and the alpha channel at the same time.

4. When the alpha channel is complete, save the document (File ’ Save or /Ctrl-S).