alpha question CS4

I have a softly pleated sheer chiffon texture I have painted and one that also has a bit of a metallic effect with a rippled edge on the bottom. I understand how to do the alpha for the bottom but when it comes to maintaining the delicate levels of opacity I have painted I have problems. I have tried copy pasting it inot the alpha channel but can not seem to get the same levels of opacity it is either too opaque or loses some of the draping I have done. I have tried adjusting levels but not been able to get it successfully. Any suggestions?

Copy & Pasting usually does it even though the Alpha is greyscale. Not sure how to easily fix this one, you might have to actually paint the transparency on the alpha itself be hand or use gradients ....?

I have noticed that drapings and folds have to be much stronger on a sheer texture to have the same effect than on an opaque one.

Not really the perfect answer so hoping for more posts

1. Ctrl-click the first layer's thumbnail, to select all its pixels.

2. Shift-ctrl-click each of the other layers' thumbnails, to add them to the selection. Do NOT include your opaque background layer in this.

3. On the Channels panel (or Channels palette, if you're still using pre-CS4 terminology), click the button at the bottom for "Make new channel fr0m selection". All the grayscale values will correspond exactly with the transparency values fr0m your selection. For any pixels covered by more than one layer, the opacity levels will be added to determine the final grayscale value, just as they should be.



Note: If you don't currently have a solid background layer behind your imagery, you need one. The lowest layer should always be opaque. Otherwise, the layer transparency will get blended against white, the default background for TGA, and the image might look pale. You want the background to include the colors of your actual imagery.

Remember, layer transparency has no meaning for TGA, since TGA files do not support layers at all. The visible transparency fr0m the working PSD will need to be blended against SOMETHING when the TGA is created. What that something is is up to you. Don't let the computer make the decision for you.