How to remove the background in Photoshop ss. How to remove backgrounds from complex objects in Photoshop

Any designer, regardless of his qualifications, is faced with a situation where he needs to remove the background from an image, leaving the desired object untouched. And if with simple objects everything works out more or less successfully, then complex ones pose a real problem for the designer.

But before I show a few great ways, how to remove the background in Photoshop, it’s probably worth clarifying some points. For example, what is a complex object? For me, everything that is difficult to cut out with a pen is difficult ( Pen Tool). This category includes: hair, wool, grass, leaves, clouds and so on. It is precisely for extracting such objects that today’s lesson was created.

Method one: Using Channels

Removing the background using channels is perhaps one of the most effective, fastest and most popular methods IF the background is homogeneous. For example white.

For example, a charming girl.

Go to the Channels tab (you can add it through the Window menu) and select the channel that makes the object the most contrasting in relation to the background. IN in this case it's blue.

Let's duplicate it. CTRL+J does not work, so right-click and select duplicate channel. We turn off all channels except the duplicated one. Next, press the CTRL+L key combination and adjust the sliders so that there is maximum contrast between the background and the edges of the object.

Great. Now select the brush tool and paint the object with black. Something like this:

The simplest thing remains. Hold CTRL and click on the duplicated channel icon in the channels panel to create a selection. Then we turn on all previously turned off channels and delete the duplicated one. It is very important that in the end the RGB channel remains selected. Without removing the selection, go to the layers tab and press Delete. That's it.

If the background is not uniform, you will have to tinker a lot. Let's look at the next method.

Method two: Using Refine Edge

This function appeared in Photoshop quite a long time ago. If translated into Russian, the function is called Exact edge. It allows you to delete complex background at complex object as high quality as it can be done automatically. I suggest you practice on cats, in the literal sense of the word.

Using any tool convenient for you, let’s create a rough selection like this...

... and go to Select - Refine Edge.

There are no exact settings. It all depends solely on your image. Through trial and error I came up with something like this:

Of course, the result is not ideal, and cannot be so. You'll have to do a little magic with a brush. But it will take much less time than carving a lion by hand. Others, more effective ways There is no such thing as removing a complex background. That's probably all.

In conclusion

I hope you find this tutorial useful. In any case, I use the methods discussed today all the time when I make banners or collages. Maybe you know other ways to get rid of the background?

When working with graphic files Often there is a need to remove the background around an object. This may be due to the insertion of this element of the photograph into some composition, or the desire to replace the background of the picture. In this regard, a popular question arises: “How to remove the background of a photo in Photoshop?”

Removing a solid background

When considering the issue of clearing the background in a photograph, it is worth separately considering the question of how to quickly remove a background that has a uniform shade in Photoshop. This will avoid the extra work required when removing the multi-colored part of the picture.

Before deleting the required fragment of a photo, it must be selected. You can do this in dozens in various ways, but if you need to highlight a specific shade of color, then there is a special tool in Photoshop that allows you to do this as quickly as possible. By selecting in the panel quick access menu item "Selection", you need to find the item "Color range".

In the window that appears, select the Eyedropper tool and click on the background you want to select. Using the sliders, all you have to do is adjust the selected area and click “Yes”. The result of these actions will be the selection of all areas of the photo containing the selected color. To delete, you will need to press the "Del" key on your keyboard. This method is one of the simplest, high-quality solving the problem, how to remove the background in Photoshop.

"Magic" cleaning

An analogue of such background removal is the Eraser tool, which can perform this action even faster. To do this, just select “Magic Eraser” and click once on the background - as a result, a checkerboard background will appear in its place, which symbolizes the presence of a transparent part of the photo. The disadvantage of this approach is that there is no control over the area that will be deleted, unlike using a quick selection.

In order to provide control over how to delete in Photoshop without consequences for the rest of the photo, it is worth using another “magic” tool that works according to a similar algorithm with the eraser, but performs selection instead of deletion. There are two such tools, and they perform the same actions - and " Quick selection". The only difference is that the "wand" requires step-by-step selection hue, and selection allows you to move the cursor over large space pictures right away.

Quick mask mode

The previous approaches are the answer to the question of how to remove the white background. In Photoshop, in addition to monochrome backgrounds, it is possible to clear and multi-color. Such a need may arise if a landscape that does not meet the requirements is depicted. So how to delete background in Photoshop?

There are also several ways to accurately remove the required part of a photo. The first one is to use the "Quick Mask". A mask is a special mechanism that allows the user, using drawing tools, to paint over the area that needs to be selected. To quickly go to " Quick mask" just press the letter Q on the keyboard. Then, using a brush and an eraser, you need to paint over the part of the photo that needs to be deleted. Returning to normal mode By pressing the same key, we will notice that the required area of the picture will be highlighted - to delete it, all we have to do is press the already familiar Del key.

Removing background using Lasso

If the object around which you want to highlight the background has fairly clear boundaries, then there is another convenient way, how to remove the background in Photoshop. To do this, use the Lasso tool. It is provided to the user in three forms. The first has a similar name, “Lasso,” - it allows you to arbitrarily draw lines for the future selection of an area. With its help, it is quite difficult to accurately select the required part, so the other two tool options are more often used.

The next one is the Straight Line Lasso - it allows you to draw a selection area using straight lines. This way you can draw a clear boundary, for example around buildings or angular geometric shapes.

For more complex elements, for example, a silhouette of a person, you should use the “Magnetic Lasso”. Thanks to its algorithm of actions, it moves along the contour of the object, defining it using the difference in colors - just move the mouse cursor approximately around the element of the photograph.

As a result of using the Lasso, the element itself will be selected. In order to delete, the selection should be inverted by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + I. Then you can delete the background.

Other ways

It is worth noting that, when understanding how to remove the background in Photoshop, you can find several more different ways. However, most of them are quite complex, allowing for clearer removal. However, to achieve good result It is possible using simpler means, spending a little more perseverance and diligence, and even possibly saving a little time.

For artistic design of works in Photoshop, we often need clipart. This individual elements designs, such as various frames, leaves, butterflies, flowers, character figures and much more.

Clipart is obtained in two ways: bought on stocks or searched in public access through search engines. In the case of stocks, everything is simple: we pay money and get the required image in high resolution and on a transparent background.

If we decide to find the desired element in the search engine, then one awaits us unpleasant surprise– the picture in most cases is located on some background that interferes with its immediate use.

Today we’ll talk about how to remove a black background from a picture. The image for the tutorial looks like this:

There is one obvious solution to the problem - cut out the flower from the background with some suitable tool.

But this method is not always suitable, as it is quite labor-intensive. Imagine that you cut out a flower, spending a lot of time on it, and then decided that it doesn’t quite fit the composition. All the work is in vain.

There are several ways to quickly remove a black background. These methods may be a little similar, but they are all subject to study, as they are used in different situations.

Method 1: fastest

There are tools in Photoshop that allow you to quickly remove a plain background from a picture. This "Wand" And "Magic Eraser". Because oh "Magic Wand" Since a whole treatise has already been written on our website, we will use the second tool.

Before you start, don’t forget to create a copy of the original image using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+J. For convenience, we’ll also remove the visibility from the background layer so that it doesn’t get in the way.

The background is removed, but we can see a black halo around the flower. This always happens when separating light objects from a dark background (or dark from light) when we use smart tools. This halo can be removed quite easily.

1. Press and hold the key CTRL and left-click on the thumbnail of the layer with the flower. A selection will appear around the object.

2. Go to the menu “Select – Modify – Compress”. This function will allow us to move the edge of the selection inside the flower, thereby leaving the halo outside.

3. The minimum compression value is 1 pixel, and we will write it in the field. Don't forget to click OK to trigger the function.

4. Next we need to remove this pixel from the flower. To do this, invert the selection using the keys CTRL+SHIFT+I. Notice that the selection now covers the entire canvas, excluding the object.

5. Just press the key DELETE on the keyboard, and then remove the selection with the combination CTRL+D.

The clipart is ready to go.

Method 2: Screen blend mode

The following method is perfect if an object needs to be placed on another dark background. True, there are two nuances here: the element (preferably) should be as light as possible, preferably white; After applying the technique, the colors may be distorted, but this is easy to fix.

When removing a black background using this method, we must place the flower in the desired place on the canvas in advance. It is assumed that we already have a dark background.

This method is also suitable for quickly determining whether an element will fit into a composition, that is, simply placing it on the canvas and changing the blend mode, without removing the background.

Method 3: difficult

This technique will help you cope with separation from a black background. complex objects. First you need to lighten the image as much as possible.

1. Apply an adjustment layer "Levels".

2. Move the rightmost slider as far as possible to the left, carefully making sure that the background remains black.

3. Go to the layers palette and activate the layer with the flower.

5. By taking turns clicking on the channel thumbnails, we find out which one has the most contrast. In our case it is blue. We do this in order to create the most continuous selection for filling the mask.

6. Having selected a channel, press and hold CTRL and click on its thumbnail, creating a selection.

7. Go back to the layers palette, to the layer with the flower, and click on the mask icon. The created mask will automatically take the form of a selection.

8. Turn off the visibility of the layer with "Levels", take a white brush and paint over those areas that remain black on the mask. In some cases this is not necessary; perhaps these areas should be transparent. In this case, we need the center of the flower.

9. Let's get rid of the black halo. In this case, the operation will be slightly different, so we will repeat the material. Clamp CTRL and click on the mask.

10. Repeat the steps described above (compress, invert selection). Then take a black brush and go along the border of the flower (halo).

These are the three ways to remove black backgrounds from pictures that we learned in this lesson. At first glance, the option with "Magic eraser" seems the most correct and universal, but it does not always allow you to get an acceptable result. That is why you need to know several techniques to perform one operation so as not to waste time.

Remember that what distinguishes a professional from an amateur is variability and the ability to solve any problem, regardless of its complexity.

But before I show you some great ways to remove a background in Photoshop, it's probably worth clearing up a few things. For example, what is a complex object? For me, the hard part is anything that can't be cut out with the Pen Tool. This category includes: hair, wool, grass, leaves, clouds and so on. It is precisely for extracting such objects that today’s lesson was created.

Method one: Using Channels

Removing the background using channels is perhaps one of the most effective, fastest and most popular methods IF the background is homogeneous. For example white.

Go to the Channels tab (you can add it through the Window menu) and select the channel that makes the object the most contrasting in relation to the background. In this case it is blue.

Great. Now select the brush tool and paint the object with black. Something like this:

If the background is not uniform, you will have to tinker a lot. Let's look at the next method.

Method two: Using Refine Edge

This function appeared in Photoshop quite a long time ago. If translated into Russian, the function is called Exact edge. It allows you to remove a complex background from a complex object as efficiently as it can be done automatically. I suggest you practice on cats, in the literal sense of the word.

Using any tool convenient for you, let’s create a rough selection like this...

... and go to Select - Refine Edge.

There are no exact settings. It all depends solely on your image. Through trial and error I came up with something like this:

Of course, the result is not ideal, and cannot be so. You'll have to do a little magic with a brush. But it will take much less time than carving a lion by hand. There are no other, more effective ways to remove a complex background. That's probably all.

In conclusion

I hope you find this tutorial useful. In any case, I use the methods discussed today all the time when I make banners or collages. Maybe you know other ways to get rid of the background?

Attention! This article may excite you graphic editors, it leads to learning the secrets of Photoshop, memorizing hot keys and awakens a spirit of enthusiasm in people. Read strictly as necessary and monitor your performance.

How to remove the background in Photoshop - the magic wand

This is the name of the tool with which you will begin to cut out the object. To do this, you need to open the desired image in Photoshop and find it in the toolbar. For users with an English-language interface, it will be written as magic wand tool.

pinch Shift key and click with the Magic Wand on the background until it is all selected. Remember: you cannot release shift until you have selected the entire background, and you also cannot hit the object with the wand. Only the background!

This is what the selection process looks like:

when you have clicked on all the areas not highlighted in the dotted line and your background is finally ready for further work, find the Delete key on your keyboard and press it,
be sure to check the settings in the window that appears, everything should correspond to the screenshot below,

in order in Russian: the first field contains the word “White”, then “Normal”, and “100%”.
click on the word OK,
you will get a cut out object on a white background, but in some places there may be some debris left from the selection,

to remove it, press the English key E, this will bring up the eraser,
carefully erase excess details,
the object is cut out.

This method is great for plain backgrounds and clear objects. But if the background is blurry or highly detailed, the option with with a magic wand may not work. Let's try to look at the second method.

How to remove the background in Photoshop - selecting a layer mask

You'll have to work a little more, but the result will be much better.

open the desired image and immediately copy the layer, to do this, right-click on the image thumbnail at the bottom right and select the “Copy layer” or “Duplicate layer” field,

Now create a mask on the copied layer: in the bottom right, find the desired icon and click,

a small white window will appear near the layer thumbnail, as in the screenshot,
Now take the Brush tool by clicking on Latin letter B,
Your brush settings should be like in the screenshot below,

Be sure to select a black brush color and press the Q key, now the layer thumbnail is highlighted in red. This means you are on the right track.

carefully paint over the object without going beyond the frame or falling into the background,
If you do hit the background with your brush, change the brush color to white and paint over your mistake. Remember: we draw with black, we erase with white,
paint over the entire object.

now press the Q key again and then Delete,
the background has been removed, you can move the object to a new location or fill it with white.

Both options will seem very easy after you try to make them yourself. The main thing is, don’t be afraid to make a mistake, because cancel last action you can always use a combination ctrl keys+ z + alt. And to consolidate your knowledge, watch the video below.