How to remove background in an image

Sometimes you need to remove background from an image. Our video editor supports two removing methods: by chromakey and by mask. Removing by chromakey is faster than by mask, because mask sets a big range of colors to be removed. That’s whey it’s difficult to remove background by mask in video; but at the same time when you work with static images this method is worth using. To know how to arrange removal by chromakey refer to section "How to remove background in video". In this section we shall review method of background removing by mask.

We shall add an object to the scene the same way as in example with video:

Add image to scene

and the next mask in project resources (a part of original image):

Removed background

After it we should add effect of background removal "Video effects->Transparent->Background remover" to original object and set it. We set work mode by mask "Mode: By chromakey mask" and specify the mask in "Chromakey mask". We obtain the following result:

Image with background removing effect

As you can see, practically whole background is removed except for several regions. This fact is resulted from "Mask resize factor" influence. For removing background not the whole mask is used but its reduction copy (to accelerate work algorithm). "Mask resize factor" sets reduction level of the original mask, and "Resize mode" is the algorithm of its size. Therefore if we reduce "Mask resize factor" to twenty, we shall have the following picture:

Image with tuned background removing effect

As we can see that the background is entirely removed.

Other parameters of effect have similar work principles as work by chromakey, i.e. they set subspaces of removed colors which remain unchangeable, and border colors with calculated translucency coefficient. For more information about these parameters refer to section "How to remove background in video". If you're struggling to follow this tutorial, there are some great 3rd-party apps out there to help you remove image background within a couple of clicks. Consider trying them as well.

 


You can get more information about the program on Free Video Editor' description page.