Photoshop - How to remove white background

[JohnTriger]

Hi,

Very often I want to remove the white backgound from images I buy and put them on another colour or save as transparent.

I have used the magic wand to remove the white but i always find that around the edges there is a little whitever pale gray whcih then makes them look poor quality - especially if Im going to reuse on a dark background. Also sometimes the background is not just around the outside, it goes in and out of the image (as an example I just bought an ornate scroll to edge a website and the white is in every nook and crany).

Please help - Im sure there must be an easy way to do this but I cant find it in the help files.

 

[craftygeek]

It really depends on the actual image, there are a few ways to do it...

In the selection menu there is a select color range option - here you can pick a colour in the image to select, then play with a couple of sliders to improve the selection. You may find that you still get some ghosting though.

Another approach that you can try with both the magic wand & the color range selection, is to do the selection on a single colour channel (R, G or B) as these can sometimes give much better results....then apply the selection as a mask to the whole image.

These days I normally take a deep breathe & go for the manual option as I find in the long run, its quicker. I use one of two approaches depending on the image.

If it s a relatively simple item, I use a mask & the brush tool, & simple paint away the background on the mask...I do use a graphics tablet for this though. Setting the softness/hardness of the edge of the brush combined with the brush size is important to get a good result with this.

If its more complicated, then I create a path - draw the path around the subject, go to the paths box & turn the path into a selection, then create a mask from it. The added advantage of using a path, is that if you rename the path in your PS document, it will be saved with it - so if you decide that you need to tweak the outline at any stage, its easy to do.

 

[PixelPusher]

I agree with crafty, the best way is the long hand version...draw paths. They are made of points so you can easily adjust if you need to

+1 Paths

 

[maheshwebads]

Just try this option Layer ->matting-> remove white matte in photoshop cs3
this will remove whiteness in edges

 

[logosdesign]

Use polygonal lasso tools to trace the thinks you want to cut out from the image than apply background on different layer

 

[Adara]

Import the image with "Image" > "Import Image" command and choose "Image" > "Cut Out..." command. Banner shop will convert all white pixels to transparent.

 

[davidmorgen19]

I think you should use path tool or lasso tool to select your object image and copy it and paste in the new background. but i suggest use path tool to select. it helps you to select smooth image.