brushes don't work

[Spence]

This is what happens when I use the Inpainting Brush tool.  I am trying to remove the background. 

[stokerg]

Hi Spence and Welcome to the Forums,

The Inpainting tool isn't really designed to replace/remove backgrounds, it has to sample the areas from the photo and decide on what's the best fit with an image like this, there isn't much of a background for it to sample.  

I'd suggest using the pen tool to draw around the main subject and once you've made an outline, on the Context toolbar along the top, click on Selection and that will turn the pen stroke into a selection.  Now click you can invert that by clicking Selection>Invert Selection and now only the background will be selected and you can delete it.

[John Rostron]

@Spence, I thought your first image had a rather nice surrealistic effect even if it was not what you wanted.

John

[Pšenda]

On 3/14/2019 at 2:21 AM, Spence said:

remove the background. 

I wonder, what your image should be replaced with? Then try the Clone brush tool.