How do I make a trasnparent background - add lighting effect

[JeffGothro]

Ok, to start with I'm not very good with paint programs, and I have a few (Gimp, PSP, PScs3, Real Draw Pro) and I use them all for various things because I cant always do all things in one program (what a hassle huh?), one of things I do in gimp thats quite easy is making transparent backgrounds. Generally I start off with an image thats has a solid color background (look at my avitar pic - the background used to be solid white) I add an alpha channel and with the selection tool in Gimp just click on the white portion of the background, and it selects the background around the picture and on the edit menu I click clear and viola, I have a picture with a transparent background.

Paint.net seems a bit harder to do this though and I havent been able to figure it out how to do it yet, but I heard its possible and quite east in fact. How do I do it?

Also, is there a plugin or something that allows you to add lighting effects to a photo and tweak the effect and move it around a lot like in Photoshop.

If I could do just these two things in paint.net I almost wouldnt have to open any of my other paint programs.

[-Expiration-]

To get rid of a solid colored background, just hit:

Magic Wand,

Click on the solid color background

and

Delete (Clear Selection)

For more complicated images, you might want to use Alpha Masking, or search for Cutting out Images the Easy Way.

However, as of right now, PDN does not have an advanced render effect for lighting and lens flares and such.

[JeffGothro]

Thanks, it worked. And your right, its not always precise and tends to remove some parts that shouldnt be removed like the white part of the shoes pictured below.

other paint program

paint.net