How to Remove the Background behind People in Images - Interesting Photoshop Lesson

This will illustrate how to take out the green or blue key screens or take out the plain backgrounds through Photoshop 5, 6, 7, CS and CS2. 

Often green screens were used in films and to place backgrounds that are difficult to actually make or go to. “Green screening” is very advantageous in various ways. It does not only make changing the background easy,  but it can also create distinct background portraits or grab an object which can be re-designed.

These are the steps to be done using Adobe Photoshop CS which can also be applied to other versions like CS2, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0.

1. Select the picture wherein you would like to take out the green screen.

2. Choose “Color Range” on the Select menu.

3. When the Color Range shows, press in tool, eyedropper. Slide the “Fuzziness” to 30. See the checkbox “Invert”, pick “Grayscale” on the “Selection Preview”. See to it that the “Selection” key is clicked.

4. Using the tool, “eyedropper”, press on the green part of the picture. This can be found on the original canvas or in “Color Range”. Most of the green part are colored white while the rest of the picture is black. In case there are locations due to unbalanced lighting that are not white, press “Shift” and click using eyedropper. Stop when all the green area is chosen.

5. These choices will work fine, but in case white pixels remain, set down the Fuzziness up to the point when it’s simpler to press on the areas. You may also press “shift” and drag the mouse to choose different points compared to pressing per point. For higher accuracy, press “Control” then “+”.

6. When you are already sure with your choice, press “OK”.

7. Now you can view the image you have chosen. In case there are problems such as ants scrolling in and out of your choices, utilize “lasso Tool” by holding down “Shift” for Mac or “Control” for Windows to subtract or add from your choices.

8. You are now set to take out the blue or green screen. Double check if you are on the right layer. Once on the “background”, double click then press “OK” to go back to normal, then choose “Inverse” from the menu “Select”. Now your choices are reversed.

9. Click “delete” or choose “Clear” from menu “Edit” to take out the selection. Now, the borders of the image have a touch of “halo” that encloses it. Remove it by clicking “Layer” then click “Matting”, then press on “Remove White Matte” or by pressing “Layer”, then click on “Matting”, then click on “Defringe”.  Most of the time one to three pixels are enough.

10. Lastly, any background that you choose can be placed at the back of the image. For example, if your image is King Kong, you can set him on the forest background, or with New York City as his backdrop. You can even locate him in the Himalayas, in the Sahara desert or in the middle of the ocean. You can choose any background as long as you have an image of that. Just double check that you put the background on a layer underneath the present layer.

An easy way to do a fast and dirty portrait background is to pick a set of colors in the color selection box then choose “Filter”, then click “Render” and then press “Clouds”.

Now that you removed the background behind people in images you can just adjust the blur and noise to make it perfect.

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