Removing Background From Images? EASILY?

[closiTherapi]

Hello all...

I'm new to the forums... Hope this is where my question should go...

Is there an EASY way to remove the background from a photo and make it completely white? I mean, no "magic wand" or transparency %, etc... just a button I can hit to "remove background"... reason being, I need to do this for hundreds of images and it would be very time consuming to do it with the wand, etc... If anyone knows, PLEASE tell me...

Thank you!

[barbieq25]

Nope.

Images are made of pixels. Some pixels represent what the eye perceives as the background. Computers do not come with perceptors. They leave that to us humans.

[ventor1]

There are many simple ways to do this (and not by pressing a button... a tad more complicated), however much is dependent upon the images in question.

Can you attach an image so that specific advice can be given?

Edited November 8, 2011 by ventor1

[closiTherapi]

Thanks for your help...

Yes, I can attach an image... Am I able to just provide a "link" to my website, as all of the images are there... Hundreds of them that I may wish to edit with white backgrounds... Seems like it may be quite a project... If I can't add the link, I will attach a few images... Please let me know...

Kathleen:roll:

[closiTherapi]

Okay, here is an example...

If I wanted to completely remove this background and make it white... Would I need to go through all series of steps or is there an easier way...

Thank you again!

[Sfifer]

You would have to manually cut out the dress. Tehre is no way of just clicking a button and making it happen. I would suggest retaking the photos on a high contrasting coloured backdrop.

[BoltBait]

In the future, it would be handy if you were to take the pictures with a solid background. For example, drape a white sheet behind whatever you are taking a picture of. That way, a simple magic wand operation would be a snap.

[skullbonz]

You can remove most of it in minutes with the majic wand if you adjust the tolerance. Clean it up with AA assistant and the eraser. Then save your finished product with a transparent background as a pdn file for later use as a layer. Of course like BoltBait says take future pics with a different background will make it much easier.

I recently took pictures at a friend's wedding and put together a video for them. I took about 350 pictures and used 132 of them. I removed flowers from some of the pictures that I took and made 6 different frames to put around all 132 pictures before I could make the video. I used just paint.net for all of this,but it did take a few days to do. Manual labor is still necessary in some circumstances,lol. Here is one of the pictures I made for the video,the flowers in the bottom center is her bouquet,each bottom corner flower was in a seperate place on the grass background(tough one to remove) and the sides were from the arch in the background. I made all the frames first and saved as a single layer pdn file,transparent background. Then just went thru each picture and added one randomly. The finish video with stills and motion blew them away,lol. Here is that sample;

[AhmedElyamani]

i don't think it can be ever possible to do this with a " button click " my way of doing this is to add a new layer and outline the needed object , then selecting the outline then c utting from the main layer .. it gets a very good result :

Before

after

of course you'll get much better result if you give it some time

[gozomac]

Hi Newbies

Regarding background removal with one click, go to clipping-path-studio.com try the lite version (there is a tutorial) if it is suitable get the full version, more options

it will cost you only a few dollars or whatever and it works. The programme is called Instant Mask 1.4.

Best regards,

gozomac

[pdnnoob]

Hi Newbies

Regarding background removal with one click, go to clipping-path-studio.com try the lite version (there is a tutorial) if it is suitable get the full version, more options

it will cost you only a few dollars or whatever and it works. The programme is called Instant Mask 1.4.

Best regards,

gozomac

As much as the answer is appreciated, I believe this is still considered advertising...

Also, there are only a few people on the forum with anything related to "newbie" (myself included), and I'm the only one that has posted in this thread (and after your reply too), so that appears to be a comment intended to degrade those who are looking for an answer or answering the question...not a nice thing to say

Anyhow, my suggestion (if you decide to stick with paint.net to do this) is to either follow Ahmed's suggestion (remember to use the AA's_Assistant plugin by dpy), or to use the magic wand to hit most of the background, then cleaning up with the eraser (and AA's_Assistant)

Edited December 14, 2011 by pdnnoob

[KeyLogic]

My method for cutting an image out from a complicated background is to create a new layer and draw an outline on the inside edges of the object using the Line/Curve tool. Once that is complete I then fill the inside of that outline in using the Paint Bucket and then I use the Apply Texture Effect to redraw the original object over the new shape. The result is something like this:

This is a PNG image with a transparent background.

This JPEG image with a black background is to show how you can get

a clean cutout of the object without seeing those annoying white outlines

or blurred edges caused by using the Magic Wand Tool and Feather Effect.

I didn't bother to draw in the bottom piece but you get the idea.

Hope this helps.

Edited December 20, 2011 by KeyLogic

[HyReZ]

My method for cutting an image out from a complicated background is to create a new layer and draw an outline on the inside edges of the object using the Line/Curve tool. Once that is complete I then fill the inside of that outline in using the Paint Bucket and then I use the Apply Texture Effect to redraw the original object over the new shape. The result is something like this:

This is a PNG image with a transparent background.

This JPEG image with a black background is to show how you can get

a clean cutout of the object without seeing those annoying white outlines

or blurred edges caused by using the Magic Wand Tool and Feather Effect.

I didn't bother to draw in the bottom piece but you get the idea.

Hope this helps.

Sweet!!!

[closiTherapi]

That's pretty AMAZING!!!

How long would each image take you to achieve this?

WOW!

[KeyLogic]

That's pretty AMAZING!!!

How long would each image take you to achieve this?

WOW!

Thanks!

It depends on how complicated the object is and how accurate you want the shape to be to the original object.

For me to draw an outline around the image of the dress it took somewhere between 5-10 minutes.

Edited December 21, 2011 by KeyLogic

[TwentyMonkeys]

This is a reply to KeyLogic. Is there a tutorial for this? If not, can you make one? I just tried this but it isn't working. When you say you make a new layer, are you duplicating the original layer or making a transparent layer? You also say you use paint bucket, but do you also use magic wand to select inside the lines you drew with line tool, and what color are you using to fill in the area? When I tried this, the apply texture effect asked me to open a new file, then it filled in the area with just a blue background. One more thing, on which layer are you using the line tool? The original layer or the new layer?

Thanks (Yes, I checked for a tutorial on this but couldn't find one)

Edited January 8, 2012 by TwentyMonkeys

[Lance McKnight]

This is a reply to KeyLogic. Is there a tutorial for this? If not, can you make one? I just tried this but it isn't working. When you say you make a new layer, are you duplicating the original layer or making a transparent layer? You also say you use paint bucket, but do you also use magic wand to select inside the lines you drew with line tool, and what color are you using to fill in the area? When I tried this, the apply texture effect asked me to open a new file, then it filled in the area with just a blue background. One more thing, on which layer are you using the line tool? The original layer or the new layer?

Thanks (Yes, I checked for a tutorial on this but couldn't find one)

Scroll up to welshblue's post and you'll see the link to a tutorial. It will answer your question.

[TwentyMonkeys]

Scroll up to welshblue's post and you'll see the link to a tutorial. It will answer your question.

It doesn't explain anything about the post to which I was referring. I know how to cut out using alpha mask, but his (keylogic) way sounds like you won't get any ragged edges.

Edited January 9, 2012 by TwentyMonkeys

[pdnnoob]

whether or not you get ragged edges depends on how ragged the edges of your mask are (Keylogic's method does nearly exactly the same thing with exactly the same results). You should be using the line/curve tool to make the mask. When you fill in your outline, try to use the highest possible tolerance setting on the paint bucket tool without filling the entire image (usually around 67-70% if you use an opaque black line). Also make sure the line/curve tool has anti-alias enabled. This will ensure your mask, and thus the object, has smooth edges.

EDIT: I just realized which tutorial it was that welsh linked to. I actually wouldn't recommend that one. What I would do is the following (and this is where you apply the above tip)

1. Add a new layer above the image with the object.

2. Use the line/curve tool to make an outline all the way around your object's edge. Make sure you stay inside the edges. You are basically trying to make a silhouette of your object while doing this. It doesn't matter what color you are using because you can always change it to black later.

3. Fill in the outline with the paintbucket tool. (see above for details)

4. Select all (ctrl+a) and copy to clipboard (ctrl+c), then turn off the layer visibility.

5. Use the alpha mask plugin with "copy from clipboard" checked. If needed, check "mix alpha" and/or "invert mask".

Edited January 9, 2012 by pdnnoob

[TwentyMonkeys]

whether or not you get ragged edges depends on how ragged the edges of your mask are (Keylogic's method does nearly exactly the same thing with exactly the same results). You should be using the line/curve tool to make the mask. When you fill in your outline, try to use the highest possible tolerance setting on the paint bucket tool without filling the entire image (usually around 67-70% if you use an opaque black line). Also make sure the line/curve tool has anti-alias enabled. This will ensure your mask, and thus the object, has smooth edges.

EDIT: I just realized which tutorial it was that welsh linked to. I actually wouldn't recommend that one. What I would do is the following (and this is where you apply the above tip)

1. Add a new layer above the image with the object.

2. Use the line/curve tool to make an outline all the way around your object's edge. Make sure you stay inside the edges. You are basically trying to make a silhouette of your object while doing this. It doesn't matter what color you are using because you can always change it to black later.

3. Fill in the outline with the paintbucket tool. (see above for details)

4. Select all (ctrl+a) and copy to clipboard (ctrl+c), then turn off the layer visibility.

5. Use the alpha mask plugin with "copy from clipboard" checked. If needed, check "mix alpha" and/or "invert mask".

Thank You. I'm not trying to be rude, but I already know how to do what you just said. I still need my original question answered about the "apply texture effect."

[jim100361]

Thank You. I'm not trying to be rude, but I already know how to do what you just said. I still need my original question answered about the "apply texture effect."

Use the "Apply Texture" effect (see picture below of interface) to redraw the original object over the new shape.

In this case, you will click on the "Open" and select the original picture.

Edited January 9, 2012 by jim100361

[TwentyMonkeys]

Use the "Apply Texture" effect (see picture below of interface) to redraw the original object over the new shape.

In this case, you will click on the "Open" and select the original picture.

Thank you. That's what I figured. I tried it with just a section, but the lines from the line tool are still there so I'm doing something wrong. I'll just give up on that way and keep doing it this way:

[KeyLogic]

Hi. I might as well make a visual tutorial for the particular method that I use to cutout objects from complex backgrounds but that will have to wait until later. For now here are the detailed instructions:

1. Open the file that contains the image(s) that you want to cutout
   
   
2. Create a new layer, select the Line / Curve tool (the color can be whatever you like), make the brush width at least 4 and start drawing on the inside edges of the object that you want to cut out.
   
   
3. Once the object has been drawn, make sure there are no open ends or gaps and then select the Paint Bucket tool and fill in the object using a tolerance level of 70%. The result should look like a silhouette of the object.
   
   
4. Now select Effects -> Object -> Apply Texture and open the original file again and reduce the Save Brightness all the way.
   
   
5. Now disable or delete the bottom layer and you've got yourself a nice, clean cutout of the object. ^_^

[TwentyMonkeys]

Hi. I might as well make a visual tutorial for the particular method that I use to cutout objects from complex backgrounds but that will have to wait until later. For now here are the detailed instructions:

1. Open the file that contains the image(s) that you want to cutout
2. Create a new layer, select the Line / Curve tool (the color can be whatever you like), make the brush width at least 4 and start drawing on the inside edges of the object that you want to cut out.
3. Once the object has been drawn, make sure there are no open ends or gaps and then select the Paint Bucket tool and fill in the object using a tolerance level of 70%. The result should look like a silhouette of the object.
4. Now select Effects -> Object -> Apply Texture and open the original file again and reduce the Save Brightness all the way.
5. Now disable or delete the bottom layer and you've got yourself a nice, clean cutout of the object. ^_^

Thank You.

<div><br></div><div>Edit:  Also, I noticed that you say to use the line tool set at 4.  I tried it with a higher setting because I was using a very large photo and it didn't seem to work right.  It cut out some of the original, but at a setting of 4 it worked better.  Why is that?   I have no idea why it is showing the html tags on this edit. </div>

Edited January 21, 2012 by TwentyMonkeys