

This will make the “cut” more smooth and realistic. In this area, you’ll adjust the pixels around the edges of the selection. Once you’ve got everything selected as you want it, click on the Refine Edge button on the top menu.

The Quick Select Tool selecting the subject with the “marching ants” outline. Give the tool a size that makes it easy to select your subject. It works like a Brush so you can change the size of the tool by using the keys on your keyboard ( to make it larger). It has never been easier to make selections that don’t look like they were “cut and pasted.” There are two, or sometimes three steps.Ĭhoose the Quick Selection Tool from the Toolbox palette: The Quick Select Tool has changed all that. In the past, you may have avoided most of the Selection Tools in Photoshop because they were not easy to use. In this situation you want to use the Quick Select Tool to remove your subjects from an image and place them on a different background. The secret of any image editing is to use the right tool for the job. In this demonstration, you can make this a stronger image by removing the cluttered background to make it less like a snapshot and more like a portrait. But with a relatively new selection tool it’s pretty straight forward, so this is a good example photo for learning the technique. In previous Photoshop versions, selection tools like Magic Wand and Lasso would get confused by the similar colors, and patterns of this type of background, making it a difficult and frustrating project. But it also has a busy background which typically causes problems for many photographers when trying to use Photoshop’s Selection Tools to remove it. It’s the last photo I have of my parents together. This photo (above) was a very spontaneous iPhone capture of my mom and dad, the photo itself isn’t great (lots of things wrong with it technically) but it has big sentimental value for me.
#PHOTOSHOP REMOVE BLACK BACKGROUND HOW TO#
Maybe you used your smartphone to capture a spontaneous moment and now the image needs a little background work? Maybe you want to cut your subjects out of the background to isolate them or use them on a website banner or other marketing material? Whatever the reason, this task has challenged every photographer, beginner or pro, since the invention of the camera! I’m going to show you how to use one of Photoshop’s most underrated tools for easily extracting your subjects from the background.

Perhaps, despite your best efforts at placing your subjects in a pleasing, non-distracting environment, the situation made it impossible. Pick up plenty of Photoshop design skills with our Photoshop for Web Design course, available on SitePoint Premium.Ĭomments on this article are closed.A quick capture of my parents at a coffee shop. Members get instant access to all of SitePoint’s ebooks and interactive online courses, like Foundations of Photoshop. If you enjoyed reading this post, you’ll love Learnable the place to learn fresh skills and techniques from the masters. Likewise, if the background of your currently active layer is black and the subject (or object in the foreground) is much brighter, you can hide the black part by dragging the shadow slider (the one on the left) toward the middle until the black part is transparent. Note that any white area will disappear so you need to be careful how far you drag. If you want to hide a white background, drag the highlight slider (the one on the right) toward the middle until the white part is transparent.Īs you drag, you’ll see the white areas of the image disappear and the checkerboard pattern (or underlying layer) will appear.
