How To Use The Background Eraser To Erase Only A Background Color In A Single Layer Photo

The Background Eraser Tool In Photoshop

In this tutorial, we'll learn all about the Background Eraser Tool in Photoshop and how to apply information technology to easily remove background areas of an paradigm.

The Groundwork Eraser Tool is specially useful with photos that incorporate lots of fine detail along the edges between your subject and its background, like, for instance, if you want to erase the sky in an epitome without erasing the trees below it.

But don't let the proper noun fool you. The Background Eraser really has null to do with erasing backgrounds, since Photoshop has no way of knowing what'southward considered the groundwork in a photo and what isn't. It can just as easily be used to erase any function of an image, and that'southward considering the Background Eraser is actually a color eraser. Information technology samples colors every bit y'all drag the tool over them and erases merely those colors, leaving all other colors untouched. And so if your sky is blueish and your trees are green, the Background Eraser tin can easily erase the bluish heaven while leaving the light-green trees solitary, at to the lowest degree until someone comes along and cuts them downward, which gives us all the more reason to protect them in the image.

This version of our Groundwork Eraser tutorial has been updated for Photoshop CS6 and is as well fully compatible with Photoshop CC (Artistic Cloud). If you lot're using Photoshop CS5 or earlier, you tin still follow forth hither, or you tin check out the original Groundwork Eraser tutorial.

The Background Eraser is, without a uncertainty, i of the all-time tools in Photoshop for removing unwanted areas of a photo, but it's non perfect and it does have ane serious drawback. As an eraser tool, information technology physically deletes pixels from the image, which means that once they're gone, they're gone for skillful. To avoid damaging your original prototype, it'due south a good idea to indistinguishable your Background layer first earlier erasing any pixels, or piece of work on a separate copy of your paradigm.

How To Remove Backgrounds With Photoshop

Selecting The Background Eraser Tool

By default, the Groundwork Eraser is hiding behind Photoshop'due south regular Eraser Tool in the Tools panel. To select it, right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the Eraser Tool, so choose the Background Eraser Tool from the fly-out menu that appears:

The Groundwork Eraser Tool is plant nested nether the regular Eraser Tool in the Tools console.

With the Background Eraser selected, your mouse cursor volition alter into a circle with a pocket-sized crosshair in the center of it:

The Background Eraser'due south cursor is made up of a simple circumvolve with a crosshair in the heart.

Adjusting The Size Of The Brush

The Background Eraser Tool is really a brush, and just like Photoshop's other Brush tools, you can adjust its size direct from your keyboard. Press the left bracket key ( [ ) repeatedly to brand information technology smaller or the right subclass fundamental ( ] ) to make information technology larger. You lot tin can besides adjust the hardness of the edges past adding the Shift key. Printing Shift+left bracket ( [ ) repeatedly to make the edges softer or Shift+right subclass ( ] ) to make them harder. In general, you'll want to use hard edges with the Background Eraser since soft edges tin can leave many background artifacts behind.

How The Background Eraser Works

Before we look at a real-world example of Photoshop's Background Eraser Tool in action, let's learn the nuts of how it works. Here's a simple image made up of nothing more than a few blue and greenish vertical columns:

Another masterpiece created in Photoshop.

If nosotros wait in my Layers panel, we run across that the image is sitting on the Background layer:

The Layers panel.

Permit'southward say I want to erase the blue column in the middle without erasing the green columns on either side of it. The way the Background Eraser works (by default, anyhow) is that Photoshop samples the color that's directly underneath the crosshair in the center of the circle. The larger circle surrounding the crosshair represents the area where Photoshop will erase pixels. Whatsoever pixels inside the circle that match the color of the pixel directly under the crosshair will be erased.

To erase the blue center column, I'll move the cursor into the blue area, making sure that the crosshair in the center is directly over the blue color I want to erase:

Positioning the crosshair over an surface area of blue.

When I click my mouse button, Photoshop samples the blue color under the crosshair and erases all of the matching blue pixels that fall within the larger circumvolve:

Just the pixels within the circle are deleted.

To erase more of the blue column, I just need to continue holding my mouse button down as I drag the Groundwork Eraser over more of the surface area. Observe that even though the circle sometimes extends into ane of the green columns, they remain untouched, and that's because those pixels are non the aforementioned color as the color that Photoshop sampled. This makes it easy to get right up along the edges of the expanse I want to erase. As long as I keep the crosshair inside the blue area, Photoshop will but erase blue pixels:

You tin move the cursor into other colors in the image without erasing them equally long as you lot proceed the crosshair away from them.

However, if I accidentally move the crosshair over an area of green, Photoshop samples the light-green color and starts erasing green pixels:

Moving the crosshair over a new color causes Photoshop to change the color it's erasing.

If you make a error like this, simply press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Control+Z (Mac) on your keyboard to undo it. If you demand to undo multiple steps, printing Ctrl+Alt+Z (Win) / Command+Pick+Z (Mac) repeatedly.

A Quick Note Well-nigh The Background Layer

Notice the checkerboard pattern that appears in place of the areas I've erased. That's Photoshop's way of representing transparency on a layer, which, if you're familiar with Photoshop, may have you wondering what's going on hither. A moment ago, we saw that my image was sitting on the Background layer. Photoshop treats Background layers differently from normal layers, with different rules for what we can and can't do with them.

One of the things we can't do is erase pixels on them, since transparency is not immune on a Background layer (later on all, information technology'southward the groundwork, and non being able to see through it is function of what makes it a background). How, then, did I manage to erase the pixels? Is there some sort of "Extra Strength" setting for the Background Eraser that we haven't looked at yet?

Nope. What happened is that Photoshop causeless I knew what I doing (not e'er the best assumption to brand) and, rather than tossing upwardly an mistake message lament that I can't delete pixels on a Background layer, information technology automatically converted the Background layer into a regular layer, which it named "Layer 0". This isn't anything terribly important, or fifty-fifty remotely interesting, but it'south still adept to know what's going on:

When using the Background Eraser on the Background layer, Photoshop converts it to a normal layer for us.

Let'due south take what nosotros've learned and then far and wait at a real-world example of the Background Eraser Tool in action. As I make my mode around the tree in this photo, the Background Eraser has niggling trouble erasing the blue sky while leaving the tree itself untouched, as long as I go along the crosshair over the sky and away from the tree:

Even though the Background Eraser'southward cursor extends into the tree, merely the blueish sky is erased.

However, if I slip and move the crosshair over i of the leaves, so Photoshop samples the new color and starts erasing the tree, in which case I'd demand to printing Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) on my keyboard to undo the last step and try again:

Photoshop has no idea what the heaven or a tree is. It cares simply about the color under the crosshair.

And so far, we know that Photoshop samples the color direct nether the crosshair in the center of the Groundwork Eraser'due south cursor, and that it erases whatever pixels of the aforementioned colour that fall within the larger circle. Nosotros besides know that if we motility the crosshair over a different color as nosotros're dragging the Background Eraser around, Photoshop volition sample the new color and use information technology as the colour information technology should exist erasing.

What nosotros've just described here is the default behavior of the Background Eraser Tool, only information technology's not the just way the tool tin can behave. And so how do we change things? We do that using the settings found in the Options Bar. Let's cheque them out.

Sampling Options

Whenever we have the Background Eraser Tool selected, the Options Bar along the top of the screen displays various options for controlling how the tool behaves. I of the most important behaviors we tin can alter is how Photoshop samples colors under the crosshair, or if it samples them at all.

Over on the left of the Options Bar, yous'll find a set of iii icons. These are the Sampling Options, and each icon selects a different beliefs. From left to right, we accept Continuous, Once and Background Swatch:

The sampling options: Continuous (left), One time (center) and Groundwork Swatch (right).

Of the three, the two you'll switch betwixt the most are Continuous (the icon on the left) and Once (the eye icon). Continuous is selected by default, and it means that as nosotros move the Groundwork Eraser effectually, Photoshop continuously samples the color nether the crosshair. That's why, when I accidentally moved the crosshair over the light-green column or the green tree, Photoshop started erasing light-green pixels fifty-fifty though I was initially erasing blue pixels.

The Continuous sampling option works cracking when the background yous're trying to erase contains multiple colors. But if the color of your background doesn't change much, the Once option usually works amend. I'll select it by clicking on the middle icon:

Selecting the Once sampling selection in the Options Bar.

As you may have guessed from its name, Once tells Photoshop to sample the colour under the crosshair in one case and that's it. Whichever colour is under the crosshair the moment you click your mouse button is the color that Photoshop will erase no affair how many other colors you elevate the crosshair over (equally long as you proceed your mouse button held downwards). Watch what happens at present when I "accidentally" motility the crosshair over the greenish column. The Background Eraser has no effect on it this time because the crosshair was over the blue cavalcade when I clicked and held down my mouse button:

Photoshop no longer erases the dark-green column even though the crosshair has moved over the green color.

We see the same thing happening in our photograph. With Once selected as the sampling option, Photoshop is able to ignore the leaves this time even though I've moved the crosshair over them, and that's because I initially clicked on the blue sky:

With Once selected, the only color Photoshop volition erase is the one that was sampled initially.

If you're having trouble positioning the crosshair over the color you want to erase, endeavour the Background Swatch sampling option (the icon on the right):

Selecting the Background Swatch sampling choice.

With Background Swatch selected, click on the Background color swatch in the Tools panel and cull a colour from the Colour Picker that matches (as shut as possible, anyway) the colour in your image that you want to erase. If the color you've selected isn't quite right, suit the Tolerance value in the Options Bar (which we'll expect at in a moment) until you're able to erase the pixels:

With the Background Swatch sampling option selected, choose a Background color similar to the color you need to erase.

Limits

Another important pick for the Background Eraser is Limits. Once Photoshop knows which colour you desire to erase, Limits tells it where it can look for pixels that match that colour so it tin can erase them. The 3 options for Limits are Contiguous, Discontiguous and Find Edges:

The Limits choice.

Contiguous, the default setting, ways that Photoshop tin only erase pixels in areas that are physically touching the pixel under the crosshair. In other words, information technology can't leap across tree branches, fence posts, or anything else in the photo that separates 1 expanse of pixels from some other. Here nosotros see that while the Background Eraser has no problem erasing the heaven around the outside of the tree, the Contiguous option is preventing information technology from deleting the isolated bluish areas between the leaves and branches. We'll see how to get effectually this trouble in a moment:

The branches on the tree deed as road blocks for the Background Eraser as it tries to delete the blue sky pixels.

If you lot detect that Photoshop is having trouble maintaining the sharpness of the edges around the subject you're trying to proceed (in other words, some of the edge is fading away), effort undoing your steps and and so switching the Limits choice to Notice Edges:

Irresolute the Limits option to Find Edges.

Find Edges is similar to Face-to-face in that it can only delete pixels that are physically touching the pixel under the crosshair, so it won't help me access those areas of blue sky that are trapped betwixt the leaves and branches. However, Detect Edges is more precise than Contiguous and improve at maintaining abrupt edge detail. Once more, I don't really demand to employ it here with these leaves, merely if I was deleting the heaven along the edge of a edifice, for example, where maintaining the precipitous edges of the building would be important, and then Find Edges would exist a great choice:

Detect Edges is more precise, only can also be a bit slower to work with than Contiguous.

So, what about those isolated areas of blue sky in my prototype that I tin can't become to with either Contiguous or Find Edges? That's what the third Limits option, Discontiguous, is for:

Selecting Discontiguous for the Limits pick in the Options Bar.

Discontiguous means that Photoshop is free to erase whatever pixels anywhere in the image that friction match our sampled color, whether they're touching the crosshair or non. As long equally the pixels fall within the larger circumvolve surrounding the crosshair, they're fair game. In my case, information technology means that once I've clicked the crosshair on an surface area of blue sky, I can simply elevate the Groundwork Eraser around inside the tree to easily erase any areas of heaven showing through it. I also take my sampling option set to Once and then Photoshop doesn't change the color being erased as I move over the tree:

With Limits fix to Discontiguous, erasing the blue sky through the tree is as easy as dragging the Background Eraser around.

Unfortunately, if nosotros await closely, we can come across some darker blue areas of the sky remaining around the leaves and branches. I've added a black background behind the image to make it easier to encounter. Even with the Limits pick set to Discontiguous, the Background Eraser still needs a little more help with this paradigm. This brings u.s. to the third important choice for the Groundwork Eraser, and one that can make all the difference when it comes to using the tool successfully - Tolerance. Nosotros'll look at it next:

Some blue fringing still remains.

Tolerance

The third of the iii major options for the Background Eraser is Tolerance, which determines how different a pixel's color can be from the sampled colour for Photoshop to erase it. You lot'll find the Tolerance option direct to the right of the Limits option in the Options Bar:

Use Tolerance to command how similar a pixel colour needs to be to the sampled colour for information technology to be erased.

The default Tolerance value is fifty% and that'southward unremarkably a expert place to get-go. But if the color of your background is too similar to your discipline, causing part of your subject to be erased, attempt a lower Tolerance setting. If, on the other mitt, y'all discover background colour fringing around the edges, as I do here, try a higher Tolerance value.

I'm going to undo my previous steps with the Groundwork Eraser so I can try once again, and since my sky is quite a bit dissimilar in color from the tree, I'll increase my Tolerance value to seventy%. I'll click to sample an area of bluish sky with the crosshair, and this time, with the higher Tolerance setting, the Groundwork Eraser is able to do a much better job with cleaner results:

With a college Tolerance setting, the Groundwork Eraser was able to avoid the bluish fringing along the edges.

Protect Foreground Color

Finally, if you find that no matter what Tolerance setting you try, you just can't seem to become the Background Eraser to erase the background in your paradigm without taking role of your subject forth with it, endeavour the Protect Foreground Color pick. By default, information technology's turned off:

The Protect Foreground Colour pick in the Options Bar, currently deselected.

Protect Foreground Color allows us to sample a color from the prototype to set every bit our new Foreground color. Photoshop will and then protect this color, preventing it from beingness erased (hence the proper name "Protect Foreground Colour"). In this photo, the flowers are too like to the background, causing the Background Eraser to erase part of the flowers along with the heaven:

Photoshop has a tough time finding the edges when the subject and groundwork are too similar.

To overcome this problem, I'll first undo my last footstep by pressing Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac). Then, I'll select the Protect Foreground Colour option by clicking inside its checkbox:

Turning Protect Foreground Color on.

To sample a color from the image, I'll press and hold the Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) fundamental on my keyboard, which temporarily switches me to the Eyedropper Tool, then I'll click on one of the flowers to sample that color. This will become the color that Photoshop protects:

Hold down Alt (Win) / Pick (Mac) and click on a colour to protect.

If yous await at your Foreground color swatch near the bottom of the Tools panel, yous'll encounter that the color you sampled has become your new Foreground color:

The sampled colour appears in the Foreground color swatch.

With that color now protected, I'll once over again drag around the flowers with the Background Eraser to remove the heaven, and this fourth dimension, things work out much meliorate. Photoshop is able to erase the sky and leave the flowers intact. Merely call back to deselect the Protect Foreground Color option when you're done, otherwise the next time you go to use the Background Eraser, you could get unexpected results:

The groundwork goes, the flowers get to stay.

Photoshop Background Eraser Tool - Quick Summary

We covered a lot in this tutorial. Here'south a summary of what we've learned:

• Photoshop's Background Eraser Tool tin exist used to easily remove unwanted areas of an paradigm.
• To select the Background Eraser Tool, right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the standard Eraser Tool in the Tools panel, then select the Background Eraser Tool from the menu.
• To erase part of the image, position the crosshair in the middle of the brush cursor over the color you desire to erase, then click to sample the colour. Keep your mouse button held down and drag the cursor over the prototype. Any pixels the cursor passes over that friction match the sampled color will be erased.
• Pixels that do non lucifer the sampled color will be ignored.
• The Sampling Options in the Options Bar control the behavior of the Groundwork Eraser Tool.
• Continuous (default) tells Photoshop to continuously sample the color under the crosshair as you lot drag the cursor.
• Once samples only the initial color yous click on. No other colors will be sampled while your mouse push button is held downwards, even if you pass the crosshair over different colors.
• Groundwork swatch will erase pixels that friction match your current Background colour.
• The Limits pick in the Options Bar determines where Photoshop can look for pixels to erase.
• Contiguous (default) means that Photoshop can only erase pixels in areas that are physically touching the pixel under the crosshair. Information technology volition ignore pixels that match the sampled color but are separated by an area of a unlike color.
• Discontiguous volition erase whatsoever pixels that friction match the sampled color that the crosshair passes over, fifty-fifty if they are separated past an area of a different color.
• Observe Edges is similar to Contiguous but more precise and amend at maintaining abrupt edge detail.
• Tolerance determines how different a pixel's color tin be from the sampled color for Photoshop to erase it. Apply a lower Tolerance value when your subject and background colors are more similar. Higher Tolerance values can assistance remove border fringing when your bailiwick and background colors are more than different.
• Protect Foreground Colour prevents your current Foreground color from being erased. Press and hold Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and click on your subject field to sample a color and prepare it every bit your new Foreground color.
• If you make a mistake with the Background Eraser Tool, press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo your last brush stroke, and then try again.

And there we have it! That's how to easily erase background areas of an prototype using the Background Eraser Tool in Photoshop! Bank check out our Photograph Retouching section for more prototype editing tutorials!

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How To Use The Background Eraser To Erase Only A Background Color In A Single Layer Photo,

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