- [Instructor] Want to remove the background of an image?

The quickest way to do it is with this quick action

in Photoshop.

Start by selecting the layer that contains the image.

This has to be a regular pixel layer.

If the image layer is a background layer like this one,

then click the lock on the layer,

and that will convert the layer to a regular pixel layer.

Now go to the properties panel.

Scroll all the way down to the bottom

of the properties panel to find the quick action section.

The quick actions that are displayed here

are different for different kinds of layers.

The remove background quick action

only shows up if you have a regular pixel layer selected,

as we do now.

Now, just click the remove background button,

and like magic,

the background disappears from the image,

and it's replaced by this gray checkerboard pattern,

which represents transparency.

Now sometimes the quick action doesn't hide everything

on the background,

or sometimes it hides too much of the background.

That's okay. You can fix that like this.

In the layers panel,

make sure the layer mask is highlighted with a white border.

This layer mask was automatically added to the image layer

by the quick action in the toolbar select the brush tool.

If the quick action hid too much,

like the back part of the shoe that looks transparent,

go down to the bottom of the toolbar and make sure

the foreground color is set to white.

If it isn't press X on the keyboard to switch the foreground

and background colors.

Then paint over any areas that shouldn't be transparent,

that adds white paint to the layer mask.

Bringing this part of the image back into view.

If the quick action didn't remove all of the background,

then switched to black paint by pressing X on the keyboard

and paint to add black to the mask,

hiding this little extra bit of background.

(upbeat music)