How to cut out with Photoshop
Do you need to create a photomontage by extrapolating an object from one photo and inserting it into another? Want to remove the background from a photo, leaving only the person or object in the foreground intact? If you have Photoshop installed on your PC, there is no problem. Even if you are not yet an expert in graphics or photo editing, with the famous software from Adobe you can be able to perform the above operations in such a simple and fast way that you will be amazed.
Come on, don’t stand there! Take five minutes of free time and unleash your creativity by following my guide on how to cut out with Photoshop. In no time you will be able to create beautiful photomontages by extrapolating objects and people from a photo and pasting them on a different background or, if you prefer, transforming them into “stickers” with a transparent background to be used on Telegram, online forums or other systems messaging.
I know that it might seem a bit difficult to do, but I guarantee you that, once you understand how to do it, cutting out subjects using Photoshop will be disarming simplicity. You just have to practice, that’s all! Good luck and have fun!
Index
- How to cut out with Photoshop on PC
- How to cut out with Photoshop: automatic function
- How to cut out with Photoshop: quick mask
- How to cut out with Photoshop on smartphones and tablets
How to cut out with Photoshop on PC
Let’s start by seeing immediately how to cut out with Photoshop on a PC using the program’s automatic function and a tool that allows you to do this “manually”.
How to cut out with Photoshop: automatic function
The first tool I recommend you try to cut out a subject in Photoshop is to use the program’s automatic function (available starting from its 2021 version), which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and which, from the tests carried out for the drafting of this guide works very well indeed.
To use it, the first step you need to take is to start the program through its shortcut on the desktop, in the Windows Start menu or in the MacOS Launchpad and import the image you want to cut out into it (by selecting the Open item from the File menu ) .
Next, make sure that the image layer you intend to act on is selected (in case select it from the layer management panel at the bottom right) and then open the Help menu and select the word Photoshop Help… . In the box that opens, click first on the word Quick Actions , then on the item Remove background and, then, click on the Apply button .
At this point, as you can see, Photoshop has cut out the photo by removing its background. If you notice any smudges here and there, know that you can correct them “manually”. To do this you can take advantage of the quick mask function (I’ll talk about it later in detail): just select the layer where the image on which you worked with the subject colored in white and the background colored in black is represented.
Then activate the black color in the palette (bottom left), select the brush tool from the toolbar on the left and “color” the elements you want to remove; by activating the white color and passing over the photo, instead, you will be able to make visible elements that were automatically hidden by the AI-based cutout.
In case you want to insert an image that acts as a background to the subject you have cut out, drag it into the Photoshop window, then go to the layers panel and move the layer of the image in question below the layer where the main subject is present .
If necessary, resize the image to be used as a background so that it covers the entire background: to do this, just go to the Edit> Transform> Photoshop Scale menu and resize / move the added image using the appropriate indicators placed along its perimeter.
When you are satisfied with the result, go to the File> Save As Photoshop menu and save the output image by choosing the format and location you prefer. Did you see how simple it was?
How to cut out with Photoshop: quick mask
Another way to cut out with Photoshop is to use the quick mask , a function of the famous program that allows you to cut out the subjects in your photos in a rather simple way and offering a high degree of precision.
To use it, also in this case open the program and import the photo of your interest into it by dragging it into its main window or using the File> Open menu .
When done, you need to activate Photoshop’s Quick Mask mode , select the brush tool and “paint” the elements you want to cut out of your photo, be they objects or people.
Then click on the rectangle icon with the circle inside at the bottom of the left sidebar (under the palettes), activate the black color in the palette and “color” the elements you want to cut out from the photo with the brush tool .
You can use the brush you prefer. I advise you to use the one with a “harder” stroke, as using a blended brush you risk obtaining blurred and unnatural edges of the subject to be cut out. To choose the brush to use, click on the circle icon located at the top left.
After having “colored” the subjects to be cut out (which will take on a red color), try to refine the selection by activating the white color in the palette and “bleaching” the portions of the photo to be excluded from the selection, for example a smudge on an edge, a “empty” space between arms and body, the space between the hair and so on.
To do these “fine” jobs, increase the zoom level of the image (using the key combination Ctrl + [+] on Windows or cmd + [+] on macOS) and decrease the size of the brush.
When the operation is completed, deactivate the Quick Mask mode by clicking on the icon of the rectangle with the circle inside at the bottom of the left sidebar (under the palettes) and the “colored” part of the photo will turn into a real one. own selection. But be careful, it will be a “reverse” selection, that is, it includes everything except the subjects you have to cut out.
To obtain a selection of the subjects that you need to cut out, activate a selection tool from the left sidebar (e.g. the rectangular selection tool), right-click on a point of the currently selected image and choose the Select inverse item from the menu that opens.
At this point, I suggest you click on the Refine Edge button located at the top right and check if your selection is as accurate as you thought. Most likely you will notice some smudges and / or badly selected parts that you will have to fix by using the selection tools included in Photoshop.
Going into more detail, what you need to do is activate a tool like the lasso or the magnetic lasso from the left sidebar (the icons with the rope) and add or remove a portion of the image from the current selection.
To remove a selection part, hold down the Alt key on your computer keyboard and select the part of the image to remove from the selection with the lasso (you will see the [-] symbol appear next to the lasso icon).
To add a part of the image to the current selection, hold down the Shift key on your computer keyboard and select the part of the image to add to the selection with the lasso (you will see the [+] symbol appear next to the lasso icon).
Now click again on the Refine Edge button at the top (if you don’t see it, activate a selection tool such as the rectangular selection tool) and further refine your selection to make it as precise and “natural” as possible.
To refine the selection you have to use the adjustment bars in the window that opens. Using the Move Edge bar you can advance or narrow the edges of the selection; using the Round bar you can increase the level of “softness” of the edges of the selected subjects; using the Contrast bar you can make the edges of selected subjects “harder”, while using the Feather adjustment bar you can soften the edges of the selection.
To get the best result, try various combinations until you find the one that seems more precise and “natural” to you. The image will change in real time letting you see the result of all the changes applied.
When you are satisfied with the result, click on the OK button and copy the subjects you have selected by calling the appropriate command from the Edit menu of Photoshop (or by pressing the key combination Ctrl + C or cmd + c on the computer keyboard).
Now you have to choose whether to paste the newly selected subjects on an already existing image (to create a photomontage) or on a transparent background (to create a sticker ).
To create a photomontage, open the background image you want to use (by selecting the Open item from the Photoshop File menu ) and paste the previously selected elements onto it (by selecting the Paste item from the Photoshop Edit menu or by pressing the key combination Ctrl + V / cmd + v on the computer keyboard).
At this point, go to the Edit> Transform> Photoshop Scale menu and resize / move the image you just pasted in order to adapt it as you prefer to the underlying background.
To resize the image you have to use the indicators that appear at its edges, while to move it all you have to do is click on it, hold down the left mouse button and move it by moving the mouse cursor. When you’re happy with the result, hit the Enter key on your computer keyboard (or just switch to another Photoshop tool) to save the changes.
If you want to give an artistic touch to your montage, you can add a glow, shadow or other effect to the subjects you have pasted into your montage. To do this, move to the Photoshop layer management panel (bottom right), right-click on the item relating to the layer of the pasted subjects (eg. Level 1 ) and select the item Blending Options from the menu that appears .
In the window that opens, put the check mark next to the effect you want to apply to the image (eg Outer Glow for the glow or Outer Shadow for the shadow) and select these items to adjust the extension, opacity and other properties of the effects to apply to photomontage. When you are satisfied with the result, click on the OK button .
Finally, if you notice a certain discrepancy between the color tones present in the background and those of the pasted subjects, you can “play” a little with the tools for adjusting color, brightness, contrast, etc. found in the Photoshop Image menu .
Then go to the File> Save As menu and save your photomontage by selecting the type of file format you prefer the most. Be careful not to select too low an output quality or you will get a poor quality image with “squared” or partially blurred parts!
If you do not want to create a photomontage but a “sticker” with a transparent background, after selecting the subjects from the original photo, go to the File> New menu in Photoshop and choose to create a new image with a transparent background.
To create an image with a transparent background, you must select the Transparent item from the Background content drop-down menu in the window that opens. In the Width and Height fields , on the other hand, you have to set the size of the background on which to paste the subjects (in pixels or other units of measurements selected from the appropriate drop-down menu). To save your preferences and get your transparent background, click the OK button .
At this point, all you have to do is paste and move / resize the subjects on the transparent background as I explained to you before and, if you deem it appropriate, apply shadows or other effects to the latter by calling the Blending Options item from the management panel. levels.
When you are satisfied with the result, go to the File> Save As menu in Photoshop and save your sticker by choosing an output format that supports the use of transparent backgrounds, such as GIF or PNG .
Another possibility is to use the magic wand . After importing the photo you intend to act on, select the magic wand tool in the program toolbar on the left and select everything that should become transparent, taking care to hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and click on all the areas to be deleted.
Now, activate the quick mask mode by selecting the appropriate wording from the Selection menu and, if the parts of the photo that concern the subject are colored, go back by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Z (on Windows) or cmd + z (on macOS), right click on the image and choose the Select reverse item from the menu that opens. Now you can re-enable the quick mask.
Next, call up the brush tool from the program toolbar and start “coloring” all the parts of the image you want to make transparent, which will turn red. Then remove the quick mask, unchecking the word Edit in quick mask mode in the Photoshop selection menu and create a new layer , selecting the New> Layer … option from the Layer menu .
The next step is to create a vector mask on the newly created layer, by clicking on the icon located at the bottom right, in the layers pane (to be clear, that of the rectangle with the circle inside ), and choose the black box appeared in the list of layers using the combination Alt + click . If everything went well, you should see instead of the image a black box with inside the silhouettes of the subjects of the photo colored in white.
Go, now, in the menu Filter> Blur> Control blur and, in the opened box, set a value between 2 and 4 as regards the radius and click on the OK button , so as to soften the selection a little. Once this is done, create a selection from the vector mask you made by pressing Ctrl + click (on Windows) or cmd + click (on macOS) and select the Background layer of the image again.
Then copy the subject of the photo by pressing the key combination Ctrl + C (on Windows) or cmd + c (on macOS), create a new image with transparent background, opening the File> New … menu , setting the Background content to Transparent and then clicking on the Create button and, then, paste the subject that you cut out with the magic wand in the new image, pressing the combination Ctrl + V (on Windows) or cmd + v (on macOS).
In case you want to replace the transparent background with a background image, you can do it by following the instructions I have already given you a few lines above. Remember, then, to save the output image via the File> Save As menu in Photoshop and selecting the format and location you prefer.
If you don’t have Photoshop, you can also crop your photos with GIMP : a free and open source photo editing software available for all operating systems. I told you about it in more detail in my tutorial on cropping an image .
How to cut out with Photoshop on smartphones and tablets
Would you like to know how to cut out Photoshop on smartphones and tablets ? If you have an iPad and you have downloaded Photoshop for iPadOS on your tablet , you can do it very well by following the same instructions that I gave you in the previous lines, since this mobile version of Photoshop (which is free for 30 days and then costs 10 , 99 euros / month, unless you have a Creative Cloud subscription with the Photography plan) is quite faithful to the desktop one.
As for the other Photoshop apps available on the mobile, know that unfortunately they do not offer tools dedicated to the removal of the background and the contouring of the subjects.