Removing a white background in photoshop?

Question

I have an image of a doctor wearing a white robe on a white background in photoshop, and i'm wondering if it possible to remove the background?

Answer 1

If the white background is a part of the image, you'll need to edit out the background.

Take a look at this page, it has tutorials for the different ways of removing a background:

• Background Eraser tool
• Channel Mask
• Magnetic Lasso tool
• Pen tool
• Combination of techniques

The tutorials are for an older version of Photoshop, but the idea is the same.

You can take a look at 5 Great Background Masking Techniques - there are some good tips there too.

Answer 2

This document was probably created using a non-transparent background. If it was rasterized or locked like this, no you cannot. I would open the document, and slect the doctor. Then create a new document (at this point there should be an option to make the background transparent) and paste the doctor there.

Answer 3

I would suggest using the pen tool to trace the doctor. When you complete the trace select paths tab on the same side window that has your layers (if it is not in there go to window and show Paths). Then use the little upper right hand corner button in the paths menu to "make selection". Edit copy, file new, edit paste. The paste should be on a new layer and then you can just select the eye next to the background layer to make it invisible. When you save make sure you use the Save for Web or other devices and select either a GIF or PNG file and preserve transparency.

Answer 4

The quickest, but not always cleanest way to do this is:

• Duplicate the image into a new layer
• use the Image -> Adjustments(curves, color balance, etc) to find a border between the background and rest of the image. The goal is to find something that you can make a selection from. This step takes a bit of experimentation to find what you're looking for.
• Select the background on your adjusted layer, then change the Layer focus to the unadjusted layer and delete the background.