Clean Up Photo Background

This is a quick guide, mostly for myself because I always forget between models since I’m slow, on how I clean up my photo backgrounds in Photoshop with a few clicks. There may be a better and faster way, and I am by far from a Photoshop expert and really only use it these days for this one task. Here goes. Instructions below are for Photoshop CS5 which is a bit old, but may be similar on other versions.

This process assumes you already took a photo, ideally using at least a basic lightbox with a background drop cloth. The background color should at least have enough contrast to it from the model being photographed so Photoshop can distinguish the colors fairly easily.

Starting picture.

Step 1: Select all of the background color. I have have two ways are quickest for me.

Option 1 – The first is the magic wand from the tool menu. Hold shift and then start selecting parts of your background until you have them all selected.

Option 2 – Use Select – Color Range from top menu. Then select the dropper with the plus sign from the modal window that opens up. Now start selecting the background again until it’s fully selected. The fuzziness can control accuracy if it seems to be picking up parts of your figure.

Step 2: Replace background color

Once all of the background is selected, go to Edit – Fill. For Use setting, select color. Now select your new background color. If you want it to match the background color you already had, you can use the eye dropper they provide to get a match. Click OK.

Step 3: Complete

Save your image. You have now replaced your existing background with a new chosen color. You can change your background color to anything, but more importantly, I use this process simply to quickly get an even background color free of wrinkles and specs of dirt.