REMOVING BACKGROUNDS IN PHOTOSHOP

Whenever you take a Picture of something you get the Background behind what you’re actually taking the Picture of. Even if you take the Picture against a white Background, the Background is still noticeable.

So what you need to do is to remove the Image from the Background, it sounds easy but it can be a right pain!

Sometimes it is difficult to select the Background, normally what you have to do is trace around the Image using the selection Tool, either Freehand or the Polygon Tool. This is very time consuming and depending on how steady your hand is and how complicated the shape is, it has varying degrees of success.

There are two methods that we use to remove the Backgrounds depending upon the individual shape, and whether the Background or the actual item are easiest to select, we will go through both of them now.

The Magic Wand Tool is a wonderful invention, because it selects colours that are similar to the colour, that you just clicked. You can specify how similar the colour is by using the slider at the top of the options page.

If you click blue then it will select the colours closest to that colour.

Method 1:

1. In the tools box click the Magic Wand Tool.
2. Click the Background Area.
3. Hold down shift and continue clicking different areas that you want to Remove – it doesn’t matter if it’s not very well selected at this point.
4. Click Edit in quick Mask mode – everything not selected turns red.
5. Use the Eraser to add to the selection.
6. Use the Paintbrush to remove from the selection.
7. Play about with these Tools until you have a perfect selection.
8. Delete the Background by pressing the Delete key on your Keyboard.
9. Crop the Image and save it as another File, if you want to keep the original.

This method works quite well if the image is Photographed against a flat, even coloured Background.

Method 2:

If the actual item is a more even colour then just select that with the Tool:

1. Use the Magic Wand Tool and click on the item itself.
2. Hold down shift and continue clicking areas on the item to select.
3. Click Edit in quick Mask mode.
4. Use the eraser to add, and paintbrush to remove from the selection.
5. Click “Edit” “Invert Selection” – this selects the opposite to what you’ve just selected.
6. Press delete to delete the Background.
7. Crop the Image and save it as a new File.

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Removing the Backgrounds of Pictures is quite fashionable these days, because you can use it to make your Images look a whole lot better. It’s especially useful for sales pictures where the Background is completely irrelevant.

Of course you wouldn’t want to remove the Background from your Holiday Photos! Otherwise you might as well just taken the Photos in your home!

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