I've got myself into a right mess here.
I just finished a restoration and have ended up with a PSD that has 1 layer and no background layer (see attached). I need to save it as a PNG or JPG. However, when I flatten the layer it ruins the picture. Any ideas how I can get round this.
Apologies for tiny image but it's the only way I can get past the file size restrictions.
Ben

Ben, don't flatten the layer. If you want to maintain transparency, then save it as a .png.
What do you plan to do with the image? If you plan to place it on a Powerpoint slide, you would not copy and paste in it; you would use the Insert > Image from File otherwise you will end up having the image on a white background. If you plan to print the image, your background will be whatever is on the paper surface, which is usually white. If your intent is to view the image on a monitor, then transparency will be preserved if you do not flatten it but just save as png.
Regards, Murray

I need to print it which means that the transparency will be lost. Is there no way to get this back to a normal background layer?
Ben

Ben, transparency shows through whatever is beneath it. You could make the imaage a transparent background but when you print it on white printing paper, the background will appear white. If you want to maintain transparency you would need to print the image on a transparency. These are readily available for Ink Jet printers.
Regards, Murray

Select all, copy, file, new, paste.

I realise what's happened now. Like a fool I thought I had a gray background rather than a transparent one.
Luckily, I did multiple version saves throught the process so I'll just step back a bit.
Thanks

Ben

Hi Ben,

Putting a background layer back in is easy. Add a new empty layer by clicking on the new layer button at the bottom of the layers pallet. Make sure that you have the new layer selected. It should be highlighted in blue. Press D to reset your color pallet to default. From the menu, select layer>New>Background from Layer. This will create a new background layer filled with white as the bottom layer in your layers pallet.

When you save the picture to a format that does not support transparancy, such as .jpg, PS will also fill in the background with the default background color. So as usual in PS, there are many ways to accomplish the same thing.

Thanks for your help everyone