This could probably go in the Photoshop forum as well. I want to render my background separate from my figure in Poser so that I can manipulate each seperately in Photoshop Layers. The Background is no problem (make the figure invisible). Now, I want to render just the figure without the background objects. I make the background objects invisible and render my figure over a neutral background color. I am curious if there are better background colors for this so that when you try to remove the background color in Photoshop, it doesn't leave an outline. I've tried white and it works OK. There is, however, a 1 pixel white outline in some areas once I cut it out in Photoshop. I can go into layer properties and add an outer glow and inner shadow. This does help but I'm wondering if anyone has tips that might make the process easier. THANKS!

Save as a png and the background color doesn't come at all.

Save in tiff format the alpha channel is automatically generated by poser, you don't have to do a thing, let the software do it for you.

Or just save directly to .psd format, if you have Pro Pack or P5. The newer versions of Poser have Photoshop file support.

Save your foreground figure render in psd or tiff format. Open your background render in Photoshop. Open your foreground render in Photoshop and open the Channels palette. Ctrl-click on the last channel (the alpha channel). Hold down the Shift key and drag the selection onto your background render. (the Shift key ensures the move will end up in the exact center of the target pic if both pics are the same size.) Wa-la. Note: I think the higher dpi you render at, the finer selection you get.

And at the bottom of the Layers palette in Pshop there are otpions to defringe or remove the white or black outlines.

if I don't do any of the above for some reason, I usually end up rendering with a medium to light blue background. ~S

You say a neutral background color. What do you mean by neutral? I always render on black. If you check "Background: Black" in render options and save as a tiff or psd file, you'll get an alpha channel for the figure outline. In Photoshop you can make your render a floating layer, select the alpha channel and delete the black background. That leaves no outline. Additional you can then invert the selection, turn it into a 2 pix frame and apply a slight (about 1.8) gaussian blur. That will smooth the outline of the figure to merge it better to the new background.

Thanks for all the tips, but I think I am missing a step. When I click the alpha channel on my foreground, it selects my figure. Then I drag the channel to my background pic. What I get is a solid white representation of my figure. Then what? Do I drag my foreground pic over again on top of that white channel or is their an adjustment I need to make to the layer once it's added to my background pic?

Select the alpha channel, make sure that there's marching ants, click on the top full color thumb in the channel menu... make sure the marching ants are there... then create a layer from it (command/control J)and drag the new layer over to the image you want it to appear in. Should be in full color as a separate layer. Then do your defringe to remove any unwanted fringing.

The missing step might be that you haven't clicked the little dashed circle in the bottom of the channel palette in order to create the marching ant effect.

"Thanks for all the tips, but I think I am missing a step. When I click the alpha channel on my foreground, it selects my figure. Then I drag the channel to my background pic. What I get is a solid white representation of my figure." You are missing one step: Hold down the Control key when you click the alpha channel.

I do it by saving as a tiff with a black background, then going to the 'Select' menu in Photoshop, then 'load selection' - it automatically selects the alpha channel, then I simply copy 'n paste on to a new layer. Simple pimple!

Got it! Works nicely! Thank you EVERYONE who took the time to answer my post. I love this forum! Give me a day or two and I will post the pic that inspired this post in the first place. Thanks again everyone!