Detouring a photo consists in removing the background behind a photo subject. This is very useful if you want to integrate the subject in a document for example. If you need to do that, we are going to show you how to.
The process to get rid of an image background is not that hard. With few clicks, anyone can easily remove the background of any image, and we are going to show you how you can do it, for free.
Note: The complexity of removing a background depends on the picture. If it is too complex with lots of colors and designs, it will take a bit of effort to get rid of it. However, if the background is simple with a plain design, you can easily remove it with a single click. Here’s an example below:
Method #1: Remove the background with a Dedicated Tool
There are many online tools that will let you remove the background from your Image, there are both paid and free tools with different levels of precision. In this tutorial, we are going to use the tool Free Background Removal created by Flashfoto.
The tools is extremely simple to use and it is perfect for photos with simple backgrounds. However, even if you have a bit complex picture, it will let you edit your image to make it perfect.
The process is simple, go to the Free Background Removal website and upload your picture via different methods, including Drag and drop, Image URL and by browsing your PC.
Once the image is uploaded, you will see your image along with “Back” and “Start” button located below it. Just click on “Start” and after a short delay you will see your picture with removed background.
Just right click on the picture and click on “Save image” from the context menu to save your background removed picture.\
The results are surprisingly good when you use a simple picture with a plain background. However, when it comes to complex images, the tool do make some mistakes, but you can always edit the image using the tools provided on Free Background Removal website.
If you didn’t get the perfect result and want to edit the image, then you will have to sign up in order to use their editing tools and also unlock other features.
When you are logged in (after signing up), click on “Upload” at the top of the window.
From the next page, choose the method to upload your picture. You can upload upto 100 pictures, making this tool perfect for batch removal of backgrounds (this feature is available after the sign up).
Once you picture is uploaded, click on “Continue” at the end of the page. On the next page, you will see all your pictures that you have uploaded, click on “Edit Result” on the picture to edit it.
In the editing window, you can use the “Reveal” and “Hide” options to edit your image.
“Reveal” means the foreground (the actual item/person) and “Hide” means the background that you want to hide.
When the pointer is set to “Reveal”, all areas that you will click and drag will be revealed and when it is set to “Hide”, all areas will be hidden when you will click and drag over them.
You can also use the resizer on the left to increase and decrease the size of the pointer, to make it easier to hide and reveal areas.
When you are done, click on “Preview” to see your creation and then right click on it and select “Save image” to save the image. You can also click on “Save” located at the top to save the image right on the website to use later.
Method #2: Use GIMP to Remove Image Background
If the online service is not enough for you or you don’t trust it with your stunning images, then you can also use a robust image editing tool to remove the background. In this tutorial, we are going to use the tool GIMP, which is an open source tool and completely “Free” to use.
GIMP is often considered as a free alternative to Photoshop. Although, it doesn’t provide tools as as robust as Photoshop, but still it is very close and can satisfy many people.
Download GIMP from the official website, you will need to have a torrent downloader installed to download GIMP. You use torrent downloader such as uTorrent to download GIMP.
Once downloaded and installed, open the GIMP interface. In the interface, click on “File” and from the menu, click on “Open”. Now, select the image of which you would like to remove the background and click on “Open”.
You will see your image in the GIMP interface. Before starting, we need to add “Alpha Channel” to make sure you get a transparent background image, not with a white background. For this purpose, click on “Layer” and hover your mouse cursor over “Transparency”. From the side menu, click on “Add Alpha Channel” and it will be added to your image.
To remove background you need to use tools from “New Toolbox”, click on “Tools” and from the menu, click on “New Toolbox” if it is not already open. This will open a new window with many tools.
From the tools, double-click on the “Magic wand” icon in the top row that says “Fuzzy Select Tool”. Make sure you double-click on it, as it will open “Tool’s options” as well (required).
You will see a third window in the options of the “Fuzzy Select Tool”. In the options, check the checkbox next to the option “Feather edges”. This option will smooth the edges of your image to make it smooth, instead of a picture that will look like it is ripped from a paper.
When you will check this option, you will see a radius option below it, which you can use to increase or decrease the radius of the area around your extracted image. There are no exact settings for this, but the bigger the picture is, the more you will have to set the radius higher and vice versa. In our case, the picture is small, so 5 radius will be enough for us.
Now to remove the background, you will have to hold “Shift” key and click on the background. You will see moving dotted lines around the main image, this indicated that the area outside this will be deleted.
Click on all areas of the “Background”, but make sure you don’t click on the picture which you would like to extract, in case you do hit, undo it with Ctrl+Z. Try to click as much close to the real image as possible to ensure you remove as much background as possible.
On simple picture, 1-2 clicks in required areas are enough to get it right, but complex images may require more clicks to specify proper areas.
When you are done, hit the “Delete” button on your keyboard and the background will be deleted. If there is still any background left, hold “Shift” and click on it to select it and then press “Delete” button again to delete it as well.
To Save the image, click on “File” and from the menu, click on “Export As”. On the next window, you can specify a name and directory to the image and then click on “Export”. From the next prompt, click on “Export” again and the image will be saved in the specified directory.
If you are having difficulty in removing image background or have any information to add, let us know in the comments below.
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