Sometimes the background in a photograph gets in the way. While you could take a photo and remove or mask out the background in a graphics program, it can often be a tedious and time-consuming operation. There is an alternative: Hemera Photo-Objects. A Photo-Object is simply a photograph of an object with the background removed. It's also a world of design and composition possibilities.

Photograph of a rabbit in a field.

Photo-Object of a rabbit with no background. You can easily place him in any kind of setting you want.

Photo-Objects provide access to thousands of objects with transparent backgrounds — a great time-saver. There are currently half-a-dozen Photo-Objects collections. With Volumes I & II you get a combined total of over 100,000 images in dozens of categories. A printed catalog comes with each package. These collections are both affordable and flexible and are available for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Other Photo-Objects collections are Windows only.

Each volume provides a powerful search engine that allows you to quickly and easily locate the perfect image for your needs. Select a category or type in a keyword or two then view thumbnails of all the applicable images from all the CDs. If you have both Volumes, the program will install an integrated search utility that searches CDs from both collections. If you have only one volume, simply install without that option. The Export Wizard allows you to save each Photo-Object in the format that works best for your application. You can also cut-n-paste or drag-n-drop images to your desktop or software program.

PhotoFont Maker also comes with each volume. It's a fun little utility that lets you create words and phrases in your desired font then fill it with a photo texture. The resulting images can be exported in the same manner as the Photo-Objects.

See my review of The Big Box of Art for a more detailed description of the search, Export Wizard, and PhotoFont Maker.

Transparency Mask
Taking advantage of transparent backgrounds is not as simple as dropping a Photo-Object into your layout. There are still some tweaks that must be done. Fortunately, the included manual does a good job of explaining which format to use and how it works with a variety of consumer and high-end design applications from Corel Print House to Adobe Photoshop.

Photo-Objects have transparency masks that surround the object and block out the background. However, not all page layout programs automatically recognize the bitmap's transparency, turning the background white. On white paper, this may not be a problem. On non-white paper, you get a white rectangle surrounding the object.

On a white background the non-transparent background is not obvious. Place the image over another color and you can see the need for transparency. The rabbit on the right is what we want but the rabbit on the left is what we often get.

Hemera Photo-Objects can export images in a large number of formats accepted by a variety of programs. Of keen interest to graphic designers is the option to export for "Graphics Application that supports 32 bit images with a transparency mask." These include TIFF, Targa, and SunRaster formats. Both QuarkXPress 4 and Adobe InDesign 1.5 can access the transparency info (alpha channel) in these images. Perhaps, in time, all page layout programs will take advantage of the alpha channel transparency.

For programs such as Adobe PageMaker, that can't access this transparency data, using an EPS with clipping path is an alternative. The transparency mask of a Photo-Object bitmap can be converted to an EPS clipping path in programs such as Photoshop or Photo-Paint. Transparent GIF is another option, although this would be suitable primarily for Web graphics, on-screen presentations, and some inkjet printing. Beyond those options, you can simply match the background color of your image to the page color and place the image in the background. The Export Wizard lets you specify a specific background color for the Photo-Object for just this purpose.

Images with drop shadows are problematic. The soft semi-transparent drop shadows turn solid black when exported from the CD. The workarounds for this problem require some fiddling around in Photoshop or Photo-Paint to retrieve the transparency data; and, the results are seldom flawless.

Photo-Objects are 24 bit RGB with an 8-bit alpha channel for transparency. Even though you can drop Photo-Objects directly into many page layout programs, for high-end design you'll often need to make an intermediate stop in a graphics program where the images can be converted to CMYK first.

Bottomline
Irregardless of the sometimes tricky manipulations required to use Photo-Objects for high-end design, they are great fun to use for Web graphics, on-screen presentations, and inkjet or laser printed projects. The possibilities for custom creations are endless. Even when some tweaking is required, the time saved by having these photographic objects free of background clutter is well-worth the $99.99US suggested retail price per package.

The graphic, above, was created in Corel Photo-Paint from four different Halloween Photo-Objects from Volume I. (Individual Photo-Objects: Pile of pumpkins, basket of candy, single pumpkin on its side, child on bale of hay.)

Minimum/Recommended System Requirements
Mac
Power PC/G3
32 MB RAM/64 MB RAM
Mac OS 8.6
115 MB hard disk space/215 MB hard disk space
CD-ROM drive
256 color display/16 bit, thousands of color display

PC
120 MHZ Pentium/200 MHZ Pentium
32 MB RAM/64 MB RAM
Windows 95/98/ME or Windows NT 4.0/2000
115 MB hard disk space/215 MB hard disk space
CD-ROM Drive
256 color display/16 bit, high color display