Before You Begin
Make sure to unlock the primary layer of the image you’re working on. If you don’t, deleting the background can fill it with random elements of your image. Select Window > Layers, then right-click (or tap and hold) your main layer and select Layer from Background, and then select OK. If, after making your selection, you’re still not entirely happy about it, right-click (or tap and hold) the marching ants-like boundary of your selection and there are a whole host of tools to help you fine-tune your selection. Most of the following methods use tools found in the Photoshop Tools menu. If you can’t find that, select Window > Tools to activate it.
Ways to Remove the Background of a Picture in Photoshop
There are a number of methods you can use to remove the background in Photoshop, but some are easier than others. The majority of them focus on selecting the background because once you’ve selected it, deleting it is easy. Once you’ve made your selection, press the Delete key to remove the background.
Use the Magic Wand
When you click an image with the Magic Wand, it automatically selects all adjacent pixels of the same color as the one you selected. It works best in images where the background is clear and heavily contrasts with the foreground. It works even better if there are no transparencies or complicated edges, such as frizzy hair. It’s the fourth-tool from the top in the tools Window. Use it to select the background of your image (hold Shift and continue to select additional elements if required).
Use the Lasso
If your background is a little more complex, the Lasso tool gives you a lot of control over how to select it. The standard Lasso lets you free draw your selection; Polygonal Lasso lets you draw straight lines around your selection, while the Magnetic Lasso will try to stick to the edges of an element in the image. Press and hold over the Lasso (third from the top in the Tools menu) to choose which one to use.
Use a Quick Mask
The Quick Mask tool is a more hands-on and nuanced way of selecting an element of an image.
Use Channels
The Channels option breaks your image’s colors into its components so you can adjust them separately. You can also use it to remove the background. Here’s how.
Ways to Erase the Background in Photoshop
If you’d rather not select a background to only then delete it, you can always just dive right into deleting it yourself. There are some great tools to help you do it too.
Use the Magic Eraser
Like the Magic Wand tool, the Magic Eraser tool can remove big sections of background with similar colors with one click or tap.
