5 Easy Ways to Remove Backgrounds from An Image In Photoshop

The two major things for people want to do, when learning photoshop is retouching and changing backgrounds. But as beginners, most people struggle to navigate around the plethora of tools available and to select their subjects perfectly.

So here are five easy yet unpopular methods beginners can use to remove backgrounds from your images.

 

1. Sky Selection Method

• Import your image to Photoshop
• Duplicate the layer by hitting CTRL + J
• Select > Sky
• Hit Mask Icon
• Select the Mask icon beside your layer and hit CTRL + I (in case you want to mask the inverse of it)

This will automatically select the sky and remove 

2. Subject Selection Method

• Import your image to Photoshop
• Duplicate the layer by hitting CTRL + J
• Select > Subject
• Hit Mask Icon

 

3. Background Eraser Tool

• Import your image to Photoshop
• Duplicate the layer by hitting CTRL + J
• Select Background Eraser Tool (batched with the eraser tool)

    This will sample only the initial color you start with after which the tool will only erase the background with the same color. It looks like a normal eraser tool but it gives you three options specific to background removal.

Next to the eraser size adjustment section you will find three icons and limit options, they represent:

-        Contiguous – Erases all joined pixels which are of the same color.

-        Discontiguous – Erases all pixels of the same color.

-        Find Edges – Removes the same color pixels which are physically joined together. Similar to the contiguous option.

You can play around with these combinations. And also try increasing or decreasing the tolerance for removing more or less of your background.

 

4. Magic Eraser Tool

• Import your image to Photoshop
• Duplicate the layer by hitting CTRL + J
• Select the Magic Eraser Tool (batched with the eraser tool)
• Make sure Anti-alias and Contiguous options are checked
• Click on the background of your image
• If the removal was not perfect undo it, by pressing CTRL + Z
• Increase/decrease the tolerance for removing more or less of your background

 

5. Easiest Method: Using Quick Actions

• Import your image to Photoshop
• Duplicate the layer by hitting CTRL + J
• Click on the Properties tab on the right-side panel
• Under the quick actions section, select remove background

This works best for images with a plain background.

Note: When working with eraser tools, the major pitfall is that the images cannot be tweaked once the background removal is done. You can only undo your edits.

These are the five easiest ways beginners can use to remove backgrounds from their images. Alternatively, you can also use online background removal tools like Removal.ai or resort to some software other than Photoshop which is exclusively dedicated to serving this purpose.

Try: CutOut8 Pro: The Best Photo Cropping Software

Although these methods are easy and useful. No one method is perfect. You might have to combine these techniques with others to achieve the ideal results which will only come with practice.

However, these methods can make the entire twice or thrice as much faster than what you could have done otherwise.