Using Photoshop’s Background Eraser Tool to Remove Real Estate Photo Background

background eraser tool in Photoshop

With the various real estate image background tools available, there is nothing quite like the eraser tool in making real estate photo editing a breeze. It doesn’t require much but might ask you to do a few clicks here and there. Understanding how it works with pixels will surely make your real estate photo editing much faster.

How the Background Eraser Tool Makes Life Easier

If you’ve worked with real estate photo editing tools such as those that require tracing using the quick selection tool or the pen tool, you may have successfully used a real estate image background tool to remove unwanted extras. These will require a certain degree of precision depending on which real estate photo editing tool you use but ultimately it gets the job done nice and clean.

The background eraser tool as a real estate image background tool used for cleaning out everything but the object (in most cases, removing the sky and retaining the property’s exterior shot) does not require any pre-selections. All it requires is that your hand be steady and precise in moving with the mouse. Yes, your read that right. This real estate image background tool is even easier that the magic wand tool. It works by recognizing pixels or if you aren’t into that sort of thing, then you may just consider brushing around and removing anything in its path.

There are also several options within the background eraser tool, making it a versatile real estate photo editing tool and technique. Here are some of the reasons why.

  1. It can be selective of the color

Yes, this real estate image background tool is so smart that if you are able to sample a pixel of a certain color and wish to remove only that color, then you may cleanly remove it from the image.

  1. It can barrel through the background

If your real estate photo editing requirement is to get rid of everything in the background done in a jiffy, then consider it done. The background eraser tool can bulldoze through removing the background in brush strokes and best of all, you can set the size and parameters of that brush.

  1. It can protect certain colors that you set it to

If you are looking to preserve certain colors that pertain to the object, then this real estate image background tool will conveniently do that for you. There are limits that can be set to enable you to work freely with your hand in motion without the fear of touching certain colors. What you must know though, is that if a real estate photo contains an object with more than one unique pixel, this might not be a good move.

Learning the World of Pixels

We commonly use the term pixel to refer to the color selection in the previous section. But what exactly is a pixel? In technical terms, it is the abbreviation of a picture’s element. They are broken down into a square-ish shape that represents a color or multitude of colors depending on the information stored called bit. Together, pixels form a resolution and the more resolutions you have, the clearer a picture is because there is more definition to it. They are also sometimes differentiated with a series of numbers that make a color unique within a pixel, and there is a multiple set of numerical series for a pixel with multiple pictures.

Steps in Executing the Background Eraser Tools

  1. Open the image

Open the real estate shot you want to edit. Note that you can only work on one photo at a time and no batch processing is enabled for this real estate photo editing tool.

  1. Click the eraser icon and select the second tool

On the side you will see an eraser icon and selecting it will draw out three sub tools. Check for the background eraser tool and click that.

  1. Adjust the size of the brush, the hardness, and the spacing

Once you have successfully selected the background eraser tool, there will be several options that will come out. On the top you will find tolerance, limits, the sampler options, and foreground color protection option. Tolerance is the size of the brush will include more pixels and background. A great range to work with is between 30-50. Limits has the option of discontiguous, contiguous, and Find edges. These three come in the order of most backgrounds erased to least backgrounds erased.

  1. Brush away at your pleasure

Now be careful not to hit the object of interest or the part of the image you want to retain. Even with all the safeguards this real estate image background tool has, it won’t hurt to be extra cautious. If you somehow touch the object you want to retain, try to undo the action or at the start, make sure you have saved an extra copy of that image in case it is permanently changed.

  1. Retouch and replace the background

Of course, no real estate photo editing job is done until the background has been replaced. This is, after all, the reason why we are removing it in the first place. If it is a sky replacement, throw in a great sunny day for a warmer vibe, and for twilight photos, you might chuck in a dark sky lined with velvet and golden rays of sunlight.

  1. Save your work

Last but not the least, save your work and render it so that it could be cast in stone.

Conclusion

In real estate photo editing where backgrounds are almost always enhanced (and in this case, removed), the easier the tool the faster the work will be. This particular real estate image background tool might seem very simple at the start but packs a lot of complex features. It hunches on the concept of pixels, allowing it to be highly accurate in identifying sets of colors. The best part of all, it doesn’t carry any of that complexity in execution. The many options is there for you to find which method or iteration of the tool will suit your photo’s composition and allow you to utilize this real estate photo editing tool in its full potential.

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