HOW TO EASILY REMOVE A BACKGROUND IN PHOTOSHOP

Easily remove that background!!

There is a myriad of reasons to remove the background of an image in Photoshop. I want to create from my watercolor art and sometimes create a composite for reference. You can let your imagination run wild with your backgrounds. The favorite tool for a digital artist to remove background is to use Photoshop. Although it can get tricky to remove the background, and there are a million ways to do that in Photoshop. Grabbing the eraser tool and going for it, is not the easiest way to remove a background. And contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a Photoshop expert to pull this off!

How do you remove a background in Photoshop CC?

I use the color range removal method for background removal. There are 9 steps I follow to achieve this. Let’s take a look at these:

1) Start with scanning the image in at a high resolution. It should be at least 300 ppi, although I usually scan at around 2000 ppi**. This also means dust particles and smudges will get picked up by the scanner. We will address this in later steps.

2) Open a file in Photoshop, the latest version of Adobe Photoshop as it comes with a lot of useful features.

3) Click on the ‘Select’ option and then click on ‘Color Range’. This will prompt another window to open with a black and white image of the file. If you are happy with the output, you then click on ‘OK’. You will see a lot of black dots scattered on the image, these are the ‘marching ants’ or the selected pixels. Some of the spots may be unselected and this will be addressed as we progress.

4) Next we are going to expand our selection to make sure we capture more of the background. In the menu bar go to Select, modify, expand. You will capture more dust, marks and background by expanding your selection by 1 pixel, or more.

5) Next we will feather our edges for a better selection. In the menu bar go to Select, modify, feather – I usually select 3 pixels.

6) Select, inverse – this will allow your background to mask out in the next step.

7) Now you need to ‘Add a Layer Mask’ by clicking on the Layers option. This will prompt a black and white icon of your image to generate which is the ‘ALPHA’. The white part of your image will be visible, the black region masked out. Now you can see your beautiful artwork and the background is gone.

8) Now you have to work on the Layer Mask and should be selected at all times. To remove any items not selected in the previous steps you will use the brush tool. Black conceals and white reveals, this is important if you want to ‘erase’ something you will use black. If you conceal something by accident, then switch your brush to white, and you can reveal it.

You can also use this to clean up any edges in your image.

9) If your image file has significant amount of dirt, you can use the ‘Levels’ of the mask layer to refine it further. Click ‘alt’ + the ‘Layer Mask’ thumbnail to turn the mask to black and white, and then press ‘CTRL + L’. The levels dialogue box will open and you can adjust the sliders to refine your selection. Watch you edges and you will see the refinement occurring. After you have completed then click ‘OK’ and you can then ‘alt’ + select the layer mask to finish.

Additional tips for using masks:

*Verify you have removed everything. Place a constrating colored background on a new layer below your image layer. I like to use the color fill option in the layers menu. Now you can spot what I need to conceal and to clean up any edges.

*You can also use the Backslash key on your keyboard to show the overlay of your mask.

*If you want to observe your mask, you have to press ‘ALT’ then click on the ‘Layer Mask’ thumbnail. Plus you can use ‘ctrl’ and click the mask and your marching ants will appear.

*Shift + the mask will turn off the mask

*Ctrl + the mask will bring back the ‘marching ants’ to view your selection

*If you want to view the layer mask use ‘alt’ + select the mask and you will view the layer mask selection in black and white. You can then further refine your selection.

I love sharing how I create and teaching about Photoshop and Illustrator. Send me a note of what you want to know and I will put something together. ❤

Happy creating, Jules

P.S. I will be adding a Skillshare class in October on how to remove the background to create new art. Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know when it is available!

Every piece of art I create starts with an interesting piece of inspiration. You can check out my portfolio to see more of my work. I create from the heart and from the soul. To keep up with the latest pieces of art FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM.