If you're looking for a way to change the background of a photo to personalize it for a professional project, or simply for fun or a laugh with friends, you've come to the right place. There are actually many ways to achieve this effect, from comprehensive tools like Photoshop and similar programs to imaginative apps designed to edit images in countless ways.
Replacing the background of a photograph is a very effective visual technique that opens up a whole world of possibilities for our photos. For example, by choosing a solid color (white, black, or gray), we can simulate a studio photo. We can also try photomontages to place the person in the image anywhere in the world: in front of the Taj Mahal, with the Eiffel Tower behind them, or even on the surface of Mars itself.
Let's see what are the best programs and applications to change the background of a photo:
PhotoShop
Among the many features of Adobe Photoshop is the ability to remove the background from a photograph and add another background of your choice. This is an unbeatable tool for creating incredible photomontages, whether fantastical or highly realistic, depending on your desired effect.
To do so, you don't need to be an expert in Photoshop, as it is a method that is available to any user. The first thing to do is select the area that we want to replace and then insert the desired image or background. These are the tools of the program that will best serve us for our mission:
crop and select
- Tie. It is used to crop an element of the image, although its degree of precision is low.
- Magic wand. With it we can select all the pixels of the image with similar colors. Just click on the area you want to select and Photoshop will automatically calculate the selection.
- Quick Selection. It works in a similar way to the magic wand, although with greater precision, since, in addition to the color, it also analyzes the texture of the area.
- Feather. It is the most precise tool, although with it the selection and cropping process is more laborious.
Masks
Using masks allows you to hide part of a photograph without deleting it (that is, the hidden area is not lost, since it is saved for use again if necessary).
Once you've created the selection using one of the methods in the previous section, click the "Add Layer Mask" button in the Layers panel. This will display a black and white image showing the selection next to the layer: the black area represents the hidden part of the photo, and the white area represents the visible part.
After modifying the image border so that the background and main figure fit together better, it's time to use the " Select and Mask" option in the top toolbar.
Image editing apps
If we want to change the background of a photo without getting into the complexities of Photoshop, we can always use an image editing app . Here are some of the most practical:
Remove B.G.
The best online solution. And totally free. In addition, it is very easy to use. All you have to do is upload an image from a computer (or also via a URL) and the web's artificial intelligence will take care of identifying the central figure and eliminating everything it considers to be the background.
Once the background is removed, Remove BG allows you to download the main image in .png format with transparency and paste it onto a new photo with a different background. It's worth noting that, despite being a great tool, it has some limitations: it only works with human figures and has a maximum size of 500 x 500 px.
Link: RemoveBG
photoroom
This is a free app available on both iOS and Android. PhotoRoom is a fantastic software for changing photo backgrounds that also offers numerous design and editing options. A great testing ground for developing your creativity. Here's how to use it:
- We open the application and in the main interface, we select the option "Start from photo".
- Now, we choose the image in which we want to make the changes, either in the gallery or by taking a photo.
- Once the photo is selected, PhotoRoom analyzes it to find the best way to remove the background. It is a process that only takes a few seconds.
- Then from the option "Download" we save the photo without background on our device.
- Finally, we can add another background: a solid color, extracted from another photograph or chosen among the templates of the application itself, for example.
PhotoRoom is free, although to use all its interesting resources it is better to get the payment option.
Download Links:
slazzer
Despite being a paid app, Slazzer is worth including on our list of options. The main reason is that no other app can remove an image background faster. It takes just seconds. After that, changing the background couldn't be simpler: just drag and drop or click on the selected image in your gallery.
Slazzer is commonly used by e-commerce professionals to create attractive images for their websites and online stores. Furthermore, this platform offers a downloadable solution for processing thousands of images simultaneously, saving time and effort.
Link: Slazzer
Video Background Changer
Finally, a simple and very practical application that we can use to crop photos from images and apply them to others, thus creating new backgrounds. The difference with the previous options is that it can also be used on videos.
Video Background Changer features many background themes and a wide array of effects such as rain, mist, fog, etc. All its features are free.
Link: Video Background Changer