You are welcome Sandra, and thank you for the compliment. George

You're welcome! Glad I could help.

You're welcome!

You're welcome! George

Thanks Jackie! George

You're welcome Ron!

You're welcome! Welcome to the world of photo editing. George

Hi Peter, the problem with the Refine Edge tool is that it only works effectively about half of the time. If you replace the background with something else that is similar in color it is better. Works great if you are just using the refine edge to separate out the foreground subject so that you can blur the background. In that instance the foreground and background colors match so you won't see any haloing effects. Any picture can be masked out using the right combination of tools, the real question often comes down to "is it worth it?". The best thing is to try and use a new background that is similar in color and values to the removed background, replace a bad sky with a good sky for instance. The thing with the refine edge tool is that it will add a slight fringe to the edge of the selection, that is just how it works, so you need to deal with that fringe somehow. In my Green Screen video I use the color replace tool to change the color of that fringe to match the color of the foreground subject. In other videos I have darkened down that fringe using the Burn tool. All depends on the image and the new background. George

You're welcome Patricia! George

You're welcome! George

Thanks David, and a Happy New Year! George

You're welcome Ted George

You're welcome Laurie George howtogurus.com

Glad you liked it!

You're welcome George

You're welcome Jim George

You're welcome Gene! George howtogurus.com

You're welcome!

You're welcome! George howtogurus.com

You're welcome Toni George

You're welcome! George

You're welcome George

You're welcome Sarah

Thanks! George

You're welcome George

Welcome!

You're welcome Mike! George howtogurus.com

You're welcome Phil, This is a good basic tutorial on one of the most useful tricks in image editing. Loads of my videos use some variation on removing/replacing backgrounds. This time I thought I would limit it to just the technique so that I could give it proper attention. George www.howtogurus.com

Thanks! George howtogurus.com

Thanks Jackie! George

I have to agree! Kudos and what have you to the creator.

Thanks Bent! George

You're welcome!

Thank You! George

No worries!

You're Welcome Eileen George

Hi, the Refine Edge is both places, a button at the bottom in the Select Options panel and in the Select Menu. I often show menus instead of buttons to clarify the tool.

Thanks!

Yes!

You're welcome John, when the refine edge tool works it is a marvel. George

Hi Debra, to make the Refine Edge work well you need good separation between the foreground subject and the background. That isn't always possible and the Refine Edge does not always work well. Here is another video to take a look at that deals with fur and has a little trick that may help you with your dog. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/etqlksqBvsXOZ58.html George

You are so welcome!

Thanks Tim George

You're welcome

You're welcome Kikay George

Hi, I stay away from the magnetic lasso tool because I have never had an instance where it did a good job. It is a cool idea but you need a perfect photo for it to work, good contrast and color separation between foreground and background images. It also tends to round out corners. I use the regular lasso tool for quick selections where I plan to finish it with refine edge, I use the polygonal lasso tool when that will be my final selection or where the subject has lots of straight edges. The magnetic lasso is one of those "auto" tools in Photoshop Elements that are designed to make things easier. I prefer tools that make things better, don't really care about easier. That is also why you will rarely see me using one of the Guided Edit features either, except where there is no choice like the Panorama tool or the new Custom Frame tool. George

Hi Richard, the "fringing" or "halo" effect is due to picking up some of the background right around the subject as you remove the background. There are several ways to fix this, one is to make your feathering smaller on your selection. Whenever you feather a selection it blurs the selection both in and out from the selection and this can pick up some background. Here is a video where I talk about this problem: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rtl6fLapq8XPZH0.html George

You're welcome Robin, glad to hear you figured it out. George

You're very welcome!

@@HTGGeorge You should also do a PS Elements video on how to remove glare from glasses as they seem to be scarce at the moment. The only tutorials that there are drag on and are too long winded.

Depending on the photo removing glare from glasses can be either impossible or extremely hard. The problem is you need to replace the missing image information from somewhere. You can't just remove the glare.

Hi Doris, good timing. I am coming out with my new PSE 2021 training course in less than a week.

Hi Tim, my choice of the orange overlay is just a personal preference. Refine Edge looks for hard edge changes in color and contrast. It doesn't know that it is a dog or that it is hair. But the Refine Edge in Adobe Photoshop does understand that stuff as it has AI which was trained with millions of photos to understand what is in a photo. Layer Masks are easy, think of it as a pane of glass. If the glass is painted black you can't see through it, the white would be clear, and any level of gray is the same thing as thinning out the black paint until you can begin to see through it. Nothing more complicated than that.

Hi Sasa, since the dog with the clear background is on its own separate layer, just move it around where you like by using the Move tool (upper left corner in tool bar) George

Hi, first just take the project through where you remove the original background. Then you will need to save to a GIF or PNG file format. JPEG does not support transparency and will fill that with white. George

That worked perfectly!!!! Thank you so much!!!!

Hi Larry, my KZfaq videos teach specific projects, the course teaches the program. So it is a different approach. Here is a video on placing watermarks on photos kzfaq.info/get/bejne/a657Zq2fv5jUqmg.html

You're welcome! George

Oh yes one other note, if you use the larger brush method to separate sky and leaves, sometimes the refined edge tool with think you are selecting the sky area! This is fine for me if this happens, I just inverse the selection and I am good to go. Hope some of this works. (See what happens when you leave a freshman all alone in the science lab??!!!) Rich

Thanks Rich! Great tip, I will give it a try. As you have probably found out the success possible with the Refine Edge tool depends a lot on the original image. Sometimes I will just use the polygonal lasso tool with out the refine edge. Sometimes I will use other techniques like using the threshold filter to create a straight black/white image to use as a mask. Again, depends on the image. Here are a couple of other examples on creating layer masks, I know you have seen these so these links are for everyone else reading these comments: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d7WXl7mHuqereI0.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i7aolLai26-uno0.html George

Hey Rich, just don't blow up the lab, you know what a mess it was last time... George

ROFLOL!!!! I still lick the ends of those wires before I connect things. Don't think about getting a life insurance policy on me either, you will have to wait, that line goes around the building too! Rich

Use the ctrl+T keyboard shortcut to bring up the control handles on your new background, then you can stretch to fit.

@@HTGGeorge thank you so much!!

Sure, either save the file as a psd file (the default format for Photoshop Elements) so that you save it as a layer. Or save the file as a png file with transparency, that can be used in other programs.

Hi, here is a video where I make a selection around an object, then I extend that selection into an interior space. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mZ6RoK6aysyyoKc.html

Hi Veniece, the refine edge tool isn't perfect and it often has trouble on edges that are too similar to the background. But you can easily clean up the layer mask once it is made. Just click on the layer mask side of the layer, look for a light blue outline around the layer mask to show that it is selected, then use black or white paintbrush to adjust the mask. Black hides, and White shows. You can also make the layer mask full screen by holding down the alt key and clicking on the layer mask in the layer menu. To get back out of the layer mask just click on a different layer.

Photoshop Elements Top Ten Tips kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aruifZmcmceuio0.html

Hi Helen, the Refine Edge tool is not perfect, it looks for differences in color and contrast to find the edges. If your edge is similar to the background Refine Edge can have trouble cleaning up that edge. One trick you can use which sometimes works is to make a duplicate layer of your image and increase the contrast on that layer to make the edge more distinct, use Refine Edge on that layer and output to a Selection. Then move to your desired layer and hit the Layer Mask button, that will make a layer mask from the selection. There will be times though when Refine Edge will simply not be able to fix part of an edge, when that happens you will need to go in and manually fix that part. I like to make the Layer Mask first then do this type of cleanup on the Layer Mask. George

The green along the edge is bleed through from the original green background. The easiest thing to do with white fur is to just desaturate the edge using the sponge tool, turning that green into gray which is unnoticeable.

Thanks! I found that dog picture on pixabay.com, it is a great free image source site

Hi Jakkie, the red look is the layer mask shown as a red overlay. This is the way I normally work with Refine Edge as it makes it easy to see where the layer mask is being applied and is how I show it in the video. But you don't have to use the red overlay if you don't want to, there is a drop down list at the top of the Refine Edge dialog box that lets you view the layer mask in several different ways. George

@@HTGGeorge Hi George, thank you for the feedback I appreciate it. Regards, Jakkie

Hi, use Save in the File Menu to save to the default Photoshop Elements file. And then use Save As to save to a different format if you need to. Of course you can always print right from the Photoshop Elements file as well. George

Hi, this video is demonstrated in Photoshop Elements, no need for Premiere Elements. The Premiere Elements software program is Adobe's Video Editing partner for Photoshop Elements. It is a very nice video editor but not needed unless you do video editing. George

Hi Derrick, if the image is on one layer then you can simply use the Select menu to Select All, then Edit/Copy. Now open up your other file and Edit/Paste

Hi Diane, it is all done when you are making the original selection. After doing the selection around the subject change the setting for the selection tool in the options panel below the picture to Subtract and use the same tool to outline the area you want to remove from the selection. Once that is done you can then do the Refine Edge bit. This video shows that kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gd5kpbqCsbXSqqM.html

@@HTGGeorge Thank you so very much!!

@@dianeprewitt6339 You're welcome!

Hi, this video uses Refine Edge to help make the layer mask. Refine Edge first appeared in Photoshop Elements 13 so this video will work with Photoshop Elements 13 and newer. George.

Hi, when you create text in Photoshop Elements it goes on its own layer with no background. So to remove the background simply hide the background layer by clicking on that eye icon on the background layer. George

@@HTGGeorge thank you George. Much appreciated

Hi Bonnie, that link is for the online version

Hi Laura, I am guessing that you have both layers showing. The original background layer and the new duplicated layer with the layer mask. Try hiding the background layer.

@@HTGGeorge Thank you that worked. So many steps to learn, but it will keep my brain from getting bored...haha.

Make sure you hide the layers below your new composite layer. If you add transparency to the composite layer you will now be seeing the layers underneath.

Hi Nick, this is a very popular video so it places well on KZfaq. When using the Refine Edge tool what you are doing with the brush is telling Photoshop Elements where you want it to re-examine the edge. It will not be putting the edge where you are painting but it will find what it considers the correct edge somewhere within where you painted with the brush. Often times though the Refine Edge is not the correct tool to use, depends on the photo. It worked out well with the image in the project and often is a great tool, but it doesn't always work well. Take a look through my Playlist on changing backgrounds, you will see several different techniques and one of them may work better for you than the Refine Edge tool kzfaq.info/sun/PLfp-NJt_DpgEo3RRzfzSLZZCyNZhdLfle George

Sorry, no. I don't have any videos for that.

Hi Robin, keep the mouse key held down then hold down the space bar to temporarily get the hand tool to move the picture around. Then let go of the space bar and you are back to the lasso tool. If you lift up on the mouse button the lasso selection will automatically close itself back to the beginning, so keep that mouse button held down the whole time until you complete the selection. George

Thanks Roger! on the green picked up from the grass in the photo, that is pretty easy to fix. I don't have a video on that specific problem with a dog like this but I do have a video on removing a green screen from behind a person which does show how to correct for the green spill onto the subject (basically same problem with the dog). Look towards the end of the video after the background has been removed. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gtKCfbN50rPWeGw.html George

George, I just watched your video from the link above and I believe I should be able to fix my dog images with the suggestions you provided in the tutorial. Thanks, Roger

: )

Hi Charles, Photoshop Elements 10 didn't have the Refine Edge tool so you will be unable to use that unless you upgrade to at least Elements version 13. The new Photoshop Elements 2019 is version 17. George

Yes, save the image as a PNG with transparency (that is the default). Then import the PNG file into Word.

Hi Lisette, sounds like you have a large format monitor. There are a couple of things you can do to improve the display. Open the Edit Menu and click on Preferences. The first tab that opens is the General tab, on the left side click on Display & Cursors, at the bottom of this section there is a drop down for UI Scale Factor, set that at 200% and see if that helps. Now for the font list display move down to Type in the same Preferences dialog box, the bottom option is for Font Preview Size, I always keep mine set to Huge for these videos but there are several options, pick the one you like best. George

Hi George, thanks for the tip! I changed the size to 200 however I think 150 would've been perfect but unfortunately it's not available. I am now practicing with your videos, (mostly learning of course); sometimes it's slightly different but I manage to find the way. Do you have a video on how to print the images after fixing them? my images look great on the screen but when I print they look horribly different (I have played with the sharpness, brightness and contrast, etc until I see a nice image. I have also checked all the printer properties, but no. I have 2 HP inkjet printers. The envy 4500 seems to do better than the OfficeJet 4650 which I purchased recently. (I so much regret that...) and their customer service is horrible. Any hint you can give me will be appreciated. :)

Hi Lisette, Adobe really needs to do a better job of handling different sized monitors, their flagship Adobe Photoshop is just as limited on options. With printers I recommend always working in at least 300 ppi for the image resolution, you can check and/or adjust this in the Edit menu under Image Size. On actual printers, I have had the best results using Canon Photo printers, currently I have a Canon TS 9120 which does a great job. Also using Glossy Photo paper makes a huge difference in print quality. Keep in mind that your computer monitor and a printer use entirely different methods of displaying the image, the monitor is basically a backlit projection (transmitted light) and the printer is of course ink on white paper (reflective light). This alone will make a difference in the results, also printers cannot print bright colors as well as monitors will display them, you won't be able to get a good bright green off of a printer and reds will not be as vibrant both of which are limitations caused by blending inks to get color. Whenever you mix two or more inks it will dull down the resulting color, with red most printers blend yellow and magenta, so hard to get a good bright red. Same thing with green which is mixing yellow, blue, and sometimes red depending on the green needed which means you can't get a good bright green either. On monitors getting bright colors is easy, not so much on printers. So basically prints will look duller and less exciting than the same image viewed on a monitor. Boosting contrast and vibrancy can help. George

Thanks for all that info George! You have no idea how much I have learned thanks to your lessons!

The Select Object tool is a great new feature, but this video is aimed at all users of Photoshop Elements, not just the people who have the latest version. I tend to stay away from new features in my videos for that specific reason, because most people don't have the latest version.

​@@HTGGeorge You do not need to explain yourself. I am not criticizing just the opposite. I think you a great teacher, and I really appreciate your videos and training. I hope, however, you are not against a student, like me, sharing a tool or an idea or a hint useful for other users. BTW I noticed that the video was published in 2017 when probably the Select Object option was not available.

@@richardchelstowski2191 Thanks Richard, I often do longer explanations in my comment replies for the large number of people who read the comments. I love to hear tips and suggestions in the comments and I usually just say Thanks! but I felt that your comment could have scared off a beginning user who didn't have the latest version of Photoshop Elements, so I was just reassuring the audience that I try to keep my videos backwards compatible. I did a video on the Select Subject tool late last year.

@@HTGGeorge And I thank you for not using the newest tools in your tutorials, since I am still using PSE 13. Thank you for keeping your videos backwards compatible.

Richard Chelstowski: Are you using Elements, which version? Your method sounds like something I might want to try but I would have to upgrade. Thanks.

Hi, unfortunately no because some of the hair on the right side is the same as the background on the left side and some of the hair on the left side is the same as the background on the right side. No way to separate out based on color. This mask can be done in Adobe Photoshop with the use of several different techniques on different layers, including the use of Color Channels which are not available in Photoshop Elements. Then merging those different layer masks into one combined layer mask. This is a video I have upcoming for Adobe Photoshop. I suppose I could pull this one off in Photoshop Elements as well by breaking the image down into separate areas and doing each area individually, but loads of work to accomplish, definitely on the advanced PSE scale. George

Hi Heather, the background layer will not change. You will get a new layer with the background removed. As soon as that happens just hide the original background layer. The choice of selection tools makes no difference.

@@HTGGeorge my layers don't give me a option to select a new layer they are greyed out

@@tatortotpup1 Are you using a template or is this a file you made?

Hi, you will find a link for that image on my Project Files page (link in the description). The reason that the image is showing up in my recent file list is that I opened it previously. George

Take a look at this video on how to remove the white background kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hM-Pqdhp1bSspJc.html

Hi Robert, check out this video on how to set up floating document windows in Photoshop Elements kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jphmesRlz5qzaas.html George howtogurus.com

Awesome! Thank you so much!

You're welcome Robert George

Hi Suzi, not exactly sure what you are asking. Here are the different ways to add a background to Photoshop Elements: 1) use the Background feature in Graphics 2) Place an image in your file using the File/Place command and then drag it below your other image in the Layers panel. 3) Open up both your working file and the file containing your backgrounds then drag the background layer you want from your backgrounds file into your working file. It will come in as a new layer, then drag that layer below your image layer in the Layers panel. 4) Fill your background using one of the fill features in PSE, Paint Bucket/Fill Pattern. Let me know if any of this answers your question or if you need more detailed instructions on any of the above. George

that is what I wanted to know how to do, thank you so much sir

Thank you that is exactly what I needed to know.

: )

Great! George

Hi James, it sounds like you are trying to pull the original image back into an edited version of the same image. To do this you should do a Save As of the edited version to a new name, you will then be working with 2 images instead of 2 versions of the same image. Always a good idea anyway to either open a new file and pull your images into that new file, or save the file you opened to a new name. This way you are never working on the original which will keep it safe in case something goes wrong. George

Sure Tracy, just save to a format that supports transparency like Gif or PNG. Saving to a JPG will replace the transparency with your current background color. George

How To Gurus thanks George not sure if I was using the edge refine correctly, but on some areas there was some of the background left once I went around. Is this where the refine edge would not work?

Hi Tracy, the Refine Edge tool is not perfect and I usually use that as only one of my techniques when creating a Layer Mask. Here is another video showing how to change a background. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j7F3Y7yjus3VnGg.html George

Hi Kelly, you need to remove the selection from inside those enclosed areas before using Refine Edge. Here is a video that shows removing an enclosed area: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mZ6RoK6aysyyoKc.html George

The solution then is to manually make a careful selection of the subject, don't rely on Photoshop Elements automated tools or the magic wand. Use the polygonal lasso instead.

@@HTGGeorge I will give that a try this evening. Thank you. I sure appreciate the feedback. I will be checking out more of your videos. I mostly deal with padlocks and keys far as photos go for use in thumbnails for my videos

@@AlbertLebel Check out this video I posted yesterday, it shows how to use the polygonal lasso tool along with refine edge to remove a background.

@@HTGGeorge Awesome, thank you. I will check it out now. Just don't tell my boss what I'm doing. 🤐

@@AlbertLebel Here's an online tool that might be worth checkout out kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aMupe7qQsa28dKM.html

Hi, backgrounds and added images always create new layers except when you change the background layer in a file using Graphics/Backgrounds, that changes the background layer (the bottom layer in the stack). To have your new layer appear behind the dog make sure that you are on the layer beneath the dog before bringing in your new background image, it will then be in behind the dog. If the new image ends up in a layer above the dog just grab that layer in the Layer Panel and drag it down to below the dog layer. George

First make sure that you are in the Editor and not the Organizer. Then at the top, just under the menus you will see 3 tabs, Quick, Guided, and Expert. Click on Expert to see all the tools.

Hi Robert, here is the trick. Open both files at the same time, your working file and your new background file. Follow the instructions in this video to hide the original background. Once that is done you can put anything you want behind the dog. There are 3 basic ways to add in a new background. One is to use the Background tool in the Graphics panel (not shown in this video), the second is to use the Place command in the File menu. If you use Place the file will come in as a new layer above the layer that is currently selected. So if you are on the background layer of your working file the Place command will put that image above that background, which in this case would be behind the dog. The 3rd way is to drag and drop from one file to another. For this you will need both files open at the same time and it is best if you have both files set up as floating windows (link below for a video on that). Then just any layer from one file into the other file, in this case your new background image will probably be the only layer in that file, so just drag that background layer into the working file. Basically the drag and drop is a copy/paste technique, copying from one file and pasting into the other file. If a layer is in the wrong order in your working file you can drag layers up or down in the layer stack to where you would like them to be. Think of the layer stack like a deck of cards, the top layer is the top card in the stack, with the other layers below that layer. Clear parts on the top layer let you see the layers beneath. Here is the video on setting up floating windows kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jphmesRlz5qzaas.html And here is another video also showing hiding the background and replacing it with a new background kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d7WXl7mHuqereI0.html This is an important process to learn as it is one of the most used techniques in photo manipulation. Lots of my video projects rely on some variation of this one trick. George

That's the Tool Options, second button from the left on the bottom. And here is how to get the floating windows kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jphmesRlz5qzaas.html

Sorry no. I don't have any videos on doing color separations for silkscreening George

How To Gurus Thank you do you recommend any tutorial I would have something like that

Hi Lencho, sorry, nothing like that. With Silkscreen you need to separate out the image into several Black and White images, one for each color needed. If you are using custom ink colors then you can do that in Photoshop Elements by using the Magic Wand and Layer Masks and making a new layer for each color then converting those layers into Black and White and printing out each one separately as a transparency. But if you want to reproduce Photos or you want to use the standard CMYK inks you will need to use a more advanced program like Adobe Photoshop which has the ability to separate the image out into its different color channels and has CMYK mode. George

How To Gurus thank u

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Hi Tim, hair can be really tricky and there is no guarantee that you can get a good mask on hair using any technique. Really depends on the photo. Here is another video about masking hair kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qbdlnqxeqdLYmZ8.html George

Hi Gordon, watch this video on how to set up floating windows. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jphmesRlz5qzaas.html Then just drag the background from the one file into the other file. George

Hi Mary, having success with Content Aware depends on the image. Frequently you have to do some cleanup. Here is a video I did where I removed a person using Content Aware Fill kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ndCpnr2eqq_Ynmw.html and here is one where I remove a shadow using Content Aware Fill kzfaq.info/get/bejne/obKZn81k1ZzHkmg.html George