Rita, I created the figure in Poser 4 against a white background. I saved it as a .tiff (that then automatically has an alpha channel with it--which is basically a 'mask'). What you see in the printscreen is the Poser .tiff image on the right and I have gone up to the selection menu (doesn't matter if you use PSP 5 or 6), then click on 'load alpha channel' and you will get the black and white image you see beside the Poser image. This is the alpha channel/mask that will select the Poser figure. Just click on OK in this. The Poser figure on the right is the result of selecting the figure through clicking OKAY in the select/load alpha channel. You can see the figure is selected without you doing anything else. You can then 'copy' and then 'paste' however you want (I usually 'paste as new layer' on a background). IF--and this is rarely necessary--you feel you are getting just a teeny bit of background and it shows, then while the Poser image is still selected (with 'ants' around it), go to Selection/modify/contract/1 pixel and THEN copy/paste. Does this make sense? It should solve your problem for sure. Diane B

Thanks Diane. I'll try it.

I've had that problem with getting a little of the background along with the picture quite a few times. It's called "matting" in Photoshop. You can get rid of it by contracting the selection, but this might also chop off miniscule pieces of the actual image. Photoshop has a tool for getting rid of black or white matting. Go to Layer, Matting, and click on Remove Black Matte or Remove White Matte as applicable. If the matting is neither black nor white, you can use Layer, Matting, Defringe and select the number of pixels you want to remove all the way around. Gromit

Gromit, Rita is using PSP. See lower post--I showed her about contracting selection 1 pixel (I did it against black background so you can see the difference that 1 pixel made). However, this will probably help some PS folks S. We've discovered her problem is from her not using the .tiff selection in Poser and selecting from alpha channel, so I think she understands now. Selecting from alpha channel saves a lot of 'futzing' around G. Diane B

Sorry, I'm not used to the abreviations, I guess PSP = Paint Shop Pro and PS = Photoshop? I should have known from the picture above but it didn't register. Saturdays here in Saudi Arabia are the first day of the work week, so they're like Mondays in the real world! Gromit Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

REally? I didn't know that. Why is that? They are primarily Islam, no? I thought Saturday was perhaps their day of worship, but I suppose that that is an everyday thing really. I had never even thought of that. Do you have a 'weekend'?--perhaps Thursday/Friday? I know this isn't related to graphics, but its interesting to me. Diane B

Yeah, it's like that all over the middle east, as far as I know. I've spend a total of eleven years in the middle east, but the only two countries I've lived and worked in here are Saudi Arabia and Iran. It is an Islamic thing. Friday is "holy day", when they have some longer prayers at midday or thereabouts. Thursday is the traditional "souk" day, when the Bedouins would bring in stuff to market. So our weekend is Thursday and Friday, and we have TAIW - Thank Allah it's Wednesday - instead of TGIF. It would definitely not be the same in Israel, since Saturday is their sabath, don't know how they handle that. One interesting thing is that despite the arrangement of the work week, Sunday is still "yawm al-ahad", or first day, and all the rest of the days of the week, with the exception of Friday ("jomah"), are numbered. Saturday is "yawm as-sabt", or seventh day. The only piece of artwork I've ever made any money off of was a Photoshop creation of a Saudi woman with her abayah blowing straight back on a city street - I posted that over on the Poser Forum Online a while back. Very photorealistic and framed and hanging in a lot of homes over here. Gromit Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Actually I saw that so thought I knew who "you" were S. Thanks for the education. Diane B