The erase background tool is powerful, but good results are only possible if you understand how it works. In this tute, we will look at all the options in the tool and use them to extract backgrounds from our images.
The tool works best if the background is all a similar colour, for example, someone against a solid colour or a bright sky.
1I have deliberately chosen a difficult image, as the girl has flyaway hair that i want to keep.
2From the toolbox, select the background eraser tool
3When the tool is selected, the control palette will display the default settings. Select the 3rd button, Sampling:Foreground Swatch This will only erase the foreground colour. Set the tolerance to 25%
Make sure Protect Foreground Colour is ticked.Selecting the option Sampling:Foreground Swatch allows you to sample the background colour most prominent in your image, so the eraser will ignore contrasting colour pixels.
Choosing to Protect Foreground Colour allows you to sample a foreground colour to protect from the eraser.
4Now we need to sample the background colour to erase. Select the background swatch in your toolbox, and double click to bring up the colour panel.
5Select the background colour with the eyedropper, right click to select a 51X51 average. This will make sure that the area sampled will be larger than just one pixel, so many shades of light blue will be included instead of just a singular blue pixel.
Next, select the foreground to protect (we will start with the girl’s hair) I will use a 11X11 average for this. Notice the colours on my background and foreground swatches.
6Choose a nice big size for the brush. Use CTRL (CMD) and the bracket keys({}) to change the brush size.
7Think of the brush as a sort of magic wand tool, that erases selections based on the colour it clicks on. The more a colour is prersent under the “radius” of the brush, the more photoshop will think it is the background colour, and erase it.
8You can now get nearer the edge, just remember that you want more of the colour to be erased, less of the protected colours, under the brush!
9Notice that to select the more fiddly edges, I am positioning the centre of the brush on top of the light blue, not the hair.
10These settings will remain true for similar areas, as soon as we get to areas with different colurs, for example the girl’s blouse, we need to select different colours to ‘protect’ – use the eyedropper to select the new foreground colour, right click to select a 51X51 pixel average.
11 You will need to change foreground and background colours often as you work through the image.
12Now open another image, perhaps an outdoor image like a beach or busy street.
Paste the selection of the girl above it, resize to fit and get rid of any stray white areas with a soft brush eraser.
13To tidy up any stray white edges around the hair, we will darken some parts of the imageSelect the Burn Tool
14From the Range dropdown options, select highlights and an exposure of 25% or thereabouts.
15Now go over the edges of the hair to darken (burn) any stray highlights or white halos on the edges.
16The finishing touches:
Image>adjustments>levels to increase tonal contrast on the background to match the girl image. This is a quick and dirty fix, As this tute is about the background eraser tool, not levels 
Position the girl so her eyes are aligned with the horizon, to make the perspective credible.
You’re done!
42 Comments
Interesting how you have kept the detail in the hair, it works well. I would normally have done this with a clipping path but I could never get a natural ballance with regards to sharpness on the edges.
I will be giving this a go.
Interesting how you have kept the detail in the hair, it works well. I would normally have done this with a clipping path but I could never get a natural ballance with regards to sharpness on the edges.
I will be giving this a go.
hi bubbila
thanks for ur comments- I would normally use clipping paths myself, created out of channels (the great russellbrown.com has a great tute I followed on this). but sometimes, as you say, the detail can get lost. I find for some quick results this tool is the bomb. and it does give great results on hair if used properly.
Thanks for your comments- it means so much that people are actually reading these tutes!
Ivanna
hi bubbila
thanks for ur comments- I would normally use clipping paths myself, created out of channels (the great russellbrown.com has a great tute I followed on this). but sometimes, as you say, the detail can get lost. I find for some quick results this tool is the bomb. and it does give great results on hair if used properly.
Thanks for your comments- it means so much that people are actually reading these tutes!
Ivanna
Absolutely excellent. A really useful and easy to follow tutorial and has added yet another string to my growing bow of Photoshop techniques!
Thank you. I will be checking back for any more tips!
Absolutely excellent. A really useful and easy to follow tutorial and has added yet another string to my growing bow of Photoshop techniques!
Thank you. I will be checking back for any more tips!
thanks peter- i update the site every 2 days with new tutorials- so keep checking!
it’s great to see these tutes are being read- means a lot to me!
cheers
Ivanna
thanks peter- i update the site every 2 days with new tutorials- so keep checking!
it’s great to see these tutes are being read- means a lot to me!
cheers
Ivanna
Hey Ivanna,
That’s a great wee tutorial – think I’ll use this method in the future [obviously not on pictures of myself, but maybe on little Gracie's pics!].
As well as the tutorials, your portfolio is looking great too…
Ciao for now,
Ricky x
Hey Ivanna,
That’s a great wee tutorial – think I’ll use this method in the future [obviously not on pictures of myself, but maybe on little Gracie's pics!].
As well as the tutorials, your portfolio is looking great too…
Ciao for now,
Ricky x
hey rico!
thanks for your kind comments- coming from you, (whose portfolio makes me weep 70% opacity tears of pure admiration) I am well chuffed…
we so need to get together for a drinkie with jamie and all the other peeps for auld times sakes!
speak soon
x
Ivanna
hey rico!
thanks for your kind comments- coming from you, (whose portfolio makes me weep 70% opacity tears of pure admiration) I am well chuffed…
we so need to get together for a drinkie with jamie and all the other peeps for auld times sakes!
speak soon
x
Ivanna
Great tut, Thanks I tried it and it is Fab. Fun too.
Jen
Great tut, Thanks I tried it and it is Fab. Fun too.
Jen
thx for the great tutoria, i’ve been a long time searching and learning how to remove backgroung from hair, and finaly! thx to you… it’s great tutor and very quicky step!
thx for the great tutoria, i’ve been a long time searching and learning how to remove backgroung from hair, and finaly! thx to you… it’s great tutor and very quicky step!
Wow! Please give us more tutorials. I really like your style of explanation. I think yours are my favorite tutorials of all those I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot of them). Beautiful work, too! Thanks.
Wow! Please give us more tutorials. I really like your style of explanation. I think yours are my favorite tutorials of all those I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot of them). Beautiful work, too! Thanks.
I really liked the tutorial but for my purposes I didn’t need a new background I just my logo with the background erased. All went well until I tried to save it and use it in another document??!! Why is it not giving me my erased background as a jpeg?
I really liked the tutorial but for my purposes I didn’t need a new background I just my logo with the background erased. All went well until I tried to save it and use it in another document??!! Why is it not giving me my erased background as a jpeg?
I’ve seen tutorials like this whenever the subject is on a plain background.
How about doing an example when the subject has flyaway hair and is on a busy background? With like trees and grass behind the head?….
I’ve seen tutorials like this whenever the subject is on a plain background.
How about doing an example when the subject has flyaway hair and is on a busy background? With like trees and grass behind the head?….
Your tutorials are really amazing! My interest in learning Photoshop is increasing by your tutorials! Thank you
Your tutorials are really amazing! My interest in learning Photoshop is increasing by your tutorials! Thank you
Hi , I would like to ask your help to extract italics text from an old and damaged document. In fact, I want to improve the text and then to “paste” on a background that simulates an old paper. I would like to attach a portion of the image so you can take a look, but apparently I can not do that from here. Am I wrong?
Regards
Hi , I would like to ask your help to extract italics text from an old and damaged document. In fact, I want to improve the text and then to “paste” on a background that simulates an old paper. I would like to attach a portion of the image so you can take a look, but apparently I can not do that from here. Am I wrong?
Regards
This is absolutely awesome tutorial. Would love to see more. Thanks for sharing.
This is absolutely awesome tutorial. Would love to see more. Thanks for sharing.
i prefer the extract filter plug in, but this was really clean too.
i prefer the extract filter plug in, but this was really clean too.
Oh photoshop, you never stop amazing me.
Oh photoshop, you never stop amazing me.
Clean and direct Tutorial.
I was searching for something like this long time ago; cause I´m a regular user but with fireworks by macromedia, and I need erase the background in hundred of photos by week; Im starting to work in a gifth catalog enterprise.
Again I think is a very useful tuto.
Clean and direct Tutorial.
I was searching for something like this long time ago; cause I´m a regular user but with fireworks by macromedia, and I need erase the background in hundred of photos by week; Im starting to work in a gifth catalog enterprise.
Again I think is a very useful tuto.
wow thats a nice tutorial. Thanks for sharing =D
Wooaa!! This Tuto is excelent!!! Thanks, it was very effective for me.
Thanks for great tutorial! I’ve learned the new things today. I didn’t even know I could erase the background so perfectly before I’ve read your tutorial. Great works!
Hi Ivanna
This is a truly a very helpfull tutorial – actully its hard to find good models on a correct background as per the site requirement and this tutorial helps all web guys to solve main problem..
yeah wish u very good luck..
Best Regards
Sachin
Hi Ivanna,
This is a truly a very helpfull tutorial – actully its hard to find good models on a correct background as per the site requirement and this tutorial helps all web guys to solve main problem..
yeah wish u very good luck..
Best Regards
Sachin
Hats off..
who ever had done this…
i tried it and it works…..
just try with different options u’ll get good effects..
-AMIT
Interesting use of tools, i never knew that background eraser does that… i just ignored it and used the magic wand on small spots and the normal eraser for selection fails, or magic want + quickmask and gaussian blur.
Nice hint, thank you.
Hey, this looks really good but it doesn’t fit with photoshop elements… is there a way to do this with elements?
Thanks.
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