Michael's Photoshop Background Elimination Tutorial

Photo editing is a great tool to have in your tool belt! Having the ability to use Adobe Photoshop, or any other photo editing software is something that looks great on a resume. In this Instructable, I will be editing a royalty-free image of a football player. I will be showing you how to crop out a background, add a different background, and some tips and tricks along the way.

You will need the following items before you begin:

1. A computer (It can be a laptop or desktop)

2. Adobe Photoshop (You can buy it outright for around $120, or pay a monthly fee of $10. You can purchase here: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html

3. Access to a Royalty free website, I recieved my image from a website called Pexels.com

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to successfully edit images in Photoshop! Spicing up a photo is always great, and gaining that knowledge from this tutorial will be a great stepping stone in your photo editing journey.

Disclaimer - This tutorial is intended for educational purposes only. There are no potential effects to this project. Michael Bartow will not be liable for any losses or damages arising from the use of, or reliance on, the information on this demonstration. I am not an affiliate of this product, nor endorsing the use of this product.

Step 1: Open Photoshop

Step 2: Go to File - Open, and Select Your Image

Your image will be in wherever you saved it. I save mine under the "Photos" tab.

Step 3: Make a Copy of Your Image (CTRL+J)

To make the copy, all you have to do is select the "CTRL" key and the "J" key. This will make two images instead of one. As you can see by the red arrow above, there are two images in the "layer" tab now. This allows you to eliminate the background on one, and keeping the other as a backup just in case you need it.

Step 4: Select the Quick Selection Tool and Start Cropping

As you see in the image above, the quick selection tool is the button on the left side of your Photoshop. You select that, and it will allow you to trace around the image and eliminate the background. You will see the dotted line around the object/person you are highlighting, everything that is on the outside of that will be eliminated in the next step! Lastly, If it highlights something you want to keep instead of get rid of, all you have to do is simply hold "CTRL" and go back over the spot you want to keep.

Step 5: Eliminate the Background by Pressing CTRL + X

To get rid of the background after you are done with the Quick Selection Tool, you can eliminate the background by pressing the "CTRL" key along with the "X" key.

Step 6: Add a Background Color With the Gradient Tool

If you want to add a color theme like I did with my edit, you have to click on the "New Layer" button (Green Arrow), and then select the Gradient Tool (Red Arrow). After you are done selecting your colors, just click and drag. After you let go of clicking and dragging, the color will show up behind your object. This step is pretty advanced, but a more in-depth look of this step will be in the video below!

Step 7: Add Your Own Touch to It!

You have the freedom to do whatever you want after this. What I did in the video below was brought back the background image (very faintly), and added my name to the image. If you want to add a name, just click on the "T" button in the left pane of your Photoshop, choose your font, and type!

Step 8: Save Your Work!

Step 9: Bringing Everything Together

Here is the video of the tutorial. Hopefully I am in-depth enough for you all!

Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to view my Instructable. I hope that my tutorial will allow you guys to get into photo editing! From personal experience, it took a YouTube tutorial to get me into this, and now it is a hobby of mine along with something I do for my internship.

Photo Author: Pixabay

CC0 License

No Attribution Required, Free for Personal and Commercial Use

Link: https://www.pexels.com/photo/red-people-outside-sport-2207/