How to Remove Background from Image

What the algorithm looks at

The tool first samples a band around the edges of the image, about 5% of the shorter side deep, and treats that band as background. It groups the sampled pixels into at most 3 dominant colours. That is why a single backdrop colour, or a backdrop with gentle shading, is recognised reliably: the three groups cover its lighter and darker tones.

Every pixel in the picture is then compared with those colours. If its red, green, and blue values are less than 35 away from any background colour (on the usual 0–255 scale per channel), the pixel becomes fully transparent; otherwise it is kept exactly as it was. A short smoothing pass afterwards removes isolated specks and closes pinholes a pixel or two wide.

Two consequences follow. The comparison covers the whole image, not only the areas connected to the border, so any part of the subject that matches the backdrop, such as a white collar against a white wall, is cut out as well. And transparency is all or nothing: there are no half-transparent edge pixels, so outlines come out crisp rather than softly feathered.

Images that suit it, and images that do not

Good candidates are product shots on seamless paper or in a light box, logos and icons on a flat colour, screenshots of an interface element on a plain window, stickers, and signatures or stamps scanned on white paper. In all of these the border is clean, the backdrop is essentially one colour, and the subject contrasts with it.

Expect weak results with outdoor photos, rooms, crowds, and any backdrop with texture or a strong gradient, because the edge band then holds more colours than three groups can describe. Hair, fur, lace, glass, smoke, and motion blur also suffer: those areas mix subject and background inside the same pixel, and a cut that only knows kept or removed leaves a hard fringe or bites into the detail. For portraits with loose hair, treat the output as a rough draft rather than a finished cutout.

Preparing a photo for a cleaner cutout

There is no tolerance slider, so the way to improve a result is to improve the input. Leave some empty backdrop on all four sides. If the subject touches or crosses the frame edge, its colours end up in the sampled band, one of the three background groups may lock onto them, and matching areas inside the subject disappear.

Choose a backdrop colour that appears nowhere on the subject: a dark product on white, a white product on grey or blue. Light the scene evenly. A drop shadow or vignette that is clearly darker than the backdrop falls outside the matching range and stays behind as a grey patch, so moving the subject a little away from the wall often helps more than any later editing.

Use the original file where you can. Heavily recompressed JPGs, such as images saved from messaging apps, carry blocky noise around edges that can survive as a ragged outline. If a photo is low in contrast, raising the contrast in the image adjuster first can widen the gap between subject and backdrop, although the change will also show in the final cutout.

Output size, format, and background colour

Before processing, the image is scaled down to fit inside 950 × 450 pixels while keeping its proportions; smaller images are not enlarged. The toolbar shows the exact dimensions of the result. That size suits marketplace thumbnails, slides, chat stickers, and web graphics, but it is not intended for print or large banners.

The download is always a PNG named ShotEdit.png. With no colour selected, the removed areas are transparent. Pick a colour and the background is filled straight away without recalculating the cutout; clear the colour picker to go back to transparency. Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac) downloads the current result and Ctrl+C (Cmd+C) copies it to the clipboard.

You can upload, drop, or paste with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V) JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, and GIF files. An animated GIF is handled as a single still frame; to keep the animation, use the GIF background remover instead.

Checking the result before you use it

Drag the divider in the before/after view slowly along the outline of the subject, where problems show first. Transparent areas appear as a checkerboard, so leftover specks and unwanted holes stand out. It also helps to try a dark colour and then white in the picker: a light fringe hides on white and jumps out on dark, and the other way round. If the cutout is wrong, the eraser button clears the image so you can try a better-prepared photo.

A chosen colour is merged into the pixels of the downloaded PNG, so a white-filled copy cannot be made transparent again later. Keep a transparent version if you might need other backgrounds. For a smaller file that stays transparent, convert the PNG to WebP in the image converter; converting to JPG there fills transparent areas with white.