I've always just gone through all the edges to remove the background manually, even with very detailed pictures. This video saves a lot of my time, thanks a lot!
What an OG. I remember watching your tutorials for fun years ago, and I've come back so many times now because of club activities in school. Thanks, Nick!
OMG- That was so great- I have spent many hours Googeling this exact thing- but every time it does not really work as I have a different image where a different method is better. You sir, are awesome.
This guide is like a treasure trove of tools! As a beginner with Photo Editting tools, this is incredible! What I ended up needing was the Paths Tool! Thank you for this, Nick!
Excellent tutorial as usual Nick. I never knew the threshold could be adjusted with up and down movements. One other thing you could have mentioned though, is that the default colors of the foreground select tool, can be changed to your liking. Eg if you do not like the blue, or if need a color other than blue, to be more visible for a particular image . Thanks for explaining these tools in such a clear and concise manner.
This is the most comprehensive video about removing background using GIMP. I was curious about how to perform the "history brush" on GIMP and now I know it. Thank you so much!
I can only say wow and wow with all of your videos, you just help probably a young designer that can't afford expensive adobe tools, I wish you make it to million of followers, you deserve this effort. Salute.
These tutorials are amazing! Finally a good reason to not spend a chunk of my savings on Photoshop and the more expensive Photoshop tutorials by third party experts.
I am so relieved to find this video! I've watched half a dozen by other creators that A.) have their screen all customized - so it's hard to follow where they are going. B.) Talk and move their cursor SO Fast that it's difficult to track and retain instructions in fragments where the visual and the audible instructions don't sync up. And C.) Use terminology that a beginner probably has no idea what is meant without a brief explanation - that I was very near giving up! Nick - You ROCK! I've subscribed to your UA-cam channel and am going to check out your website. I'm hoping your GIMP Series is something that I can afford!
Great tutorial, as always! Maybe there's something I'm doing wrong, but when I work on posters, with images blown up, I always use a white layer mask and a brush to make backgrounds or areas transparent, or even repaint fine hairs. It takes a long time but it's the most thorough approach and looks flawless in poster size.
This is by far the best tutorial I've seen regarding GIMP. It's been exceedingly helpful, thank you. I'll definitely be referring to your videos for any future help I need.
Great video! I am new to GIMP, and I used #2 "Select By Color" . I removed the colors in the image as described, however, once I deleted the colors I could not exit Select By Colors. In most application hitting ESC would end the function. So simple question, how do you leave once you have deleted the colors?
I am SO glad I found this video and will definitely be checking out your whole series on GIMP. Thank you so much for getting right to the instruction, clear and concise. I had been through so many other videos and not understanding, was lost. Now I’ve got a good chance! Excellent!
I would recommend using/constructing a Layer Mask in almost all these cases, instead of just creating a selection and deleting to transparency. You can take your time and refine the mask by painting black and white with any tools or color curve adjustments you like. Detail got clipped out? Paint white into the mask. Background creeping in? Paint black into the mask. X key lets you toggle easily if your foreground and background brush colors are black and white.
Thanks for the video.... When using the fuzzy select tool, I'm able to select much of the background, but when I hit delete, nothing happens. Any ideas?
Your tutorials are fantastic. Succinct, clear, and hit all the necessary points we need to accomplish the task we need for the photograph. Thank you so much!
Hey Nick, whenever I select clear, the background goes white instead of transparent. I may have messed up some settings, can you please help me restore. Its urgent!!!!
@@theone-fk7cl Even I had the same problem although it was alpha selected. So what I did was that I closed the application and restarted my computer. The reason why I restarted is that when we restart our computer the file get refreshed. So then it started working out. Try this and let me know the result @Mike is AWESOME mike72nd.
I've been using the threshold bar for fuzzy select. I did not know about the "click and drag" method. One issue I've been having with the path tool is adding additional points to an existing path. The layer mask method is something I did not already know. I will check your link to the full tutorial, thank you.
What I do is scaling it up, go around the edge between Background and Foreground with a thin Eraser. Then delete transparent color (might have to play around with treshold), select the Foreground with high treshold Fuzzeselect, invert the selection and delete the Background like that. Quite time consuming, but a perfect result☺️
this method would actually break when the subject has fine edges, like hair and stuff. you'd go cray cray whizzing around the eraser for hours, only to realise that half of it is still left lol
Nick, I've been using graphics applications (apps) since 1995. I started with Corel Draw 3, graduated to JASC Paint Shop Pro 5, updated to Pro 7 and that's where I stayed until it would no longer run as effectively as it did before the last update on Windows 10. That was 3 months ago. I switched to Gimp 2.8 and now using 2.10.24. I followed your instructions in your first example of "1. FUZZY SELECT" to remove my image.xcf's background... I followed your instruction exactly... step by step. I had my browser open on one screen watching your video, and Gimp loaded on my main screen. When I clicked on the image the dark pink colored mask immediately covered the whole image. I re-watched the video to see if I missed something. I did not miss any of the steps. I can't for the life of me figure out why... after selecting the Fuzzy Select Tool and clicking on my XCF (Gimp format extension) image that the mask would be a solid color covering the whole image. Do you have an idea why that is happening?
I'd played around using yet another method - this one would probably work for the last image of that dog. - Duplicate layer, and hide. Go back to original layer. - Use the smudge tool. - Push part of the backgroun inward toward the dog. Go whole way around. - Enable both layers, change layer mode to "Difference" - Copy visible and use this as starting point for a new layer mask. It does require some additional manual work.
And here I thought I learned all there is to learn with using GIMP. This video proves that I do not in fact know all there is to learn with using GIMP. I will now utilize these methods that were shown in this video.
Thank you for the helpful video! I have a quick question: how can I isolate only the background of an image so that I can use it in another design? I'm looking for a way to keep the background and remove the other elements.
Method 6: "Color Erase". This is a blending mode available for basically all painting tools that performs a color-to-transparency conversion in the target brush area, and like the Fuzzy Select method works best with solid-color backgrounds. For example, a dark blue foreground with soft edges against a white background may have intermediate blues around its edges which may leave false highlights around the fringes depending on what method you used, right? Well, if you Color Erase the white, those blues will intensify to dark blue but with partial transparency, avoiding the fringing effect. This is a manual process, but the steps are simple and straightforward: 0 - Ensure your target layer has an alpha channel before using. 1 - Switch to a painting tool (e.g. paintbrush with relatively hard edges) and sample the background color to be erased. 2 - Paint over your background color and watch it fade to transparency. Mind the edges between background and foreground; you can encroach a little bit (especially with high contrast edges) but generally adjust your brush size/shape as needed. 3 - If you make a mistake, switch the tool's blending mode to "Behind" and paint over the mistaken area (with the same color) to restore its original color/opacity. "Behind" acts as if you are painting on a layer _below_ the target, but without actually adding a new layer, and is the inverse of the "Color Erase" blending mode. 4 - Note that depending on color noise in the background (as often happens with photos or JPGs) the erased area may retain some partial colors. A good way to check for this is to add a layer below, with a color that contrasts the one you just erased (e.g. if you erased a white background, test using a black background layer). You can clean this up to full transparency using the standard Eraser tool (or other methods).
Thanks as always Nick! Just did a whole teams worth of player cards for an online recruiting announcement...used the free selection tool which did well but will definitely play around with these...they were girls so the hair parts were challenging to get right.
Nick, question for you. I have some PSD's that I use for Powerpoint presentations and need to alter them. How do I add a text to my old PSD in GIMP? I have a layer and over the layer there is a text, don't know how to edit or adjust this. Thank you for your help.
Awesome!.. I was struggling to learn this feature. Many different developers were showing one of these options that you showed. It was so confusing. But with one master stroke you have showed all in this one video.. Great! You are a real Master.
So concise, others guys spend 15 minutes just to describe one of your methods. (Davies Media Design) Those other fools don't seem to realize that GIMP is not intuitive, and most people are coming to them under extreme frustration and hours of nearly pointless progress. At that point 15 minutes drives people crazy. (the straw that broke...) But I would like to know how to accurately outline part of an image accurately.
What version of Gimp are you using in the video? I have noticed the version that I am using doesn't have few buttons on the tool palette like yours. By the way, thanks for the video. I will try this.
Excellent video. I’m still having trouble using color select and or the fuzzy select. I get as far as the background turning bright pink when selected, release the click and hit delete. Nothing happens. I am trying to delete or make transparent the background behind some bold printing and a logo that’s in black. I have the layer attributes on lock alpha and visible. Any suggestions? Thanks!!
Excellent tutorial. Thank you for the easy-for-a-beginner-to-follow techniques (including which key to hold down when finishing a path), and suggestions on which approach might work best for different image types.
Minor (minor) point. Sometimes a guy wants to blur the background rather than delete it. Perhaps with a gradient, so it happens gradually, from here to there. Software is cheaper than a F1.2 portrait lens. Good tutorial. I learned a trick or two.
I am having the same problem as a few others have and wondering if there is any sort of work around? I can highlight the bits I want to remove in pink but I don't have a 'delete' button on my Mac uk keyboard. I have backspace but that doesn't do anything. Is there some sort of keyboard shortcut I should be using instead? Any advice will be much appreciated! TIA :)
Man this is great! But at 3:40 when saturating or curving, nothing happens for me. Any helping hand out there? Couldn't find much help trough forums. Thanks =)
0:44 Method 1: Fuzzy Select
1:54 Method 2: Select by Color
2:45 Method 3: Paths
3:40 Method 4: Layer Masks
5:15 Method 5: Foreground select
@Logos By Nick pin this
Method 4 is the coolest most reliable technique, Nick is an artist.
JEJAK OM
@@SnackKingOfficial Yes, method 4 is by far the easiest. Save me the last minute!
Thank you. This is such a time saver.
For those who are using Mac OS, pressing delete is actually = press fn + delete
how do i do it for windows? am i just dumb?
I tried but it didn't work 😰 Select then unclick then fn+delete right?
@@starthehusky9876 the DEL key or ENTF on german keyboards
Thank you so much! 🫶🏽
thx so much i got scared that i pent the past 10 mins selecting my image for no reason
I've always just gone through all the edges to remove the background manually, even with very detailed pictures. This video saves a lot of my time, thanks a lot!
What an OG. I remember watching your tutorials for fun years ago, and I've come back so many times now because of club activities in school. Thanks, Nick!
I’m so happy that you’re so much active again on UA-cam!!
I use this daily for my UA-cam thumbnails. These methods here save so much time. Your the man!
OMG- That was so great- I have spent many hours Googeling this exact thing- but every time it does not really work as I have a different image where a different method is better.
You sir, are awesome.
This guide is like a treasure trove of tools! As a beginner with Photo Editting tools, this is incredible! What I ended up needing was the Paths Tool! Thank you for this, Nick!
Man gives a real pro tips, man helps people with that, man is legend🔥
Excellent tutorial as usual Nick. I never knew the threshold could be adjusted with up and down movements. One other thing you could have mentioned though, is that the default colors of the foreground select tool, can be changed to your liking. Eg if you do not like the blue, or if need a color other than blue, to be more visible for a particular image . Thanks for explaining these tools in such a clear and concise manner.
This is the most comprehensive video about removing background using GIMP. I was curious about how to perform the "history brush" on GIMP and now I know it. Thank you so much!
I can only say wow and wow with all of your videos, you just help probably a young designer that can't afford expensive adobe tools, I wish you make it to million of followers, you deserve this effort. Salute.
These tutorials are amazing!
Finally a good reason to not spend a chunk of my savings on Photoshop and the more expensive Photoshop tutorials by third party experts.
Not to mention the expensive hardware needed to run those applications efficiently!
I am so relieved to find this video! I've watched half a dozen by other creators that A.) have their screen all customized - so it's hard to follow where they are going. B.) Talk and move their cursor SO Fast that it's difficult to track and retain instructions in fragments where the visual and the audible instructions don't sync up. And C.) Use terminology that a beginner probably has no idea what is meant without a brief explanation - that I was very near giving up! Nick - You ROCK! I've subscribed to your UA-cam channel and am going to check out your website. I'm hoping your GIMP Series is something that I can afford!
Great tutorial, as always!
Maybe there's something I'm doing wrong, but when I work on posters, with images blown up, I always use a white layer mask and a brush to make backgrounds or areas transparent, or even repaint fine hairs. It takes a long time but it's the most thorough approach and looks flawless in poster size.
I think it depends on the photo. Sometimes it's best to do it manually.
@@LogosByNick I'm sure it does!
And thanks for the effort. Your tutorials are the best on youtube!!
@@LogosByNick Clippy and dog news: dual app support
I keep coming back to this video every time I need to remove a background. It's just so complete.
This was super useful! Been using GIMP on Linux since the mid-90's and I had no idea the Fuzzy Select tool was so powerful!
Woah. Never knew GIMP had such sophisticated selection tools. Great video!
Extremely helpful. Thanks for creating this video. One thing to mention, to delete on a Mac hold the fn key while hitting delete.
I followed the link in the description and I've signed-up for the full course of videos. Highly recommended.
I have always wanted to know a different way to do it other than using the selection tool.
This is by far the best tutorial I've seen regarding GIMP. It's been exceedingly helpful, thank you. I'll definitely be referring to your videos for any future help I need.
really was expecting it to be harder, thx for going straight to the point and being concise.
Great video! I am new to GIMP, and I used #2 "Select By Color" . I removed the colors in the image as described, however, once I deleted the colors I could not exit Select By Colors. In most application hitting ESC would end the function. So simple question, how do you leave once you have deleted the colors?
... RIGHT!?
An answer would be appreciated anybody ♥
This guy's awesome. Clear explanation as always. purchased his inkscape course a year ago.
The layer mask method is MAGICAL! Thank you!
I am SO glad I found this video and will definitely be checking out your whole series on GIMP. Thank you so much for getting right to the instruction, clear and concise. I had been through so many other videos and not understanding, was lost. Now I’ve got a good chance! Excellent!
I always wanted to know how to do this and in a few clicks you have revealed it all. Amazing man. Such talent !! Thank you.
Thank you very much for a great tutorial!
I would recommend using/constructing a Layer Mask in almost all these cases, instead of just creating a selection and deleting to transparency. You can take your time and refine the mask by painting black and white with any tools or color curve adjustments you like. Detail got clipped out? Paint white into the mask. Background creeping in? Paint black into the mask. X key lets you toggle easily if your foreground and background brush colors are black and white.
I used to use gimp for creating stencils. I'm very rusty at this program, because it's been awhile. Your video's are very helpful, thanks!
Excellent video! Everything was so clearly explained, and I wish other GIMP tutorials were equally as clear.
The last one worked great for me. Thank you for this, I had no clue what to do. Worked like a charm 💪
Okay, that layer mask trick was actual magic.
Thanks for the video.... When using the fuzzy select tool, I'm able to select much of the background, but when I hit delete, nothing happens. Any ideas?
If you're on a Mac use function+delete
out of all the other tutorials this is the only one I understood
This is my favorite video on all of UA-cam.
Your tutorials are fantastic. Succinct, clear, and hit all the necessary points we need to accomplish the task we need for the photograph. Thank you so much!
Referencing your videos has helped me tremendously!
the best graphic designer award goes to nick
Hey Nick, whenever I select clear, the background goes white instead of transparent. I may have messed up some settings, can you please help me restore. Its urgent!!!!
me too! ):
The reason is that the layer is not alpha selected.
Solution: Right click on the layer, Click on alpha to selection.
@@SpeedingSnail it still dosent work
@@theone-fk7cl Even I had the same problem although it was alpha selected.
So what I did was that I closed the application and restarted my computer.
The reason why I restarted is that when we restart our computer the file get refreshed.
So then it started working out.
Try this and let me know the result @Mike is AWESOME mike72nd.
The best video on GIMP background removal methods 💯
Comprehensive + well explained + recent GIMP version = awesome. TY !
This is the best explanation I have seen. Great work!
Just migrated from Windows to Linux 100%; this is a great expose.
If your background is not transperent after export be sure that:
* add alpha channel at the start -- 1:10
* export as png (not jpg)
I have imported my image and it isn’t showing up as a layer any idea why?
Thank you ! i was like why is the background showing... export as png...
I really appreciate your tutorials!
and i love how you make your videos short but has a lot of information.
I've been using the threshold bar for fuzzy select. I did not know about the "click and drag" method. One issue I've been having with the path tool is adding additional points to an existing path. The layer mask method is something I did not already know. I will check your link to the full tutorial, thank you.
Last one works like a charm for me and it saves me A LOT of time!!! Thanks for the tutorial man... 👍👍👍
When i paint on the light blue, nothing disappears. Any idea what i’m doing wrong?
Since GIMP is free people should donate to them ! they deserve it !
What I do is scaling it up, go around the edge between Background and Foreground with a thin Eraser.
Then delete transparent color (might have to play around with treshold), select the Foreground with high treshold Fuzzeselect, invert the selection and delete the Background like that.
Quite time consuming, but a perfect result☺️
this method would actually break when the subject has fine edges, like hair and stuff. you'd go cray cray whizzing around the eraser for hours, only to realise that half of it is still left lol
Easy tutorial, followed step by step as an absolute beginner, not even the tinniest issue. :)
Saved my art career thanks!
Thank you thank you thank you for not having an abnoxious three minute intro before the information!!
Excellent video! No BS, just helpful techniques, thanks so much!
1 minutes in the video and I already solved my issue. Like and comment well earned! Thank you.
Dude, you have just given me one of the main things I need to learn. This is great. Thank you so much.
The best tutorial i've seen so far! Thanks bud
This video helps a lot for the learning students
Thank you so much! I have had GIMP for a long time and I am glad I have learned from you!
Thank You this will save me hours of time increasing my productivity in creating.
Thank you for saving my life several times over.
Great Tutorial!!! 1st time I ever used the program and I felt like a pro - thanks to you.
Nick, I've been using graphics applications (apps) since 1995. I started with Corel Draw 3, graduated to JASC Paint Shop Pro 5, updated to Pro 7 and that's where I stayed until it would no longer run as effectively as it did before the last update on Windows 10. That was 3 months ago. I switched to Gimp 2.8 and now using 2.10.24.
I followed your instructions in your first example of "1. FUZZY SELECT" to remove my image.xcf's background... I followed your instruction exactly... step by step. I had my browser open on one screen watching your video, and Gimp loaded on my main screen.
When I clicked on the image the dark pink colored mask immediately covered the whole image. I re-watched the video to see if I missed something. I did not miss any of the steps. I can't for the life of me figure out why... after selecting the Fuzzy Select Tool and clicking on my XCF (Gimp format extension) image that the mask would be a solid color covering the whole image.
Do you have an idea why that is happening?
check your threshold
wow that foreground select tool is really nice. Thanks for the tutorial!!
I'd played around using yet another method - this one would probably work for the last image of that dog.
- Duplicate layer, and hide. Go back to original layer.
- Use the smudge tool.
- Push part of the backgroun inward toward the dog. Go whole way around.
- Enable both layers, change layer mode to "Difference"
- Copy visible and use this as starting point for a new layer mask.
It does require some additional manual work.
And here I thought I learned all there is to learn with using GIMP. This video proves that I do not in fact know all there is to learn with using GIMP. I will now utilize these methods that were shown in this video.
Thank you for the helpful video! I have a quick question: how can I isolate only the background of an image so that I can use it in another design? I'm looking for a way to keep the background and remove the other elements.
First time using GIMP. THANK YOU!!!!! BIG HELP!!!!
One subscription was not enough so I logged on second account. Good work man
I'm so impressed. thanks man, i will watch your videos very often
this was brilliant from a beginners standpoint
Method 6: "Color Erase".
This is a blending mode available for basically all painting tools that performs a color-to-transparency conversion in the target brush area, and like the Fuzzy Select method works best with solid-color backgrounds.
For example, a dark blue foreground with soft edges against a white background may have intermediate blues around its edges which may leave false highlights around the fringes depending on what method you used, right? Well, if you Color Erase the white, those blues will intensify to dark blue but with partial transparency, avoiding the fringing effect.
This is a manual process, but the steps are simple and straightforward:
0 - Ensure your target layer has an alpha channel before using.
1 - Switch to a painting tool (e.g. paintbrush with relatively hard edges) and sample the background color to be erased.
2 - Paint over your background color and watch it fade to transparency. Mind the edges between background and foreground; you can encroach a little bit (especially with high contrast edges) but generally adjust your brush size/shape as needed.
3 - If you make a mistake, switch the tool's blending mode to "Behind" and paint over the mistaken area (with the same color) to restore its original color/opacity. "Behind" acts as if you are painting on a layer _below_ the target, but without actually adding a new layer, and is the inverse of the "Color Erase" blending mode.
4 - Note that depending on color noise in the background (as often happens with photos or JPGs) the erased area may retain some partial colors. A good way to check for this is to add a layer below, with a color that contrasts the one you just erased (e.g. if you erased a white background, test using a black background layer). You can clean this up to full transparency using the standard Eraser tool (or other methods).
Really good my man, so thankful for how you presented these tools! No BS, straight to the point, yet extremely informative! Thank you again! :)
The 2nd option totally worked for me. Thanks a million!!
Bro, that fuzzy select was ace. THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks as always Nick! Just did a whole teams worth of player cards for an online recruiting announcement...used the free selection tool which did well but will definitely play around with these...they were girls so the hair parts were challenging to get right.
Nick, question for you. I have some PSD's that I use for Powerpoint presentations and need to alter them. How do I add a text to my old PSD in GIMP? I have a layer and over the layer there is a text, don't know how to edit or adjust this. Thank you for your help.
Am new to gimp and I found your videos so helpful
Awesome!.. I was struggling to learn this feature. Many different developers were showing one of these options that you showed. It was so confusing. But with one master stroke you have showed all in this one video.. Great! You are a real Master.
So concise, others guys spend 15 minutes just to describe one of your methods. (Davies Media Design) Those other fools don't seem to realize that GIMP is not intuitive, and most people are coming to them under extreme frustration and hours of nearly pointless progress. At that point 15 minutes drives people crazy. (the straw that broke...) But I would like to know how to accurately outline part of an image accurately.
Thanks for the tutorial!
But just wondering, I do not have some of the options/tools available. Any idea on that?
Wow and here I was thinking I was going to have a hard time finding a good video for this. Thanks so much!
What version of Gimp are you using in the video? I have noticed the version that I am using doesn't have few buttons on the tool palette like yours. By the way, thanks for the video. I will try this.
thanks from germany nick! just getting started with gimp, this helped me a lot
Got my new stream team logo all set, thanks to you!
I love you. You just saved my life at 4 am.
Excellent video. I’m still having trouble using color select and or the fuzzy select. I get as far as the background turning bright pink when selected, release the click and hit delete. Nothing happens. I am trying to delete or make transparent the background behind some bold printing and a logo that’s in black. I have the layer attributes on lock alpha and visible. Any suggestions? Thanks!!
Excellent tutorial. Thank you for the easy-for-a-beginner-to-follow techniques (including which key to hold down when finishing a path), and suggestions on which approach might work best for different image types.
Thanks. If you"re on a MAC use Command X / Cut to delete the selection for first method/way.
Are you a Sorcerer from beyond? Mind blown.
Minor (minor) point. Sometimes a guy wants to blur the background rather than delete it. Perhaps with a gradient, so it happens gradually, from here to there. Software is cheaper than a F1.2 portrait lens. Good tutorial. I learned a trick or two.
I am having the same problem as a few others have and wondering if there is any sort of work around? I can highlight the bits I want to remove in pink but I don't have a 'delete' button on my Mac uk keyboard. I have backspace but that doesn't do anything. Is there some sort of keyboard shortcut I should be using instead? Any advice will be much appreciated! TIA :)
Excellent; all the ways in one place so I can switch methods without getting lost. Thanks!
thank you, man! God bless you, all of you!
I am thinking of moving into this open source space. Your video is really good Nick. You have my Sub.
So helpful for what I do digitally. I am just learning Gimp and this helped.
0:41 1. FUZZY SELECT
1:55 2. SELECT BY COLOR
2:44 3. PATHS
3:40 4. LAYER MASKS
5:15 5. FORGROUND SELECT
Thanks buddy!
copied
Man this is great! But at 3:40 when saturating or curving, nothing happens for me. Any helping hand out there? Couldn't find much help trough forums. Thanks =)
I did use one of the other options. But I believe the 4th method would make my work even better. Super appreciative for anyone who can assist!
Method 4 was precisely the technique I was looking for! Allow me to thank you, albeit 2 years too late!