If you don't know how to use a proper image editing program, but find yourself needing to touch up an image to remove or replace the background, you're on the right page!
A few weeks ago, I wanted to replace the background of a photo to help my child have a more exciting photo for a school project.
Looking around, I found How to Erase and Replace Any Image Background in GIMP 2.10, a very useful video that shows you how to do this.
The video is fifteen minutes though, and I thought I'd have a version of the steps written down for quick reference.
Step-by-step instructions
First, make sure you have gimp installed. If you use Chocolatey, choco install gimp will do the trick.
- Open the file you want to edit from File | Open.
- You can zoom in with CTRL+mouse-wheel. Pan with middle button. If lost, View | Center Image in Window.
- Add a transparency layer to the picture. Right-click on the small picture in the Layers tool window and select Add Alpha Channel.
- Select the Foreground Select tool from the tool palette (frame with a person front of another). Below, set the following: Feather edges, radius 3, draw background, stroke width 17, engine Matting Levin, level 2, active levels 2.
- Do a rough outline of the figure with the tool (you can go outside picture) and press Enter. You'll see a light blue for figure and dark for background.
- Increase the size of the selector with the square brackets on keyboard, and pick a foreground color like red.
- Select 'draw foreground' in tool options.
- Press left button and paint over figure. When release, the original should show through. You can change size and keep doing this to capture detail.
- Press Enter to preview the selection, and Enter again to confirm.
- Select the Paths tool window (if needed, select Windows | Dockable Dialogs | Paths), and click the Selection to Paths button.
- Show/hide the selection with the eye icon next to the new path. Press Ctrl+Shift+A to deselect and see the path selection.
- To clean up the selection, click on the Paths tool in the toolbox. Click over the selection to see the nodes and edit them.
- Drag a line to change it. To create a new node, hold control when you click and drag on a line. Ctrl+shift+click to delete a node. The status bar is your friend.
- Turn your adjusted path back to a selection by clicking on Selection from Path under the tools in the toolbox.
- Go back to Layers, right click and select Add Layers Mask, then choose Selection in Initialize Layer Mask.
- To see how good it is, select the Move tool, press Ctrl+Shift+A to select none, and hide the path in the Paths tool window.
- To clean further, click the black/white foreground/background color button, select the Paintbrush tool. Ensure you're on the layer mask. Anything you paint black will be hidden. Turn hardness to 50. Press X to switch colors and bring back content.
- To add the new background, add a new layer and give it a good name.
- Drag the background layer below the original one.
- To add a quick background, choose an off-white foreground color, select the gradient tool, set shape to radial, foreground to background, and click from middle and drag to a corner. If you cannot find it, select Tools | Paint Tools | Gradient.
- To add a shadow, go back to the path and make a selection of it, then go to Layers and create a layer named Shadow. Drag it above the original layer. Select the bucket fill tool, select black/white colors, make sure selection is on, and fill the outline with black.
- To finish the shadow, select move tool and offset it a bit, move layer below original. To soften, go to Filters | Blur | Gaussian Blur. Crank up size to something like 60.
- To improve the shadow blend, go to the main layer, and select burn/dodge, and dodge the area with the shadow.
Happy photo editing!
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