In this tutorial, we will be using Photoshop’s Channel Palette along with Layer Masking to learn an easy technique that can be used to remove the background from an image.
STEP 1: Find an image to use for the tutorial and open it up in Photoshop. This technique works best with an image that has a solid and/or clearly defined background. For this tutorial I used a stock image from sxc.hu which can be found here: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/l/c/co/colinbroug/1284789_21675104.jpg
STEP 2: Find the appropriate channel to use as a base for your mask. To do this, click on the Channels Palette, and look for the channel that separates the background from the foreground with the most contrast. In my example image, this happened to be the blue channel (because the background is completely blue).
STEP 3: Drag the “Blue” channel into the new channel button as shown below. This will make a new channel, “Blue copy”, which we will be using as a base for our mask.
STEP 4: In order to completely remove the background, yet keep the foreground intact, the background must be completely white and the foreground completely black. To do this, click on the “Blue copy” channel, then bring up the Levels tool (CTRL + L) and move the sliders around to make the background as white as possible, and the foreground as black as possible. When you are happy with the results, press OK.
STEP 5: Brush in any background areas that did not turn completely white with a soft white brush (#ffffff), and any foreground areas that did not turn completely black with a soft black brush (#000000).
Before:
After:
STEP 6: Click on the RGB Channel in the Channels Palette to display all of the channels, then hide the “Blue copy” channel.
STEP 7: Load your new “Blue copy” channel as a selection by clicking “Load Selection” under the Selection Menu. Be sure to check off the Invert option.
STEP 8: Now that you have loaded your selection, click the layer that your image was placed on from the Layers Palette, then press the Add Layer Mask button. Your background should now be transparent.
STEP 9: At this point, the only thing left to do is to add your own custom background image. I have added a winter scene to the background in my example below (also found on sxc.hu):
