Remove Background

[andersen55]

Hello,

I am new to Affinity Photo. To start I simply want to remove a background from a photo. Is it as complicate as it looks like? Or is Affinity Photo the wrong choice for such a task?

Thank you

[Joachim_L]

Welcome to the forums @andersen55!

32 minutes ago, andersen55 said:

Is it as complicate as it looks like?

It depends ... on your skills you already have ... how complex the image is ... etc. pp.

33 minutes ago, andersen55 said:

Or is Affinity Photo the wrong choice for such a task?

No. Simple as that.

Maybe you can upload a sample image, so others can maybe judge the complexity and assist you.

[andersen55]

Thank you for your answer, Jochim_L,

Here is a picture of a flower, and I want to remove the background.

[Joachim_L]

Done in 4 minutes with the Selection Brush Tool + Refine function. With a bit more love this can be done better.

[John Rostron]

Hello @andersen55, and welcome to the forums.

For any image you first need to see which of the foreground or the background has the most complexity or colour range. In your case it would be the background were it not for the stem which looks to be the same shades as the background.

Begin by duplicating your image, then hiding the original. Now use the magic wand tool to select colours in the background. You may wish to adjust the tolerance to suit your needs. You might also wish to to remove the selections as you proceed and clear the selection so far (using Control/Command-D).

Or you might want to do as @Joachim_L suggests. His reply just pipped me.

John

[andersen55]

Thank you Joachim_L and John Rostron. I have tried both ways and could not get it right. This is what I learned from you: This software has too much possibilities, I need something plain simple. 

[Catshill]

16 hours ago, andersen55 said:

Thank you Joachim_L and John Rostron. I have tried both ways and could not get it right. This is what I learned from you: This software has too much possibilities, I need something plain simple. 

Learning takes time and patience rewards.

[carl123]

22 hours ago, andersen55 said:

Here is a picture of a flower, and I want to remove the background.

Not sure if that is the actual size of the flower you are working on or just a reduced resized one you have upload to the forum

But the first step in anything like this is to do a quick Google Image Search to see if you can find another larger/high-res version of the image (of which there are many) to use instead as that will give much better results and be much easier to work on.

Attached is 5mins spent on one such image which is almost pixel perfect. For actual pixel perfect (i.e. paid work 😄) it will take another half an hour

Also attached is the Affinity document with the original image I used

 

 

flower.afphoto

[GarryP]

Higher resolution versions of that image are available here: https://pixabay.com/photos/marguerite-daisy-flower-white-729510/
(I only knew this because I had downloaded it myself and remembered it.)

[andersen55]

@carl123, this looks really good.

[Granddaddy]

Removing the background is not difficult but can be tedious depending on the complexity of the subject and the contrast between the subject and the background. Here is a collection of videos I learned from. There are many more. Most of my work involves removing backgrounds from candid photo group shots taken in crowded family rooms filled with toys and furniture. I end up with prints that look more like they were created in a studio after I make custom backgrounds to put behind the people. Others do landscapes and replace the sky. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlmA1qicXN0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdZ9H7eYWvo  Remove background from trees (Leaves selection)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23oVnoTW3r8   Affinity Revolution: removing backgrounds for beginners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z5P9JIOVvQ   Removing background from complex object like tree or hair

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAQyGrMpWt8   Sky replacement with super complicated backgrounds (iPad but easily adapted)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UpmoGQJFI  Using selection brush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPTpELVAh88  How to quickly remove complex background

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNkyNKoKroU  Selecting hair and changing the background

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDkfuJO8Rm4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyAA9UcrPkw  Sky replacement parts 1 and 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8cLkcHqp_k  Easy sky replacement iPad but easily adapted and easily done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2WoJ2zd2ms   Sky replacement with complex leaves and trees

 

 

 

[R C-R]

On 6/9/2021 at 7:53 AM, andersen55 said:

This is what I learned from you: This software has too much possibilities, I need something plain simple. 

Regardless of the software you end up using, doing things like removing the background is often far from simple. Even apps that use machine learning (so called "artificial intelligence") to determine what should be considered part of the background do a reasonable job only for the kind of images they have been trained on, & often need a lot of touchup work to get the edges right.

[andersen55]

Now I got some inspirations, and I will try it again.

[jmwellborn]

3 hours ago, andersen55 said:

Now I got some inspirations, and I will try it again.

Don’t give up!  “Slow and steady wins the race,” and with a little time you will discover all sorts of things you can do.  Just post in the forums when you are stuck and — as you can see — there are people who will be glad to help you.🙂   

[Granddaddy]

Removing the background is largely an exercise in selection, so you should be looking for tutorials on that topic as well as tutorials specifically describing background removal and replacement. The most comprehensive collection of free videos about selection that I know of are those by InAffinity at
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/photography/affinity_photo/categories/ap_selection.htm

Other topics are indexed at
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/photography/affinity_photo/inaffinity_video_index.htm

If you prefer a more structured, systematic approach, note that Affinity Revolution publishes a "Pixel Perfect Selections" course with nearly 90 videos at
https://courses.affinityrevolution.com/p/pixel-perfect-selections

The cost is no more than I used to pay for photo editing books in the days before video tutorials were common on the Web. From time to time they offer deep discounts on their courses.