How do I easily delete a background color of a photo object to make it transparent?

[redcram]

Hi- I have a simple object in this case a spoon photo that was taken on a white background (see attached picture).  I'd like to have the spoon appear on a solid black background- but I can't figure out how to easily do this.  I've tried the selection brush tool, but it does not appear to provide smooth lines to then delete the white background.  thank's for any help you can offer!

[Callum]

Hi Recram,

 

 Going to Filters -> Colour -> Erase White Paper should remove the white around your spoon :)

 

C

[R C-R]

 Going to Filters -> Colour -> Erase White Paper should remove the white around your spoon :)

The Erase White Paper filter never seems to work very well for me on any layer that includes grayish tints. It seems to be adaptive in what it decides is white, so what typically happens is much of the grayish stuff is made partially transparent.

 

For example, in the attached, the top section is a stock photo of a key. The bottom section is a duplicate of that layer with the filter applied, & a green rectangle placed below it to more clearly show the transparency.

 

Any hints on how to avoid this?

 

[redcram]

Thanks for the idea Callum- I did have the same problem with partial transparency that R C-R mentioned.  I manually and tetiously used the selection brush tool for an OK result- but also hoping there is an easier way to do this in the future.  Thanks

[JimmyJack]

No answer for a one button solution.....And...Up to you to determine what's "easy"...

 

But surely on shapes like these drawing a custom mask has got to be easier than adding and subtracting pixels around the perimeter with the selection brush. 

 

... 'bout two/three minutes with the pen. 

[redcram]

Wow- thank you JimmyJack- your example looks perfect.

 

I tried to follow what you but I am a little stuck on the final step... (My apologies, I am a novice with programs like this)

 

I used the pen to draw the outline of the spoon in smart mode (is this what you did?), created a new blue pixel layer, but not sure what to do next to get the spoon on a blue background-- or achieve the mask layer you're referring to.

 

Thanks again!

[JimmyJack]

No problem... and thanks :)

 

(I guess as long as the curve is editable and not rasterized it can be considered "smart" as in AI)

 

1) give your shape a fill (no stroke). Any color is fine, it just needs to be at 100% opacity.

2) drag it onto the thumbnail of your spoon copy. A vertical blue line should appear next to the thumb and a realtime preview of the effect should happen. Drop it there. (FYI, this is opposed to dragging it slightly under and to the the right of the thumbnail where a shortened horizontal blue line will appear. This is the "child" position. Not what you want here but worth playing around with!)

3) give the blue layer a Multiply blending method (in the dropdown that says normal). This will let the shadows of the original work with the blue.

[redcram]

Worked!  Thank you!

[JimmyJack]

Good!

 

It's also worth noting.... you don't have to do the Multiply blending on the blue.

There is all that extra black on the side and corner from the rotated image after all. Instead of trying to paint all that out...

On this particular example the original shadow is such that you could just keep the blue set at normal and give the spoon a similar drop shadow through adding a layer FX.