How to Make a Transparent PNG Texture out of any Plastic Wrap Image

By now, you've probably seen many different images using a plastic wrap as a decorative element on designs. Most of the time, the plastic wrap texture can be used as-is, just changing the layer blending mode to "screen" and adjusting the opacity to your liking. But what if you want to have the shiny parts of the plastic over a transparent background so you can later change the plastic color? Today, I will show you how quickly you can make any plastic wrap texture transparent so you can later use it over any of your images.

But before we begin, and if you want to follow this tutorial exactly as described, please download the following Plastic Wrap Textures pack from WeGraphics: Download.

Step 1

Open your plastic wrap image in Photoshop. In this case, I will be using the texture "10" of the Plastic Wrap Textures pack available at WeGraphics.

Step 2

In the Layers Panel, click on the padlock icon to unlock the Background layer.

Step 3

Go to Select > All.

Step 4

Go to Edit > Copy and then go to Select > Deselect.

Step 5

Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.

Step 6

Hold the Alt key on your keyboard and click on the layer mask in the Layers Panel.

Step 7

Go to Edit > Paste and then to Select > Deselect.

Step 8

Click on the layer image thumbnail to exit the Layer Mask editing mode.

Step 9

Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color and pick any color you want in the Color Picker window. In this case, I will be using #da3f3f.

Step 10

Go to Layer > Arrange > Send to Back.

Step 11

Select the image layer and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels.

Step 12

In the Properties panel, click on the Clipping Mask icon and adjust the levels to your liking. In this case, I've setup the Highlights value to 55 to get rid of the black midtones and to gain a bit more of bright on the texture.

Step 13

While holding the Shift key on your keyboard, select both the Image and Levels layers and go to Layer > New > Group from Layers.

Step 14

Lastly, and to save our PNG image with a transparent background, Right Click on the layer group and from the dropdown menu select "Quick Export as PNG" and save the file anywhere you want on your computer.

A Final Note:

Saving the image as a PNG with a transparent background not only allows you to quickly place it on top of images without having to change the blending mode, but also is easy to colorize the texture using a simple Color Overlay Layer Style (or a Solid Color fill layer with a clipping mask).