I hope someone can offer some advice on this one. Until today, I've rendered Poser props and figures against a plain background and saved the files as .png and when opened in Photoshop CS4 the file is properly layered and knocked out, and I was able to simply drag the layer with full transparency intact out of the original .png and drop it ready to go as a new layer into a separate file. Today, I rendered several figures, fired up Photoshop and when I opened the .png and dragged the layer it wasn't separated from the background. Anyone have any clue?  I know I can knockout the background by hitting load selection/new, but then I have to edit the alpha whereas the image straight from Poser was actually pretty perfect. Is there something in Photoshop I can adjust to have the file open correctly?

Photoshop can only work with what is actually within the image. There are no settings to change to make it work or not work.

If there's a portion that is designated as transparent (like with a png saved with transparent areas) then there you go. If it was rendered from Poser with an ALPHA, then you load the selection and it should act exactly the same - as a perfect cutout. No fiddling - it SHOULD be a perfect cutout.

No Alpha or Transparency, then no cutout.

Sounds like maybe the Poser render settings were inadvertantly changed, and now it's rendering a straight flat image. Just because the format is png doesn't automatically mean it HAS transparency, but that it CAN have transparency.

My personal preference is a TIF with an Alpha Channel - does the same thing.

I hope this helps-

-Lew