Discover all about removing elements from a background in photo editing. Master the techniques of selecting and removing areas, using a paintbrush tool for accurate detailing, and exporting the final edited image, through a comprehensive walkthrough.
Key Insights
- The article presents a detailed process of removing an object from a photo's background. It involves selecting and filling the area around the object with black to make it stand out.
- The article explains the use of a paintbrush tool to remove the object more accurately. It highlights the importance of adjusting the brush tip size and hardness for precise editing.
- The final section of the article guides on exporting the edited image as a PNG file to maintain transparency, while also controlling the file size by restricting the width to 2000 pixels.
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In this video, we'll finish the removal of our hiker from the background. Let’s pick up where we left off.
What’s left is to select the area outside, which should be easy, and we’ll essentially fill that area with black. I’ll select this, right-click, click Fill, and hit OK. This will give us more room.
I’ll right-click, click Fill, and hit OK. Then, I’ll hit CTRL D to deselect. Another way we can do this is with the Paintbrush Tool.
We’ll use the Paintbrush Tool, and since we want to paint black for all of the nature area, I’ll right-click to expand the size of my brush tip and simply paint over some of the border.
In the options bar, we’ll see that the hardness is set to 0%, which is why it looks a little faded towards the edges. I’ll want to increase the hardness to a higher level so I can get closer without worrying about removing any part of the hiker.
I’ll paint around the edges here to give myself a little more space and work out.
Alright, let’s zoom out. For these final sections, it may be easier to use the other Marquee Tools.
We’ll select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, drag a large box, right-click, click Fill, and hit ENTER. We’ve now removed that entire section, and we can do the same thing on top.
Right-click, click Fill, and hit OK.
CTRL D to deselect, then right-click, click Fill, and hit OK. Finally, let’s work on the bottom.
I’ve often found it’s easiest to work in tight and fill out the bulk later.
Let’s now look at our mask.
We’ll hold ALT and click on the mask to preview it.
Hit CTRL D, and if we zoom in, we can see this is a good-looking mask.
We have a few small errors that are white.
Let’s take our Paintbrush Tool, and with black as our foreground color, we’ll click over them to remove them.
Finally, we’ll hit ALT, click on the icon, and we’ll have our hiker.
Let’s now save our work by hitting CTRL S, then go to File > Export > Export As. We’ll export this as a PNG to maintain the transparency.
Additionally, we’ll change the width to,000 pixels, so it’s not too large a file, and click Export All.
We’ll then save it in our folder as 'Hiker on Path Adjusted.png' and click Save.
Nicely done! In the next video, we’ll work on Banner 3 and utilize this hiker in future images.
See you then!