Good Picture Editing Software

[AGuyNamedOcean]

Hi! I want to start taking away the backgrounds in my pictures AND being able to save the picture with no background for possible future use, I have photoshop and I have tried MULTIPLE TIMES to erase backgrounds with different tools and methods but photoshop confuses the heck out of me! Can someone here suggest a good alternative for Photoshop? or maybe even some photoshop tutorials? although to be honest photoshop isnt working out too great for me currently... thanks!

 

[Aaayron]

You could try GIMP a freeware. I had a simple time removing backgrounds with this simple written tutorial I found! (Scroll down a bit to reach the FIRST answer)
http://askubuntu.com/questions/50375/apply-transparent-background-in-gimp

 

[AGuyNamedOcean]

ill try to get it again but last time i downloaded the LEGIT software i got a virus somehow...

 

[Aaayron]

Really? I simply downloaded it on their official website
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Maybe it's a false positive? What's your antivirus?

 

[AGuyNamedOcean]

i run AVG anti virus but i just downloaded GIMP and so far no issues thanks!

 

[Aaayron]

i run AVG anti virus but i just downloaded GIMP and so far no issues thanks!

That was fast! It took me about an hour to download mine. Probably because of my crappy upload/download speed

 

[AGuyNamedOcean]

That was fast! It took me about an hour to download mine. Probably because of my crappy upload/download speed

well my internet isnt TOO speedy, but i apparantly have the best broadband provider in britain, plus my laptop is pretty fast lol

 

[Niserri]

Try using PS's magic eraser tool and changing the tolerance to your liking. The lower it is the less the eraser will remove similar colors (EX: if you put a light gray next to white and turn the tolerance down to 12 and use it on the white part it would mostly erase the white but not the light gray.) Of course even Photoshop is not perfect and sometimes it goes over slightly and erases an important part of the picture if it's very similar to the color next to it. You would have to take a lot of time to get rid of the rough edges if the object you want from the picture doesn't have a distinct outline that separates the colors.

 

[AGuyNamedOcean]

Try using PS's magic eraser tool and changing the tolerance to your liking. The lower it is the less the eraser will remove similar colors (EX: if you put a light gray next to white and turn the tolerance down to 12 and use it on the white part it would mostly erase the white but not the light gray.) Of course even Photoshop is not perfect and sometimes it goes over slightly and erases an important part of the picture if it's very similar to the color next to it. You would have to take a lot of time to get rid of the rough edges if the object you want from the picture doesn't have a distinct outline that separates the colors.

i managed to do this last night when editing, but when i save the image it replaces it with a white messy background, which turns black when placed onto another image

 

[Niserri]

i managed to do this last night when editing, but when i save the image it replaces it with a white messy background, which turns black when placed onto another image

Did you save it as .png? It only works with that format and if it turns black just open the image directly into the program (this happens quite a lot when using PS) and use the selection tool to copy it.