Stuggling with rough, unrealistic edges
when trying to remove backgrounds in Photoshop, you're not alone.
In this tutorial for beginners, I'll share with you the exact professional techniques
I use to remove backgrounds in Photoshop for the movie and TV posters I work on.
Getting precise edges and maintaining
editing flexibility are crucial in my professional practice.
My goal is to teach you these pro-level
techniques in a straightforward, three-step formula.
I'll go slow and deliver the information
in small digestible chunks so you can follow along.
Stick around to the end.
I'll show you how to solve common problems
when removing backgrounds, and I'll share some of my professional brushes.
My name is Jesús Ramirez. Let's get started.
Step one in my Photoshop background
removal method is to select the main subject.
In Photoshop, you have several options to
remove the background, including the Remove background button in the taskbar.
It works fine, but instead, I prefer to go
into the Select menu and choose Select and Mask.
This workspace helps you create precise selections and masks without the
distractions of the entire Photoshop interface.
It gives you more control and leads to better results.
By default, the view mode is onion skin with the transparency set to 50 %,
allowing you to see the selected areas against the original image.
We haven't created a selection yet, so everything is shown at 50 % opacity.
On the left, you'll see the toolbar with a
limited set of tools that allow you to create or edit selections alongside
navigation tools like the Pan and Zoom tools.
The ptions bar is across the top, which
gives you more control for the currently active tool.
And to the right, you'll see the sliders to adjust the selection or mask edges.
There are several ways of making
selections in the Select and Mask workspace.
You can start with the quick selection
tool if you want to select a specific object like an article of clothing.
Just click and drag over the image
and Photoshop will automatically find the edges and expand the selection to match.
If you make a mistake and want to remove
areas from the selection, click the Subtract icon and the Options bar.
But it's much faster to simply hold Alt on Windows or Option on
the Mac as you drag to activate the Subtract button temporarily.
If you want to select the entire person,
then the quick selection tool might not be the best tool for the job.
Instead, you can use the Select Subject button.
But before you click on it, go into the drop-down and choose Cloud.
The Cloud option sends the image to the
Adobe service to process it and generate a better selection.
The downside of using this feature is that you need an internet connection.
If you don't have one, choose the Device
option to process the image on your computer.
Here's a comparison between Device and Cloud.
It's close, but I think Cloud gives us a better selection.
This is why earlier we didn't use the Remove background button from the taskbar.
It only uses your device to create the selection.
With the Cloud option selected, click the Select Subject button.
If you have a selection active, Photoshop will ask if you want to replace it.
We do in this case.
Photoshop then sends the image to the
cloud for processing and it will return a fantastic selection
around the main subject and removes the background.
Quick side note, if you have multiple
subjects in a photo and only want to keep one, try this instead.
Enable the Object Selection tool, check
Object Finder from the Options bar and hover over the person you want to keep.
When they highlight in magenta, click on them to create a selection.
Keep in mind that this feature only
processes the image on your device and not the cloud.
By the way, don't forget to like and subscribe if you learn something new.
Let's go back to our original project.
The automatic selection is very good, but it could still do some work.
Let's fine tune it a bit to get better edges.
I'm going to enable the Zoom tool and click to zoom into this area.
You will see that Photoshop missed a few
spots to add them to the selection, enable the quick selection tool,
make sure the add option is active, then click and drag to add the missing areas.
Photoshop will automatically find the edges and expand the selection.
You could also use the Brush tool.
The difference is that the Brush tool only selects the areas you paint directly over.
There is no automatic edge detection or expansion.
When using the Brush tool, you will need to resize it to meet your needs.
From the Options bar, you can drag on the brush size slider.
However, I prefer to use keyboard shortcuts.
Simply tap on the Left and Right Bracket keys to resize the brush.
The bracket keys are next to the letter P in North American keyboards.
Notice how the brush preview resizes as I tap on these keys.
You can then paint to select the areas the automatic selection missed.
For the sake of time, I won't fix all the small details, but spend the time on your
projects because it will make a huge difference.
That takes us to step number two, refine the hard edges.
Don't worry about hair or other intricate details.
We will work on them in the next step.
It's difficult to see the edges of your selection in this view mode, but you'll
see them much better if you switch to the Black and White view.
In this mode, the selected areas are in white and those not selected are black.
Notice that the edges appear jagged and somewhat blurry.
To improve these edges, we can use the Global Refinement sliders.
In most cases, I only apply two adjustments.
First, I use the Smooth slider to smoothen the edges.
You might have to experiment with how far you drag the slider.
See how much smoother the edges look now?
Then I like to use the Contrast slider to sharpen the edges.
These are global adjustments and they will affect your entire selection.
Don't worry if the hair is not looking good.
We will focus on it in the next step.
In some cases, you may need to feather or
blur the edges, but it's not necessary in this image, so I'll bring it back to zero.
The Shift Edge Slider allows you to
contract or expand the selection to help reduce edge halos.
Let me show you what I mean by that.
I'll change the view mode to on black to
view the selection against the black background.
This view makes the white edges or halos more noticeable.
In this case, Photoshop made a great
selection so we don't have a noticeable outline.
But if I press the Z key to enable the Zoom tool and click to zoom into this
area, you can see how the Shift Edge Slider affects the selection.
If in your image, these edges are too extreme and do not disappear, then use the
advanced technique I will share with you at the end of the video.
Now that we have great solid edges around our main subject, we can move on to step
number three in this formula, which is selecting hair.
But in your image, this could be fur,
check a clothing, or pretty much anything that is not a hard, sharp edge.
In my opinion, you get better results when you separate the two.
The global refinement adjustments we just
applied work great for her body, but not her hair.
In most cases, you will have to work with
hair and other intricate details in a separate adjustment.
Let me show you how to do that next.
From the output settings, choose Layer Mask from the drop down menu and press OK.
Photoshop will remove the background from this image using a layer mask.
A layer mask is a non-destructive way of hiding areas in your image.
This is an essential concept to understand.
A mask hides.
It doesn't delete anything.
So you can bring back hidden content
anytime, which is crucial when editing professionally because clients can often
change their minds or you could easily reveal something you hid by mistake.
The selected mask workspace can also edit a layer mask.
So let's edit it to include a better selection around her hair.
From the Layers panel, when you double-click on the layer mask thumbnail,
it opens it up in the Select and mask workspace.
The mask looks precisely the same as it
did before, but the Global Refinement sliders are no longer affecting it.
So we can work on our hair without
worrying about oversmoothing or damaging those fine edges.
In this step, we'll use the Refine Edge brush tool.
It uses Photoshop's edge detection
algorithms to capture fine details that standard selection tools might miss.
As you brush along the edges of your subject's hair, the tool analyzes the
content differentiating between the foreground and the background.
When using this tool, you can click on the
Show Edges checkbox to see where Photoshop is applying this edge detection algorithm.
Basically, it's the areas you paint over.
Also, you can try the Refine Hair button
to use artificial intelligence to attempt to locate the hair and apply the same
adjustment as the Refine Edge brush tool over the areas it finds.
In this case, it does a pretty good job,
but oftentimes a manual adjustment will be the better option.
Again, you can click on the Show Edges
checkbox to see where the edge detection is applied.
Of course, you can use the Subtract option
to paint over the areas you want to remove from this edge detection adjustment.
When you're done, press OK and Photoshop
will apply this adjustment to the previous layer mask.
After applying these three steps, you may have a perfectly cut out background.
But in some cases, you may need to do a
little more work to get realistic results when removing backgrounds in Photoshop.
Let me show you a few of the most common issues and how to solve them.
Incomplete masks or over masking is
probably the most common issue you will have.
It simply means that parts of the background were not entirely removed,
resulting in remnants of the original background appearing around the subject,
or the opposite, where the mask removes parts of the subject itself.
To fix either of these problems, simply click on the Brush tool from the toolbar.
Now click on the Mask from the Layers
panel, then double-click on the foreground color swatch to bring up the Color Picker.
Choose black and press OK.
Zoom into the area.
I'll do so by holding Alt on Windows or
Option on the Mac and scrolling up on the wheel.
Then paint to hide the remains of the original background.
And to reveal hidden content, make your foreground color white.
Here's a tip. Press D on the keyboard to set the
background and foreground colors to default, which are black and white,
and tap the X key to swap the background and foreground colors.
You can also do the same by clicking on these icons.
Then paint on the mask with white to reveal any hidden areas.
One of the biggest secrets pros have is that if things are too challenging to
select, we just ignore them and mask them away.
Sometimes it's easier to paint it all back
with a custom brush, which you can download from the link below.
To install it into Photoshop, just
double-click on the ABR file that you download.
When you open the brush settings from the options bar, you will see this new folder
containing all the brushes we will use in this video.
Click on this one to enable the flyaway hairbrush.
Then from the Layers panel, create a new layer.
Make sure to drag it below your main
subject, and hold the Alt on Windows or option on the Mac to temporarily enable
the Eye Dropper tool and click on her hair to sample the color.
Then use the Bracket Keys to resize the brush and the arrow keys to rotate it to
line it up with your image as best as possible.
Then click to paint.
I'll do one more.
This looks much better than any selection or mask that I could create.
Also, I've included a brush that allows you to paint single flyaway hairs.
To use it, create a new layer on top of
everything else and paint the single hair strands as needed.
I've also included this brush that will help you paint fuzzy edges.
If you hold Shift and click on the Layer Mask, you will disable it.
Notice that the edges in this sweater would be incredibly difficult to select.
So instead, you can paint the detail back in with this brush.
I'll click on the mask to enable it, and
I'll paint on the empty layer to create a better edge.
It's not a perfect match, but it's close
enough and way better than any mask I could have made.
Let me know what you think about these brushes.
Are they going to help you in your projects?
If they are, then subscribe and share this video with a friend.
It really helps out the channel if you do.
Sometimes you'll work with subjects with varying degrees of blurriness around their
edges because of the photo's depth of field.
A global blurry or sharp edge will not work in these cases.
Instead, enable the Blur tool from the
toolbar and blur the edges of the mask to match the original photo.
Sometimes it helps if you hold the Alt on Windows, option on the Mac, and click on
the Layer Mask to see the black and white view.
Notice that in this view, it's much easier
to see the blur that we're applying to the mask.
You can switch back to the regular view by
applying the same keyboard shortcut, and I'll continue blurring the edges.
If after masking your main subject, you still have a strong outline around it,
click on the mask, go into Filter, Other, and choose Minimum.
This filter will contract the mask.
From here, select Roundness to give you
more control and drag the slider until the edges disappear.
But for more precise control, I like to click on the input box and tap on the up
arrow key to move the slider in smaller increments.
Another great advantage of the Minimum
filter over the Shift Edge slider is that you can apply it locally.
For example, if we only wanted to contract the mask around our hip, we could enable
the Lasso tool and free hand the selection around that area.
Now go into Filter, Other and choose Minimum.
Then contract the mask like we did before,
but this time, it only contracts around the area we selected.
When removing a colored background, some of that color may reflect onto the
subject, causing a color cast around the edges.
This is a common problem when working with green screens.
To fix this issue, create a new layer
above your main subject, then press CTRL-Alt-G on Windows.
That's Command Option G on the Mac to create a clip in mask.
This means that the layer below will
control the visible areas of the top layer.
That's what the arrow represents.
Then click on this dropdown and change the blending mode to Color.
Now, with the Brush tool, hold Alt on
Windows or Option on the Mac to enable the Eye Dropper tool.
Click to select a similar color, then
paint away the edges to remove the color spill.
If this color effect is too intense, you
can reduce the intensity by reducing this layer's opacity.
Then you can continue doing the same in other areas like his shirt or his hair.
This effect is subtle, but when I disable
the layer, you can see that it makes a huge difference.
Once you've removed the background in
Photoshop, you can export the image as a PNG to keep the transparency.
Again, if you learn something new, hit the like button and subscribe.