There are a ton of textures available on the internet, like spray paint drips that have a white background. Usually you will want to to remove the background and then bring it to your design. I created some actions that use alpha channels to remove the white background. These actions are very handy for all types of textures. There are 3 separate actions included in this set.
Samples
Installing Actions
After you have downloaded the file, unzip it and save it to a location that you prefer.
Inside of Photoshop open your Actions Panel by going to Window > Actions
Click on the Actions panel menu and click on the Load Actions menu item. Locate and select the action set file you downloaded, and then click on Load
How to Use
After you have loaded the action set file, open up the image that has a white background you want to remove.
Make sure the layer is named "Background" and that it is selected. The color mode must be set to RGB.
Change your Foreground color to the color you want the output to be
Now choose one of the sets below and click on the play button.
White BG Removal – Alpha: Great if you want to maintain the alpha look of the original file. I usually use this action set the most because you can easily duplicate the final layer a couple of times to make it darker, then merge the layers.
White BG Removal – Maximum Opacity: This is a great way to get a darker final image with a transparent background. After running, you can duplicate the layer a few more times to make it darker.
White BG Removal – with Color: I included this in the Action Set because maintaining color is something you might want, however, use it with a warning that it is not the best way to remove a white background while maintaining color.
Tips
For better results change the levels (CTRL + L) of your file before using one of the actions. You want to make the background.as white as possible.
If you have a black background you can inverse the layer (CTRL + I) and then run the appropriate action. After it run you can inverse the image again.
This action set is a great and fast way to remove white backgrounds. If you want to get better results, check out our article An In-Depth Look Into Background Removal Techniques
Troubleshooting
Error: The object "layer "Background"" is not currently available.
Solution: This is because you did not name the layer Background. These actions rely on a layer named Background
Error: The object "red channel" is currently not available.
Solution: Make sure the color mode is set to RGB before running You can change the mode by going to Image > Mode > RGB Color
February 20, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Thanks for sharing these photoshop actions
These are really useful
February 20, 2010 at 4:52 pm
These look very handy. Thank you so much for sharing them!
February 20, 2010 at 6:06 pm
awesome. love it. thanx =)
February 20, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Awesome action. Thanks!
February 21, 2010 at 12:35 am
congratulates, the shares are very good, more about typography
andy
February 21, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Thanks bro
February 21, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Nice! Thank you!
February 22, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Did you ever hear about Alphaworks from Cybia? does exactly the same thing, only it’s a plug-in so it’s a bit easier to work with (no need to open the correct file, just open black or white background image, and apply the given plugin, if wrong ctrl z)
February 22, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Thank you very much!!!
February 28, 2010 at 2:56 am
expects the presentation of interesting free programs for graphic designers
March 2, 2010 at 5:11 pm
thanks for your nonprofit gesture, it´s very clear that resources like this simplify this tedious process and avoid disasters like this(I hope so) : http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2010/02/glamour-magic-wand-not-really-magic.html.
I found processes with horrible results, similar to the magic wand and his pixelated dots but very simplistics and with no emphasis on working with alpha channels.
Thanks again Jeya.
March 13, 2010 at 7:39 am
Hi
I am having trouble with the ‘select colour’ at start bit…. I want to maintain the colour scheme of the art but just remove the white background….. which colour should i select?
March 18, 2010 at 7:58 pm
once again thanks so much for sharing!
regards,
Dallin
March 21, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Sweet action set, I see it savin me some time in the future. Thanks for sharing!
March 25, 2010 at 4:48 pm
wow thx so much
April 2, 2010 at 4:52 am
Anyone know why I cannot load actions? CS 4 don’t see them…
April 5, 2010 at 5:49 pm
tyvm for sharing this great item(s) with us!
April 6, 2010 at 5:56 am
can’t wait to try this out!
thanks for sharing!
April 7, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Thx again….^-^mmm….
April 15, 2010 at 8:31 am
Brilliant!!!! It did a better job in 1 sec than I did by hand in 40 mins !!!
thanks !
May 13, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Nice Background Removing ! Thank you so much for sharing it.
May 27, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Pretty darned cool! I had to try it. It does work fast! A great tool for the collection. Than you!
Su
May 29, 2010 at 12:39 am
Thanks so much!!!<3
June 7, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Really cool and useful, thanks!
June 14, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Thank you for sharing!!
June 25, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Amazing photoshop background removing tips. I tried and removed my won picture background by this tutorial. Thanks for sharing.
July 8, 2010 at 6:11 pm
i think someone is selling your stuff here:
http://graphicriver.net/item/white-background-remover/112366
July 12, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Thanks! I will have to take a look at that. I appreciate you leaving a comment.
July 16, 2010 at 2:55 am
how can u so greatfull like that man ??…thats amazing i am a fans of u
July 16, 2010 at 2:57 am
and one think sorry i forgot….thanks a lot
July 23, 2010 at 10:02 am
wow dude.
awesome!!!
thanks so much
August 6, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Can you perform this activity in PSE 8 or only in Photoshop? Thank you.
August 9, 2010 at 11:34 pm
hi Jeya (the Author), i have one question for this tut. What if, the color of the background is black like the one in a “paint tossing” some of the objects are in black background, are there any ways to remove the background even if it’s not white?
August 9, 2010 at 11:36 pm
ah forget about my question hahaha i wasnt reading at all LOL sorry! so im just going to invert it then invert again to its original color, thanks! BDW, this tut is awesome!!!!!!!!!! thnk you!
August 14, 2010 at 8:05 am
Excellent just what I was looking for. Thanks for sharing.
September 22, 2010 at 12:09 pm
That was perfect. Very gracious of you to post this for free.
October 10, 2010 at 12:15 am
awesome …….. Thank you so much for sharing them!
October 21, 2010 at 2:31 pm
These are very handy. Thank you very much!
October 29, 2010 at 10:29 pm
It is new knowledge for me. Tkx for sharing.
November 4, 2010 at 7:49 am
really thx you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
u r an angel
November 8, 2010 at 7:13 am
In a single word this is great posting.
thanks…
December 16, 2010 at 4:14 am
Thank you for sharing, awesome script. I will look for your other posts.
February 11, 2011 at 6:21 pm
thanks! this is great!!!
March 30, 2011 at 1:24 pm
awesome, thx
June 19, 2011 at 3:14 am
good job , thank you !
July 3, 2011 at 3:03 am
this is awesome, please if you have other actions upload..you truely deserve a compliment, keep continuing the good work ….
August 2, 2011 at 8:44 am
This will save a ton of time! Thank you!
August 29, 2011 at 11:16 pm
I had some trouble with them, I think because you’ve given your sample layers names, like “Background” while mine was just called “layer 1″. I modified my version, but I’m surprised it’s working ok for others.
September 3, 2011 at 9:46 am
tip: if you have a black and white image (with white background aswell), you can set the layer’s blend mode to multiply, and the white background is ignored.
thank me later
September 8, 2011 at 6:27 am
Thank you for this, just made my life a whole lot easier!
September 16, 2011 at 10:04 am
It’s crap! May aswell remove the white yourself, after you run the action you have to zoom in and remove the white that’s left. Would not recommend you download this.
September 27, 2011 at 8:48 am
Very simple but informative background removing tutorial.
October 11, 2011 at 7:33 am
Awesome actions thank u for shared them.
October 27, 2011 at 3:14 am
Wow! Great job! Really awesome technique! Thank you so much for your creative job!
November 17, 2011 at 4:06 am
great job.. thanks for sharing
November 28, 2011 at 11:23 pm
Jeya! This is a fantastic action. This is something I have been looking for a long time and not many Photoshop artist know how to do this. Thanks very much for posting it. You’re very generous with your PS skills.
January 12, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Great technique! Thanks much for sharing.
January 13, 2012 at 4:41 am
thanks, this is a life saver!!