Removing a Background with the Cutout Tool

Removing a background is a staple in photo editing: allowing you to easily swap out backgrounds, make image composites or clean up product photos in just a few clicks. BeFunky’s has several options for removing a background within our Editing tools. You can achieve this with our Background tool, however, we will be focusing on our Cutout tool in this article. 

• Our Remove Background tool automatically detects the prominent subjects of your image and removes the background surrounding them.
• The Magic Brush tool uses smart technology to automatically detect where you want parts of your image removed, and trims away excess backgrounds in just a few clicks. 
• You can read more about our Cutout tool for other tips and tricks on using the lasso and shape functions. 
• Once you have removed the background of the image, we recommend saving it as a PNG. This will automatically detect any transparencies in the image and keep them transparent. This is ideal for saving images as layers to use later, or for printing. If saved as a JPG, any transparent background will be white when uploaded.

Remove Background

 

Step 1: Open your image in the Photo Editor, go to the Edit section, and open the Cutout tool.

Step 2: Click the green Remove Background button. You’ll see a preview of your results with a checkbox option to send us feedback on how the background removal worked with your image. If you remove too much of an area, switch back to Keep and brush over the area again to bring it back.

Step 3: Click the blue checkmark button to populate your results on the canvas.

At the top of the Cutout panel you’ll see some options as well:

• The Show/Hide Mask button shows you the mask for your subject selection.
• The Invert Selection button inverts your selection to the background only with no subject.
• The Reset button resets your image back to the original.

Step 4 (optional): If you want to add a new background color instead of a transparent background, click the Background Color selection box and choose a new background color for your subject. 

Step 5. Click the blue checkmark to apply the Background Remover to your image. Choose if you want to Trim Transparency around your image or Export as Layer. Exporting as a layer will create a new layer with your cutout in your Image Manager.

Step 6: Click Apply in the Cutout Options panel.

Magic Brush

Step 1: Open an image in your Photo Editor. Open the Edit menu, then choose the Cutout tool.

Step 2: Before you get started with the Magic Brush, remove the excess background area around your subject. This helps Magic Brush be more precise in its selection.

Step 3: Use a rectangular or circular selection tool and have Cutout set to Keep, then select closely around your subject.

Step 4: Once you have the majority of your subject cutout, choose the Magic Brush icon. Here you'll have a few options.

• Remove: Use this to remove the area of the image you select with the brush
• Keep: Use this to keep the area of the image you select with the brush.
• Tolerance: This slider controls how many colors are included in the selection. The larger the tolerance, the more colors are included.
• Brush Size: Controls the size of the brush tool you use for selection.