One of the tricks every new Photoshop user wants to try out is erase the background from an image and add another background in it’s place. Say you take a picture of yourself standing in your backyard and superimpose it on top of another picture, say the Pyramid of Giza, to make it look like you are vacationing in Egypt. Composite images are used often in magazine covers, posters, advertisements, movies etc. No wonder we have a childlike fascination for them.
Although such effects are often applied using professional grade image manipulation software like Photoshop, a user lacking adequate skills might not get the desired results. This is where automatic image manipulation software such as FotoMix comes real handy. If you will recall, we reviewed such software in the past. Tintii, Photosketch and Portrait Professional are some of the names I’m able to pull from my memory.
FotoMix allows you remove the background from a picture and replace it with another background in the easiest possible way. The program is divided into several tabs for specific purposes – background image, foreground image, composite image, touch-up etc. Different tools are available under each tab.
A job half done
To use this software all you have to do is load a background and foreground image under the appropriate tabs and use the Eraser and Color Eraser tool to remove areas from the picture. The Color Eraser is the most useful one. If the background of your picture is composed mostly of a single color (if you took the picture in front of a green screen) you can choose the color you want to remove and then run the eraser over the picture. Even if the background is a mess of different colors, with some effort you can completely remove it from the picture.
To polish the final result, FotoMix offers a set of brushes and other tools to touch up your image. If you know your way around Photoshop you will find this software severely limited. But for the most novice user, the results are satisfying.
It would sure be nice if you followed through with HOW TO remove a background. If I have to cut it out by hand, I might as well use paint.
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