How To Remove Or Replace a Background In Photoshop

A great way to enhance old pictures

Photoshop is the gold standard software for photo editing. It has the scope to allow you to quickly touch up an old photo or create entirely new designs with ease, with both basic and advanced features to serve many users. One way you can spruce up an old photo is to remove or replace the background in Photoshop.

Thankfully, Photoshop is now easier than ever to use, with basic photo editing like this made easy. If you want to know how to remove a background in Photoshop, you’ll need to follow these easy-to-follow steps. This guide will work best for the latest version of Photoshop, but may also work for older releases.

Removing A Background In Photoshop Using Background Eraser Tool

If you’ve evercut an object from an imagein Photoshop, you should be familiar with many of the steps used to manipulate images. For backgrounds, a special tool called theBackground Erasertool can be used to remove a background from an image in Photoshop.

This is the most well-known method for Photoshop background editing, and should work for older versions of the software.

This will require some finesse (and possibly trial-and-error) to remove the background successfully. If you’re having trouble with more complex backgrounds, you may wish to prefer to use theSelect Subjecttool instead.

Using The Select Subject Tool To Remove Photoshop Backgrounds

TheSelect Subjecttool is a recent addition to the Photoshop toolbox that allows you to select the focus of an image. This is powered by built-in AI technology that can help to separate different elements of an image.

This is particularly useful for background removal. Rather than manually brushing away a background, you can select the main subject of an image that you’re looking to save to remove the background behind it.

Once confirmed, the image background that the Select Subject tool detected will be removed and replaced with a white background. You can then replace the background according to your tastes.

Replacing A Background In Photoshop

You can replace the background of an image in Photoshop by first removing the background and leaving it transparent. You can thenadd a new layerto your image, placed behind the main subject, to create a new background.

If you use theSelect Subjecttool, this automatically creates a background layer that you can either edit or replace. This is the best method for replacing a background but, if you use theBackground Eraseror alternative method for removing a background, you can add a new background layer in a similar way.

You can then manipulate the new layer you’ve inserted. By default, Photoshop should paste this at the bottom of your layered canvas. This means the background layer will be placed below the main subject, replacing the previous image background.

You can then make further changes to this layer (for instance, changing the color, or adding new elements to it) using the Photoshop toolbox menu on the left.

Using Alternative Photo Editing Tools

If you don’t have Photoshop installed, you may be able to remove a background from a photo using an alternative photo editor. This may be trickier to do, but the free and open-source GIMP photo editor should be able to do the job by using the magic wand tool.

If you’re a Mac user, you may be able to use a free Mac photo editor like Photoscape X to remove a background from a photo. If you’re struggling with Photoshop, GIMP or another photo editor, then you may be able to use an online service likeRemove.bgto remove it instead.

Ben Stockton is a freelance technology writer based in the United Kingdom. In a past life, Ben was a college lecturer in the UK, training teens and adults. Since leaving the classroom, Ben has taken his teaching experience and applied it to writing tech how-to guides and tutorials, specialising in Linux, Windows, and Android. He has a degree in History and a postgraduate qualification in Computing.Read Ben’s Full Bio

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How To Remove Or Replace a Background In Photoshop#

Removing A Background In Photoshop Using Background Eraser Tool#

Using The Select Subject Tool To Remove Photoshop Backgrounds#

Replacing A Background In Photoshop#

Using Alternative Photo Editing Tools#