This is the best tutorial I have found. The brightness-contrast tip is much more accurate than any other way to get your mask. Thanks for your clarity.
Wow. Now that's useful. I never would have figured it out on my own. I both love and hate GIMP, but as time goes on, it's more love than hate. The more I learn about the advanced functions of the programs, the more I'm amazed at just how powerful an editor GIMP is. Throw into that it's price, and it's impossible to beat. A 6 year old video still helping people.. Thanks a million.
Ever since I started on this journey of learning how to remove background in Gimp I would just follow the steps found on youtube in order to achieve it. Although I am grateful it's free, their are too many! I had hoped that I could eventually understand the process so I wouldn't need to depend on a tutorial and you are making it happen. Still to many steps, but it now makes sense and will go by a lot faster! You explained everything in a short, but makes sense way. YOU ROCK! Thanks!
Kevin: Thank you very much for your efforts on this. With your help, I was able to finally understand this (after stumbling with several other people's tutorials). This is exactly what I needed.
For those of you who cannot afford the more expensive (you know of what I speak) graphic programs, Gimp is excellent, and this is one of the best tutorials available. Suggestion, have two computers ( or your computer and ipad, or slate, or whatevahs) and watch the tutorial once to get the idea of in your head, then open gimp in your main computer, watch the tutorial on the secondary unit, pausing as you go through each segment (you can always go back if you don't understand) until you get it right. This is actually good advice for anything you want to learn via a UA-cam (or any) video. Viel Gluck and A hui hou !
as someone who's been using photoshop for quite possibly a decade now, trying to explain the most utmost basic things such as layer masks to a gimp-only user has been frustrating. thank you for this video, it's been quite helpful!
Best one I've seen so far. You are a good teacher as well as a photo manipulator. Some of the other ones are poor teachers no matter how good an artist they are. Also your graphics allows me to see what I would see on my own computer. Some tutorials I cannot see the side panels and where my teacher is going. thanks
Simply No. Layer Mask is the best way to remove a light background. you can also use color to alpha ( Layer ->> Transparency ->> Color to Alpha ) or ( Colors ->> Color to Alpha ). This can make any color in your Layer Transparent. here is a tutorial about that ua-cam.com/video/sg2f5y1M1Ac/v-deo.html but removing a background has the same color as the hair i am still looking for solution to that.
Wow you did a really good job on masking the model. I’ve used gimp on and off over the years but never imderstood the masking tool. Thank you for the tutorial, it is well explained.
Thanks much, your tutorial certainly showed me ways of doing things I had not been aware of. I am curious, however, as to whether there is an advantage of doing it that way vs they way I had been doing it. To wit, I would have duplicated the layer, and then worked on the duplicate... then used the magic wand and selected "non-contiguous" in the options and played around with the sensitivity such that it would not delete highlights in her hair, or on her face or clothing and so on. Seems like that works pretty well for this type of a photo where there's a solid background of a color that isn't all over tahe part you want to keep. In reality, this image seems like a fairly easy one to erase the background. The really hard ones would be if she was standing in front of a busy background, say a forest or park scene, especially if there are colors that are similar to her hair, say shadows, dark twigs etc. In those cases, I've used the erase tool to erase most of the unwanted background, right up to the parts I want to keep and then use the magic wand & try to experiment with selecting colors I want to get rid of. Sometimes at that point I will duplicate this edited layer and erase more than I would like, maybe just keeping her face and the solid areas of her hair and so on. Then I can go back and use the magic wand to erase a lot of the areas I'm trying to get rid of, but don't have to worry about erasing that middle core area I want to keep. Later on I can move that layer back up to fill in anything I inadvertantly erased. Is there a drawback to doing it the way that I described?
Thanks for the comments both positive and negative. Constantly trying to understand and learn the craft of photo manipulation. Sometimes we have success and sometimes not, but as I tell my students: practice, practice, practice. If I have helped in some small way, I am glad :) If not, plenty of amazing videos exist on the Interweeb where you can find amazing people doing amazing work. Cheers!
Kevin Legault could you help me?? if i save just the image without the background can i out in it a video editor then add a background behind then add an effect to the background??
You can do this quite easily with something as simple as Windows MovieMaker 6. If you import your video and drag it to the video timeline, you have completed step one. You can then import your picture with its transparency and drag it to the overlay track at the bottom. The picture might be five seconds long by default, but you can drag the border of your picture so it matches the length of your video. MovieMaker 6 is free and has lots of add-ons.
Hi Kevin, I have a large project to do, some backdrops for trade shows, that will be about 38" x 82". I'm in the thinking stages now, but have used GIMP a lot the last year with photos of our products for our website. I'm not so familiar with using layers and masks, but you made them much clearer to me. Your tutorial was very clear and detailed enough. Thanks for your assistance! Much appreciated.
Kevin Legault This tutorial was extremely helpful; your instructions were very insightful and extremely easy to follow and understand. The explanation of each step also provided a snapshot/brief overview of some of the other capabilities in GIMP. Thanks to you, I've been playing around and experimenting with GIMP for the past several days. Thank you VERY, VERY much for this video.
Thank you, this actually worked!I have watched so many other of these videos where they teach you how to do this but non of them worked or I just was too dumb aha
I appreciate you taking the time to show us how to mask. Once upon a time many moons ago I was pretty dang good with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. This was back when AUTOCAD first started getting used maybe 20 years ago. But haven't used since. So this is great. Going to subscribe to your channel and see what else I can learn.
Thank you for being clear and concise. Easy to understand and follow. I am new to using GIMP and basically want to learn to remove wrinkles, blemishes and whiten teeth. Do you have other tutorials starting at the beginning. Thank You
Hi Christian I did not realize that so many people are making use of GIMP. I am glad so many people find this software useful. I do have a tutorial for removing wrinkles that makes use of several techniques. I will post it from work this week. Thanks for your comments.
VERY HELPFUL! Nice pacing as well/ Have seen some other people's tutorials and found they spoke and maneuvered thru the program way too quickly to "get it". I'm new to GIMP, as my version of Photoshop Elements is outdated and cannot be used with Windows 8. Thanks for your insight!
Thank you for sharing this, I found it very helpful. Do you have any tips for masking hair etc when the background isn't as light as the one in your example.
I guess how many artifacts such as the white connected to the hair from its original white background could be improved by additional masking using the Level controls. Maybe I will try another to see what I can come up with. Thanks for your question.
Great tutorial but I do have some light coloured flowers with white background and I have no idea how to get rid of that background! leaft are sticking out leaving me with erasing everything for hours and still not looking properly :( I think its time to find some transparency pictures..
at 5:12 you dont have to cut it. hold alt then click on mask. it will highlight it. then right click on woman and click add layer mask, the box that pops up click selection. it will have same effect. just merge after. may have to move the layers if it doesnt change it by clicking the green arrow at the bottom.
Absolutely. Saving your project as an .xcf file maintains the layers. When you export your project as a .jpg or other format, the layers are merged automatically. You can, however, merge the layers within the .xcf file. For me, I might want to make a copy of the original .xcf before merging the layers within the project file. Once you have merged the layers, you won't have the ability to go back to make "layer specific" changes. Just a thought.
Thank you so much..pls help my tools don't work pencil brush etc etc..I dot have layer yet and I'm working in rgb mode.i even toggle n un toggle layer mask to check I have selected areAs..
Kevin, Thanks to your video my first composite worked well. I'd now like to try the opposite. (Small kids in front of large Disneyworld Castle). My attempts result with big kids and enlarged small portion of castle. Guess this is a scaling or reverse layer issue. Can anybody advise? Thanks.
Hi, i have a question, i remember with older gimp versions i could add an objet (crop) cut it from one image and past it to another image (the background image) and then i could erase the object's contours (by simply using the eraser) so i could see the background image exemple: i cut an airplane image from a gray sky background and past it to an image that has a nice blue sky background and then erase the airplane's grey sky color around it. i cant find out how to do it with lates 2.10.20 version. ..
Hi, Kevin! Just as a post scriptum to my comment below: I like the look of GIMP's neon logoes. Problem is that I want to have a neon logo to fit to the shape of the top third of a circle. Do you happen to know how I can curve the neon logo efficiently in GIMP? I was thinking maybe it could be done with Cage Transform but it doesn't curve the logo evenly enough. You obviously know a lot about GIMP so any tip you might have would be fantastic!
Yes is the simple answer. Zoom in on the area where you want to remove the white. Make sure you have your mask area selected. By painting black, you will again hide the background. You could also use your fuzzy select tool to make a selection and fill it with black. The beauty of masking is that it is non-destructive. I hope that I have answered your question :) Thanks for watching.
You used an image with a white background which made it much easier to do it with the steps you gave. However, when the background has many colors it is much harder. I was able to do it but had to clean up the background with the eraser tool. Your steps did a pretty good job on the hair though. You also used (what is now) a very old Gimp version and the icons and steps look different but still can be done and I used the newest version which is currently Gimp 2.10.18. It would be really great if you would consider creating the video again but with the new GIMP version and an image with a more complex background. This is truly a very important tutorial because working with hair like this is difficult. I watched and tried many other videos, some using the Foreground Color tool and many other tools as well, but yours did the best job. You would be doing all of us GIMP users and big, big favor if you did an update on this again.. Thanks so much - blessings
Great if your image has a white background but most don't. Doesn't work with images with black or multi-color backgrounds. How would I use this with black or multi-colored backgrounds? I don't think it can be done - what do you say? Please give some feedback on this.
Hi there, could you possibly explain the dynamic of how or should I say why you add a alpha layer and then duplicate. What does the alpha(transparency) do or cause that makes it significant before duplicating? If that makes sense?
+jono77seven I add the alpha channel to the original image out of habit. Seems I am always doing some kind of transparency. If I do not add the alpha channel, then I won't be able to remove the background. The three regular channels are Red Green and Blue. I use the Alpha channel because it allows me to paint with transparency, like a magical invisible colour. Terrible explanation, but it is the only way I can describe it. It gives me magical powers of invisibility.
+Kevin Legault Brilliant explanation.. I was wandering down that line of thought. Makes perfect sense.. So it is basically the piece of code that adds the transparency capability to the program coz the program has to tell itself not to show something as it would kick out a syntax error if it simply got null instruction. Makes perfect sense. I seem to have also been using that with layer mask almost every single time I use gimp.. Brilliant program I might add. Free is not always horrible. It has crashed a few times but that's why I save regularly and try and be gentle if that makes sense. Thanks for getting back to me. Have an awesome day!
Thanks. I never quite understood that. It seemed to me that the background layer was the only one I could not erase/eliminate. But I might be getting that mixed up with Photoshop Elements. I used to just import a picture as another layer, or paste it into a new layer & I could erase the background even though I've never messed with Alpha layers. I'll have to keep that in mind as I seem to get baffled occasionally as to why something doesn't work like I expect it to.
The alpha layer allows you to paint transparency. Some images, for whatever reason, already have the Alpha layer activated when you import them. If I do not add the Alpha layer, whatever I erase will have a solid white background instead of being invisible. When I add the second layer to create the layer mask, the layer mask is set to have transparency. In order to have transparency, the Alpha channel must be activated.
Thanks you. I have had issues with that in the past, in particular when scanning an image of my signature to import into a .pdf editor. I couldn't figure out why I could delete the background in my editing program, but when I imported it into my .pdf editor the white background was still there. That caused a problem when I wanted to insert my signature on a document that had a line for me to sign on. The cursive "f"s and so on would/should go below the line, but if I did that the white background would cover part of the line, making it obvious that it was a digital signature. Fortunately, I did eventually find a setting (in the .pdf software?) that allowed me to make it a transparency so that I could put the signature on the line & it all looked perfect, just as if I had printed it out, signed it & then scanned it before sending it back. Alpha and masking are a couple of the areas I've never really taken the time to figure out, but your tutorial is great for that. Thanks again.
I do not have a specific course on GIMP. I teach at the New Brunswick Community College in Saint John, New Brunswick. Part of a multimedia course that I teach completes fifteen hours of photo/graphic manipulation and editing. I just happened to post this video for my students who asked about the technique. I did not expect so many people to have found it online.
Yes you can add a layer mask to a picture and some of the accidental results I have gotten look pretty cool. If I have some time, I will do one using the same picture.
I have followed your instructions BY THE STEP. But when I go to edit and cut, it takes me back to the original picture. I've tried about five times now in case I was in error and I get the same result each and every time!
Could this technique be used for double exposure photography? The fuzzy select tool is poor with gimp and its hard to get around hair and fine features.
An alpha channel appears automatically after the second layer is added to Gimp, it is the transparent layer. I don't know if you can select layer one to be the transparent one.
If you send me your sample picture, I could take a look at it for you. Helps me to learn because every situation has subtle differences. One thing you could try is to desaturate the picture. Play with your brightness and contrast and then invert the picture. That will be my first step.
Cant you just use color to alpha and turn the white to transparent? I know layer masking is good and all but for removing solid color background cant you just Color to alpha?
I am not an expert, but I think the idea behind layer masking is to be non-destructive when it comes to the original picture. I read on another tutorial site that if you had a choice, you should never erase when you can layer mask. Always something to learn from fellow UA-camrs :)
This is the best tutorial I have found. The brightness-contrast tip is much more accurate than any other way to get your mask. Thanks for your clarity.
Wow. Now that's useful. I never would have figured it out on my own. I both love and hate GIMP, but as time goes on, it's more love than hate. The more I learn about the advanced functions of the programs, the more I'm amazed at just how powerful an editor GIMP is. Throw into that it's price, and it's impossible to beat. A 6 year old video still helping people.. Thanks a million.
Excellent tutorial! Clear, concise and not too fast! Love the process and succinctness. Thank you very much. You also saved me a lot of time.
Excellent!!! The best technic to select hair, trees etc. Thanks you very much!
So far the best GIMP tutorial I've seen. Thank you!
Wow! Thank you so much for your kind comment!
Best video ever ,I saw more than 10 videos but most explained was this one for me...
Ever since I started on this journey of learning how to remove background in Gimp I would just follow the steps found on youtube in order to achieve it. Although I am grateful it's free, their are too many! I had hoped that I could eventually understand the process so I wouldn't need to depend on a tutorial and you are making it happen. Still to many steps, but it now makes sense and will go by a lot faster! You explained everything in a short, but makes sense way. YOU ROCK! Thanks!
Kevin: Thank you very much for your efforts on this. With your help, I was able to finally understand this (after stumbling with several other people's tutorials). This is exactly what I needed.
One of the very best tutorials for Gimp I seen.
For those of you who cannot afford the more expensive (you know of what I speak) graphic programs, Gimp is excellent, and this is one of the best tutorials available. Suggestion, have two computers ( or your computer and ipad, or slate, or whatevahs) and watch the tutorial once to get the idea of in your head, then open gimp in your main computer, watch the tutorial on the secondary unit, pausing as you go through each segment (you can always go back if you don't understand) until you get it right. This is actually good advice for anything you want to learn via a UA-cam (or any) video. Viel Gluck and A hui hou !
excellent advice
I've seen many tutorials for using masks for this task but this one finally clicked! Thank you :)
Much obliged Kevin, this tutorial will be one that I use in training and reference for a good long time.
as someone who's been using photoshop for quite possibly a decade now, trying to explain the most utmost basic things such as layer masks to a gimp-only user has been frustrating. thank you for this video, it's been quite helpful!
Comprehensive and easy to understand a beginner like me.Thank you for sharing the knowledge.
ฝย
Best one I've seen so far. You are a good teacher as well as a photo manipulator. Some of the other ones are poor teachers no matter how good an artist they are. Also your graphics allows me to see what I would see on my own computer. Some tutorials I cannot see the side panels and where my teacher is going. thanks
Excellent tutorial, Kevin! Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us!
Finally! What a frustrating week before this video. Thanks!
The best mask video that i saw in gimp, thanks.
Yes you are right
I'm brand new to using GIMP.
Your tutorial is very helpful.
Your explanations are nice and clear.
This was brilliant! I really enjoy playing with the pictures I take, and this makes it so much more enjoyable and easy! Thank you so much for posting!
Thanks, first time I have managed to understand layers and masks.
Excellent! I will use this to emulate the iconic yellow Heisenberg portrait using my own face as the subject. Thanks so much for this video Kevin.
Very helpful as I am just kicking off with Gimp, much appreciated Kevin.
Still relevant in GIMP 2.10 all these years later. I wonder if there are new tools in 2.10 that could make this process easier.
Simply No. Layer Mask is the best way to remove a light background. you can also use color to alpha ( Layer ->> Transparency ->> Color to Alpha )
or ( Colors ->> Color to Alpha ). This can make any color in your Layer Transparent. here is a tutorial about that
ua-cam.com/video/sg2f5y1M1Ac/v-deo.html
but removing a background has the same color as the hair i am still looking for solution to that.
Great tutorial. Well spoken, and very nicely presented. Clean clear concise. Thank you for your efforts.
Wow you did a really good job on masking the model. I’ve used gimp on and off over the years but never imderstood the masking tool. Thank you for the tutorial, it is well explained.
thank you so much for this tutorial! Really help me a lot to understand more about GIMP.
Very helpful as I am just starting off with Gimp,great technique and easy to follow
thank you very much!!! I was confused at first, but it all made sense in the end. Thank you sir!
Awesome tutorial. Watched it fullscreen and took notes. Thanks!
Thanks much, your tutorial certainly showed me ways of doing things I had not been aware of.
I am curious, however, as to whether there is an advantage of doing it that way vs they way I had been doing it. To wit,
I would have duplicated the layer, and then worked on the duplicate... then used the magic wand and selected "non-contiguous" in the options and played around with the sensitivity such that it would not delete highlights in her hair, or on her face or clothing and so on. Seems like that works pretty well for this type of a photo where there's a solid background of a color that isn't all over tahe part you want to keep.
In reality, this image seems like a fairly easy one to erase the background. The really hard ones would be if she was standing in front of a busy background, say a forest or park scene, especially if there are colors that are similar to her hair, say shadows, dark twigs etc.
In those cases, I've used the erase tool to erase most of the unwanted background, right up to the parts I want to keep and then use the magic wand & try to experiment with selecting colors I want to get rid of.
Sometimes at that point I will duplicate this edited layer and erase more than I would like, maybe just keeping her face and the solid areas of her hair and so on. Then I can go back and use the magic wand to erase a lot of the areas I'm trying to get rid of, but don't have to worry about erasing that middle core area I want to keep. Later on I can move that layer back up to fill in anything I inadvertantly erased.
Is there a drawback to doing it the way that I described?
Very easy to understand and clean concept.Good tutorial....... Thanks buddy.
thank you, very clean tutorial! doing this in 2019!
Thanks for the comments both positive and negative. Constantly trying to understand and learn the craft of photo manipulation. Sometimes we have success and sometimes not, but as I tell my students: practice, practice, practice. If I have helped in some small way, I am glad :) If not, plenty of amazing videos exist on the Interweeb where you can find amazing people doing amazing work. Cheers!
Kevin Legault could you help me??
if i save just the image without the background can i out in it a video editor then add a background behind then add an effect to the background??
You can do this quite easily with something as simple as Windows MovieMaker 6. If you import your video and drag it to the video timeline, you have completed step one. You can then import your picture with its transparency and drag it to the overlay track at the bottom. The picture might be five seconds long by default, but you can drag the border of your picture so it matches the length of your video. MovieMaker 6 is free and has lots of add-ons.
ok thanks i found out how to do it :)
Thanks for sharing you knowledge Kevin! You're making the world a better place by sharing what you have with others!
I like your tutorial. very nice and calm and organized. You are a good teacher. Would you explain other options for creating layer mask?
Worked! What an absolute genius mad lad! Was so easy
Your the man!!! Best gimp video to date. U helped me immensely💪
Hi Kevin, I have a large project to do, some backdrops for trade shows, that will be about 38" x 82". I'm in the thinking stages now, but have used GIMP a lot the last year with photos of our products for our website. I'm not so familiar with using layers and masks, but you made them much clearer to me. Your tutorial was very clear and detailed enough. Thanks for your assistance! Much appreciated.
Glad you found the video helpful. Best of luck with your project!
I don't check here often, but I am glad I have been able to help some people. Your continued comments are always appreciated 😄
Kevin Legault This tutorial was extremely helpful; your instructions were very insightful and extremely easy to follow and understand. The explanation of each step also provided a snapshot/brief overview of some of the other capabilities in GIMP. Thanks to you, I've been playing around and experimenting with GIMP for the past several days. Thank you VERY, VERY much for this video.
Thanks Darius for your positive comments :)
Followed your steps and did it perfectly. Thank you for this tutorial.
Glad it worked for you!!!
omg i learned the proper way to layer transparency masking a portrait photo..................... thank you so much
Thank you, this actually worked!I have watched so many other of these videos where they teach you how to do this but non of them worked or I just was too dumb aha
I am glad ot worked for you. We are all a little dumbfounded when we are learning techniques. The more you practice, the less dumbfounded we are :)
I appreciate you taking the time to show us how to mask. Once upon a time many moons ago I was pretty dang good with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. This was back when AUTOCAD first started getting used maybe 20 years ago. But haven't used since. So this is great. Going to subscribe to your channel and see what else I can learn.
OMG I'm just now learning gimp 2.8 and this was fantastically informative! Thank you!
Thank you for being clear and concise. Easy to understand and follow. I am new to using GIMP and basically want to learn to remove wrinkles, blemishes and whiten teeth. Do you have other tutorials starting at the beginning. Thank You
Hi Christian
I did not realize that so many people are making use of GIMP. I am glad so many people find this software useful. I do have a tutorial for removing wrinkles that makes use of several techniques. I will post it from work this week. Thanks for your comments.
Hi Kevin.
Thank you for the tutorial, very informative and helpful.
Thank You that was an excellent tutorial at a speed that I could keep up and try. Super
This works. Recommended to try this out. Thanks a lot for your help
yay just finished doing my first layer masking...thanks so much for this video it really helped me :)
Thankyou very much for your help , clear talking and tutorial 😁
VERY HELPFUL! Nice pacing as well/ Have seen some other people's tutorials and found they spoke and maneuvered thru the program way too quickly to "get it". I'm new to GIMP, as my version of Photoshop Elements is outdated and cannot be used with Windows 8. Thanks for your insight!
this was so useful, I had so much fun with a little project and like 20 layers lol
Glad you found it to be helpful :)
Thank you for sharing this, I found it very helpful.
Do you have any tips for masking hair etc when the background isn't as light as the one in your example.
I guess how many artifacts such as the white connected to the hair from its original white background could be improved by additional masking using the Level controls. Maybe I will try another to see what I can come up with. Thanks for your question.
Thanks Kevin.
Great tutorial but I do have some light coloured flowers with white background and I have no idea how to get rid of that background! leaft are sticking out leaving me with erasing everything for hours and still not looking properly :( I think its time to find some transparency pictures..
at 5:12 you dont have to cut it. hold alt then click on mask. it will highlight it. then right click on woman and click add layer mask, the box that pops up click selection. it will have same effect. just merge after. may have to move the layers if it doesnt change it by clicking the green arrow at the bottom.
Cool! Thanks. I will try that.
Great - very well explained. Since you saved it as *.xcf we could [as a final step] apply layer mask, and flatten [merge] layers down. Right?
Absolutely. Saving your project as an .xcf file maintains the layers. When you export your project as a .jpg or other format, the layers are merged automatically. You can, however, merge the layers within the .xcf file. For me, I might want to make a copy of the original .xcf before merging the layers within the project file. Once you have merged the layers, you won't have the ability to go back to make "layer specific" changes. Just a thought.
Fairly steep learning curve, but well presented. I will be coming back to this one more than once.
Thank you so much..pls help my tools don't work pencil brush etc etc..I dot have layer yet and I'm working in rgb mode.i even toggle n un toggle layer mask to check I have selected areAs..
Kevin, Thanks to your video my first composite worked well. I'd now like to try the opposite. (Small kids in front of large Disneyworld Castle). My attempts result with big kids and enlarged small portion of castle. Guess this is a scaling or reverse layer issue. Can anybody advise? Thanks.
Great tutorial, thanks for your time and effort.
Hi, i have a question,
i remember with older gimp versions i could add an objet (crop) cut it from one image and past it to another image (the background image)
and then i could erase the object's contours (by simply using the eraser) so i could see the background image
exemple:
i cut an airplane image from a gray sky background and past it to an image that has a nice blue sky background and then erase the airplane's grey sky color around it.
i cant find out how to do it with lates 2.10.20 version. ..
Hi, Kevin! Just as a post scriptum to my comment below: I like the look of GIMP's neon logoes. Problem is that I want to have a neon logo to fit to the shape of the top third of a circle. Do you happen to know how I can curve the neon logo efficiently in GIMP? I was thinking maybe it could be done with Cage Transform but it doesn't curve the logo evenly enough. You obviously know a lot about GIMP so any tip you might have would be fantastic!
at around 7:21 where you show some of the small areas of white that remained, is it possible to erase those using a black brush?
Yes is the simple answer. Zoom in on the area where you want to remove the white. Make sure you have your mask area selected. By painting black, you will again hide the background. You could also use your fuzzy select tool to make a selection and fill it with black. The beauty of masking is that it is non-destructive. I hope that I have answered your question :) Thanks for watching.
thank you very much !!! but if we got a background ? how can we cut it ??
You used an image with a white background which made it much easier to do it with the steps you gave. However, when the background has many colors it is much harder. I was able to do it but had to clean up the background with the eraser tool. Your steps did a pretty good job on the hair though. You also used (what is now) a very old Gimp version and the icons and steps look different but still can be done and I used the newest version which is currently Gimp 2.10.18. It would be really great if you would consider creating the video again but with the new GIMP version and an image with a more complex background. This is truly a very important tutorial because working with hair like this is difficult. I watched and tried many other videos, some using the Foreground Color tool and many other tools as well, but yours did the best job. You would be doing all of us GIMP users and big, big favor if you did an update on this again.. Thanks so much - blessings
This works great when you have a white background. How would you handle a greyscale gradient background where things are not so black and white?
Hi Dave
I learn best from trying. Would you have an image you would like me to try?
will be trying that out very soon. great video!!!
This stuff is not easy; this is an excellent lesson, that I can follow quite well.
Thanks very much.
I really like your video you very good teacher. I learned a lot from you. Thanks so much.
wonderful! great job. much needed teaching
Can we do masking when some of the background colors are same or similar with the portion of the image we want to keep?
Would you please share where you got that image? I would like to use that exact image to work with when I follow your tutorial. Thanks
Great if your image has a white background but most don't. Doesn't work with images with black or multi-color backgrounds. How would I use this with black or multi-colored backgrounds? I don't think it can be done - what do you say? Please give some feedback on this.
am getting soft from your video, thx alot. how do i make my soft more than 50sec long? I clicked loop recording, pressed the record
Hi there, could you possibly explain the dynamic of how or should I say why you add a alpha layer and then duplicate. What does the alpha(transparency) do or cause that makes it significant before duplicating? If that makes sense?
+jono77seven I add the alpha channel to the original image out of habit. Seems I am always doing some kind of transparency. If I do not add the alpha channel, then I won't be able to remove the background. The three regular channels are Red Green and Blue. I use the Alpha channel because it allows me to paint with transparency, like a magical invisible colour. Terrible explanation, but it is the only way I can describe it. It gives me magical powers of invisibility.
+Kevin Legault Brilliant explanation.. I was wandering down that line of thought. Makes perfect sense.. So it is basically the piece of code that adds the transparency capability to the program coz the program has to tell itself not to show something as it would kick out a syntax error if it simply got null instruction. Makes perfect sense. I seem to have also been using that with layer mask almost every single time I use gimp.. Brilliant program I might add. Free is not always horrible. It has crashed a few times but that's why I save regularly and try and be gentle if that makes sense. Thanks for getting back to me. Have an awesome day!
Thanks. I never quite understood that. It seemed to me that the background layer was the only one I could not erase/eliminate. But I might be getting that mixed up with Photoshop Elements. I used to just import a picture as another layer, or paste it into a new layer & I could erase the background even though I've never messed with Alpha layers. I'll have to keep that in mind as I seem to get baffled occasionally as to why something doesn't work like I expect it to.
The alpha layer allows you to paint transparency. Some images, for whatever reason, already have the Alpha layer activated when you import them. If I do not add the Alpha layer, whatever I erase will have a solid white background instead of being invisible. When I add the second layer to create the layer mask, the layer mask is set to have transparency. In order to have transparency, the Alpha channel must be activated.
Thanks you.
I have had issues with that in the past, in particular when scanning an image of my signature to import into a .pdf editor.
I couldn't figure out why I could delete the background in my editing program, but when I imported it into my .pdf editor the white background was still there. That caused a problem when I wanted to insert my signature on a document that had a line for me to sign on. The cursive "f"s and so on would/should go below the line, but if I did that the white background would cover part of the line, making it obvious that it was a digital signature.
Fortunately, I did eventually find a setting (in the .pdf software?) that allowed me to make it a transparency so that I could put the signature on the line & it all looked perfect, just as if I had printed it out, signed it & then scanned it before sending it back.
Alpha and masking are a couple of the areas I've never really taken the time to figure out, but your tutorial is great for that.
Thanks again.
yo bro thanks a bunch im extremely new to this and your video has been extremely helpful in understanding what masking is and how to do it thanks bruh
Great Tutorial, so good explained, thank you!
Awsome, man. Muchas gracias from Buenos Aires.
Kevin, great tutorial on layer masking really learned allot. Do you have a course on GIMP training?
I do not have a specific course on GIMP. I teach at the New Brunswick Community College in Saint John, New Brunswick. Part of a multimedia course that I teach completes fifteen hours of photo/graphic manipulation and editing. I just happened to post this video for my students who asked about the technique. I did not expect so many people to have found it online.
Instead of adding a picture to the layer mask can you add a layer mask to a picture?I've tried & all you get is the inverted black & white image.
Yes you can add a layer mask to a picture and some of the accidental results I have gotten look pretty cool. If I have some time, I will do one using the same picture.
Kevin Legault Cheers,Kevin.
I have followed your instructions BY THE STEP. But when I go to edit and cut, it takes me back to the original picture. I've tried about five times now in case I was in error and I get the same result each and every time!
I want to make a digital collage, how do I go about it?
Could this technique be used for double exposure photography? The fuzzy select tool is poor with gimp and its hard to get around hair and fine features.
I am not sure. My camera cannot do double exposure photography. If you had a picture, I would give it a try :)
what will i do when the color of the hair is dark and light... i still had to take part of the backround with me.
Terrific tutorial, thank you!
i don't have it empty in the middle i have a small bar tells me to insert photo or something like this
Thank you for the wonderful tip!
Very good tutorial
how come that i never thought of duplicating the layer into black and white to ease detailed mask selection ...
thanks man, it was a great idea :)
An alpha channel appears automatically after the second layer is added to Gimp, it is the transparent layer. I don't know if you can select layer one to be the transparent one.
Layer One is not automatically transparent. Some images when opened require you to add the alpha channel.
Thanks for the respond. It helped me understand this better.
Wow! It works! The first time i tried it took forever to activate and when I disabled my antivirus it worked like in less than a minute!
Excellent tutorial!
How can we do this , add a picture in phone
What about for pix with lighter blonde hair?
I tried to do this, and the hair doesn't go black.
Suggestions?
If you send me your sample picture, I could take a look at it for you. Helps me to learn because every situation has subtle differences. One thing you could try is to desaturate the picture. Play with your brightness and contrast and then invert the picture. That will be my first step.
Great tutorial! Thanks!
IS there any way to rescale both the image and image layer at the same time to fit them better with background pictures?
Nevermind found it out. You just have to click on the image and rescale and not rescale the layer mask :P
awesome technique, thanks man
Just came across this. Thank you for sharing.
Cant you just use color to alpha and turn the white to transparent? I know layer masking is good and all but for removing solid color background cant you just Color to alpha?
I am not an expert, but I think the idea behind layer masking is to be non-destructive when it comes to the original picture. I read on another tutorial site that if you had a choice, you should never erase when you can layer mask. Always something to learn from fellow UA-camrs :)
thanks a whole lot. this tutorial was the best ever.
Thank you ShaRosha. You made me smile :)