Background Eraser Tool
If you want to remove a background from an image you’re working on, there are many ways to do this using Photoshop. You could select the object you’re interested in, copy and paste it to a new layer. Another way to do it is to use the Background Eraser tool. This tool samples the color at the center of the brush and then deletes pixels of a similar color as you “paint.”
1. Start by opening an image that you want to remove the background from.
2. Select the Background Eraser tool from the toolbox. It may be hidden beneath the Eraser tool.
3. On the tool options bar at the top of the screen choose a round, hard brush. The size of the brush will vary depending on the image you’re working on. I’m working with quite a large image so I’ve picked a brush size of 100 pixels.
Again, on the tool options bar, set the Sampling to Continuous, the limits to Find Edges and the Tolerance to a low number of about 25 20%. A low tolerance limits erasure to areas that are very similar to the sampled color. A high tolerance erases a broader range of colors.
4. Bring the pointer near to the edge of the person or object that you want to remove the background from. You will see a circle with small crosshairs in the center. The crosshairs show the “hotspot” and deletes that color wherever it appears inside the brush. It also performs color extraction at the edges of any foreground objects, so that color halos are not visible if the foreground object is later pasted into another image.
5. Click and drag to start erasing. There is no problem if you bring the circle over the edges between the background and the object (that’s why it’s so cool) but it’s very important that you don’t drag the cross hairs over the edges.
As you click and drag you’ll see the checkerboard pattern appear in the areas you have erased.
Continue erasing around the object. In some places you will need to reduce the size of the brush to ensure that you don’t accidentally erase part of the object. (For example between the head and arms of this image).
Once you’ve done the “hard bit” and have erased an area the whole way around the object, then set a very large brush size finish off the rest of the background.
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I’m not a designer, but I’ve lost my fair share of hours zooming in and tracing to remove a background. I had no idea that feature existed! Thanks for saving me a few hours in the future :).
October 26th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Very handy tool. But it won’t work with all images. Best to have a few techniques up your sleeve if this tool doesn’t work for your image. Quick mask, Pen tool, lasso, magic wand. Tolerance adjustments sometimes make all the difference.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Hi,
Thanks for another great article. The designer seems less angry at me now that I can do the basic graphic tasks on my own without bugging him :)
One question though, will you be focusing one week on common tasks that developers should know how to do themselves in Photoshop? This will help take a lot of load off the designer.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Thank you! That was so straight forward and simple. Not being a designer, I never knew the best way to handle this.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
It is realy magical tool…thanks
October 26th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
It’s a really nice tips.Waiting for next tips.
October 26th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Great article however the image for demonstration is really not that complicated. You could use lasso tool to remove it. Try clean something harder.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Thanks, useful.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Really Nice !!! Big Thanks
October 27th, 2009 at 12:30 am
WOW that’s really cool, I’ve been using the lasso tool to do this since I can remember. I’ll definately give this a go though!
October 27th, 2009 at 1:28 am
Thanks Jennifer!
Countless hours doing much more painstakingly approaches that could have be eliminated using this technique. Simple yet powerful.
Regards,
Steve
October 27th, 2009 at 2:52 am
Thanks a lot…..it gives good result in less time
October 27th, 2009 at 3:04 am
This technique never gave me good results, except with the simplest of images.
October 27th, 2009 at 4:14 am
I wish Photoshop had a “red dress” eraser ;)
October 28th, 2009 at 12:22 am
wow nice i never saw this option..
October 30th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
This is simple and very helpful. I’ve been trying to figure out how to use Gimp when I could’ve just did this simple process with Photoshop.
Thanks
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October 31st, 2009 at 3:12 pm