The transparency adapter enables you to manipulate images in such a way that particular shades and colors become transparent. When you run the image as part of an HTML document, the transparent area will be invisible. This is particular useful for isolating objects and eliminating the backgrounds and shadows. You can focus attention on the African art objects, without drawing attention to anything else that may have been included in the photograph.

Creating transparencies is a rather simple ten-step process, but it is also rather specific:

1. Use Fetch to download the image you wish to convert into a transparency. Transparencies must be gif images. But you can start with a jpg. You will just have to convert it to a gif before continuing.
2. Open Photoshop. Remember that Photoshop is like a word- processor, and each image is like a word-processing document. You will not see your image when you start Photoshop. All you will see are the pallets that you can use to manipulate images. To look at your image, click on File in the top left, and then select Open. Find your image and click on Open.
3. If you selected a jpg, you will now need to change it to a gif. Click on Mode and select "indexed color." You may notice that the screen will go haywire for a second as it adjusts its colors from one format to another. If you selected a gif, you can ignore this step.
4. Click on file and select "Export." You will see several options. Click on Gif89a Export.
5. A new window will appear in the middle of the screen with a number of options. You will also see a portion of your image. The critical thing in this window is the collection of three little buttons near the middle: a hand, a magnifying glass, and an eye dropper.
   • If you click on the hand, you can move around in your image. To do this, click the image and--while still holding the mouse button down--move the mouse.
   • If you click on the magnifying glass, you can zoom in within your image. Just click anywhere on the image. If you double- click on the magnifying glass, you will see your entire image.
   • Finally, the eye-dropper is what you actually use to create a transparency.
6. To make a transparency, use the eye-dropper to click on any part of the image which you wish to become transparent. Photoshop will isolate that particular color, and will look for everywhere else in the image where that color appears. It will replace that color with a dull gray. When you are finished, everything in that gray will be transparent.
7. You will probably need to click the eye dropper a number of times, since most images have a broad range of color in their backgrounds. By holding the mouse button down, you can move the eye-dropper around, sweeping up every color you touch.
8. When you are finished, click the "OK" button. Photoshop will immediately require you to save the image. The default name it gives will be the original name for the image plus ".gif". For example, if your original name was "mask.gif", the new name will be "mask.gif.gif.". You can change the name, however, and in this case you might want to name it something like "transparency.gif".
9. Your transparency is now finished. You can exit Photoshop.
10. Remember that you must upload the image with Fetch. In addition, if you gave it a new name you will need to alter your HTML document so that it shows the new image.