Go back to the topic list under "Power Director 6 And Above", the third topic from the top is "PD7 - VIDEO guide resource for video editors".

Look for "Create A PNG" and that has what you're looking for.

Basically, you create your logo (or lower thirds element like you see done on TV news) on white (or any other solid color) in Photoshop. Use the Magic Lasso (or any other tool that will let you make the selection) and copy and paste to a transparent new file which you can import into Power Director.

A precise selection and pasting to a totally transparent file will solve the "bleed" problem you are seeing when trying to "key out" white background.

The video demo referred to above is a very good one.

Hello Bif,

Yes the tutorial is great. But, the solution to completely remove any all remnants of the background color in a PIP was accomplished in this tutorial by being able to place the picture on a “transparent” background using “Photo Shop” and then exporting that file to PD7. Correct?
I did not see the instructor open PD7’s chroma key page at all. The image appeared to instantly be fully chroma keyed at the moment it was placed in the PIP, by virtue of it having been modified to have a transparent background in Photo Shop. (which must be a feature of/in PS) Am I correct?

What if one manually (and painstakingly), masks out the background of a picture (in a solid color) with say MS Paint, and then places that in the pip? Then one has to open PD7’s chroma key feature/page, and I believe that this is where Dellannator, and I, are often having trouble making the adjustments necessary (at the modify page) to completely remove all remnants of the mask/background color, without having that little glow of the background color still present.

And in my testing, this glow often seems even more pronounced (and harder to adjust out) in PD7, than in PD6.
Is there a tutorial that exclusively addresses the fine tuning aspects of the chroma keying feature in PD7 itself, for those of us who don’t yet have Photo Shop in our arsenal?
Or am I missing something here?

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OK. No tutorial addressing your problem so I worked on it with a few clips I had and here's what I came up with.

An image that was already on clean white, I used the magic wand on white to select all contiguous white pixels. Selected Inverse selection which reversed the selection and left the selection marquee only around the image.

Copied that to a new document with transparent background and saved it as a PNG file. Brought that in PD7 media and put it on the PIP track over a clip that had predominately black background (actually any color would have worked, any background).

And then discovered that the selection trace around my image on white had included some white pixels. And that is probably where your problem is because simple chroma key kind of works almost the same as Photoshop's selection trace process.

So I went back to my photoshop file and this time used the selection tool with the brush set to one pixel width and alternately use the add and subtract brush versions to edit around the image at the pixel level. Then moved the selected image over to a new file with BLACK background so I could see in the PIP editor over in PD7 what was happening around the image.

I used PhotoShop Elements 6 for all this and one of the selection tools subset is a "refine edge" dialog box with some sliders one of which is a "contract/expand" control. I used this to contract the selection trace to one or two pixels into the image and this way eliminated the white. On older versions or in some other image editors you may have to do this one pixel at a time but the trick to doing what you want is to wind up with a file where the image has no background color around it when you move it over to a black background PNG file.

Then when you bring it into PD7, put it on the PIP track and click MODIFY you can use PD7's chroma key to key out the black.

I tried to attach an image showing the final result but no luck there. Anyway the above is a painstaking process but it did result in a PIP image overlaying part of the main video track image and with no visible trace.

Thanks for your efforts here in experimenting with, and sharing the methods you employed. Though I’m not sure I fully grasp it all, there is enough information there that I do understand, and will try to replicate myself.
I have (using the MS paint technique I described), often been able to be 100 percent satisfied with the chroma key results in PowerDirector. But, it is dependent on what is in my main track (that the PIP is applied to), and what color (if black or white is not successful) that I use to mask the PIP.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Cyberlink came out with a version of (or update patch for) PD7, where included in the “Photo Now!” application, was a pseudo version of what is achieved in Photo Shop (with respect to creating an image with a “transparent” background), that could be imported back into PD7’s PIP tracks. This update, or version, may come at a price, but I think that many people would be more than happy to see this option available. Because in my humble opinion, the current stand alone chroma key option/function, though usable, it is an area where Cyberlink might give consideration to adding some refinements.

Perhaps you could suggest this to Cyberlink. And, when you’re standing at the podium, at the annual Cyberlink Awards ceremony, receiving the Contributor of the Year Award (for suggesting this addition to Photo Now idea), naturally, a mention, shout out, or nod to me would be in good form, hahaha.

Thanks again for your response!
Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips

Seems like I got Photo Now bundled with something a few years ago. Had to classify it as one of those "not for me" photo editing programs.

I had an old version of Photoshop 3 I got cheap and when the air force photo lab I worked in converted to digital we had version 5. I got Photoshop Elements 2.0 bundled with a Canon 300D, and purchased Elements 5 when it came out. Version 6 came pre-installed on both a Dell desktop and a Dell laptop so I'm spoiled.

Look on ebay and see if version Photoshop 5 Elements is available at dropping prices now that 7 is being released.

In any Photoshop Elements version you can get right down to the pixel level if you have to, you can work with layers and all sorts of easy goodies that none of the others can touch.

Just my thoughts.

Hi Cranston,

I think you are a member of SMWOV, go to the Extras for editors page and click on the link for Paint.NET, this is a free photo editing program and contains most of the functions of Adobe, Ulead, etc. albeit to a lessor extent of options.
It is a very good free program, it has most of the standard functions, including layers, masks, transparencies, lasso, so give it a try, it won't cost you anything other than some time.

Robert Intel i7 930, 16GB ram, Radeon HD 5770 1Gb,Ver. 14.12 Win7 64 bit
Intel i7 7700 HQ, 16 GB ram Nvidia GTX 1050Ti 4GB dual drives 1 TB SSD + 1 TB HDD Win 10

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Wow, thanks for tip Robert!
I will definitely check it out. And yes, I did just recently join SMWOV (posted my first vid yesterday in "funny").

And thanks again to you too Bif!

Some really nice and very knowledgeable folks on here. I've been using versions (starting with v.4) of Power Director for over 2 years now, and feel like kicking myself for not exploring this site until just recently.
Great stuff and people here!

Thanks guys!

-CP- Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips

Quote: Hi Cranston,

Paint.NET, this is a free photo editing program and contains most of the functions of Adobe, Ulead, etc. albeit to a lessor extent of options.
It is a very good free program, it has most of the standard functions, including layers, masks, transparencies, lasso, so give it a try, it won't cost you anything other than some time.

Robert

That is useful for me to know. I have to keep evaluating stuff like FastStone and Picasa (both also free) for our photo club members here and while it's amazing what they do neither has layers, masks, or the other tools you mention. Looks like I need to grab that one from the editor's stuff and evaluate it for the non video folks I wind up advising.