How to remove a background in Photoshop

The short answer

For most photos: select the layer, then click Remove Background in the Properties panel. Photoshop finds the subject and applies a mask. Ten seconds, and on a clear subject against a distinct background it is genuinely good.

The other methods below exist for the cases where that falls apart: hair, fur, glass, motion blur and low contrast between subject and background.

Whichever method you use, mask rather than delete. Same effort, entirely reversible.

Method 1: one click

1. Select your layer in the Layers panel.
2. In the Properties panel, click Remove Background under Quick Actions.
3. Photoshop adds a layer mask with the background hidden.

Now zoom in and check the edges. Paint on the mask with a black or white brush to fix anything it missed. This is the whole workflow for a huge share of real jobs.

Method 2: Object Selection, for more control

1. Pick the Object Selection tool (W).
2. Hover over your subject. Photoshop highlights what it thinks the object is. Click it.
3. Adjust with the Quick Selection brush: hold Alt to subtract.
4. Click the mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.

More control than the one-click version, still fast. This is the default for anyone who does cutouts regularly.

Method 3: Select and Mask, for hair and fur

The one that matters. Hair is where every automatic cutout fails.

1. Make a rough selection first, by any method.
2. Click Select and Mask in the options bar.
3. Set the View to On Layers or On White so you can see what is happening.
4. Take the Refine Edge brush and paint along the hairline. Do not be precious; a loose sweep works better than careful dabbing.
5. Turn on Decontaminate Colors, which removes the fringe of old background color clinging to the edges.
6. Set Output To Layer Mask and click OK.

Adobe's Photoshop user guide covers each slider in this dialog if you want the detail.

Method 4: the Pen tool, for hard edges

For products, packaging, furniture and anything with clean geometry, a hand-drawn path still beats every automatic method.

1. Pen tool (P), set to Path in the options bar.
2. Click to place anchor points along the edge. Click and drag to curve.
3. Close the path, then right-click and choose Make Selection with a 0.5 pixel feather.
4. Add a mask.

It is slower and it looks better, which is why product retouchers still do it. Twenty minutes of practice makes it far less painful than it looks, and Adobe's Photoshop product page lists which version has the current pen and path tools.

Method 5: channels, for smoke and glass

For semi-transparent subjects, work in the Channels panel: find the channel with the most contrast between subject and background, duplicate it, push the contrast with Levels, then load it as a selection.

Niche, and the only thing that works for smoke, glass and veils.

The one-click button handles the easy 80%. Everyone who does this professionally learned the other methods for the remaining 20%, because that is where the paid work is.

Exporting with transparency

• PNG for transparency. The standard answer.
• WebP for the web, smaller files, supports transparency.
• PSD or TIFF to keep layers for later editing.
• Never JPEG if you need transparency. JPEG has no alpha channel, so your background comes back as white.

Fixing the white halo

Almost always leftover background pixels. Three fixes, in order:

1. Redo the edge in Select and Mask with Decontaminate Colors on.
2. Select the mask and use Filter > Other > Minimum at 1 pixel to pull the edge in slightly.
3. Paint the fringe out manually on the mask at low brush opacity.

When to use something else

If you are removing backgrounds from product photos all day, dedicated batch tools are faster. If you want it in your browser in five seconds, Canva does a background remover too, and there is a guide to that version.

If you need the cutout to sit convincingly in a new scene, that is compositing: matching light, color and edges. That is a bigger skill and it is where the Photoshop certificate goes next.

One subscription opens the whole Graphic Design & Illustration school, including Illustrator and Lightroom.

Mask, do not delete. Zoom in and check the edges. Export as PNG.