Every small business owner needs to know how to make image background transparent for their product photos. Why? Product photos with a clean and transparent background instantly look more professional and attract customer attention at first glance. A transparent background also helps highlight essential details such as color, texture, and shape without distraction.
That’s why every business needs to understand how to make image background transparent. Before we explore the steps, let’s discuss why transparent backgrounds are so helpful.
Why Do You Need a Transparent Image Background?
One of the primary reasons for using transparent backgrounds is the flexibility they offer. A product photo or company logo with a transparent background can be used in multiple media, including websites, brochures, social media, and marketplaces.
For example, a logo with a white box background often looks unprofessional and clashes with other design elements. With transparency, the same logo blends seamlessly into any design. Similarly, product images with transparent backgrounds are much easier to edit, reposition, or combine with different backgrounds.
In most cases, transparent backgrounds are saved in PNG format, which allows parts of the image to remain background-free. It makes it the most popular format for logos, icons, and product photos.
Read also: Product Photography for Business is Important.
What is a PNG?
A PNG is an image file format that allows for no background colour. A specific number of pixels can represent most pictures and have color across all of those pixels, regardless of their individual colors. A transparent PNG does not have any background pixels, so what’s behind it cannot be seen.
In contrast, there is a logo that has a white background. The white box directly behind the logo is the background. It looks unprofessional and messy, and can clash with the background colour of websites, brochures, or other designs. If you do not wish to change the colour of your site, you need to create a transparent PNG that integrates with your page design.
How to Make Image Background Transparent
Using Photoshop
Now, you have understood why you need an image with a transparent background and the most common file type associated with it. How can you actually make an image’s background transparent?
The easiest tool to change your image background is Adobe Photoshop. You can create photo products with a green screen or even with a background that can still be edited in Adobe Photoshop. Now that you already have the pictures you want to edit, let’s go through how to make image background transparent process below:
1. Cut the Product
In Adobe Photoshop, you can use the ‘quick select’ tool to choose the part you want to cut. For example, suppose your product is a t-shirt and you take a photo of it on the floor. In that case, you can ‘quick select’ all the t-shirt parts by holding the left-click and spreading the cutting line onto the t-shirt edges. If the line extends beyond the t-shirt edges, you can deselect it by holding Alt and left-clicking. Ensure the cut is clean and precise. You can zoom in to check the details of the cutting lines.
2. Place the Cutting In The New Layer
After the cutting process, you can now try to make a new layer and move the cutting part there. You can delete the original photo from the first layer. It’s simple, right? The white-grey tiles on the new layer indicate the transparent background. Place the cutting product photo in the center or at any desired position.
Read also: How to Retouch an Image in Photoshop.
3. Finishing Touch
For the finishing touch, you can do some editing to make your photo product stand out. Try adjusting the color, saturation, contrast, and brightness for basic editing if you are new to Adobe Photoshop. If you want to place the products in mock-up apps/web or on another background, you can insert a new background and copy and paste the cutting part onto it. When you are done, you can save the picture as a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file.
Using Adobe Spark
In addition to Photoshop, you can use Adobe Spark to help you make your picture’s background transparent. Similar to Photoshop, Spark is a powerful image editing software that can act as a background remover. Here are some steps on how to make image background transparent using Adobe Spark.
- Go to Adobe Spark’s website.
- Upload the image that you want to edit.
- For the best result, please make sure that your image has a clearly defined edge so Spark can easily make the background transparent.
- Spark will automatically remove the background of your image. Download the image as a PNG file, and you can start using your new image.
That is how to make image background transparent by using Spark. Since both applications are from Adobe, what is the difference between them?
Photoshop vs Spark: Which One is Better?
While both Photoshop and Spark are from Adobe, their functions differ. Photoshop is more advanced and suitable for photographers or designers who need detailed control. Spark, on the other hand, is designed for social media content creators who want quick, ready-to-use graphics. Choosing between the two depends on your needs.
Let Dropicts Do It for Your Business
That is the information you need to know about how to make image background transparent for product photos. An image with a transparent background can be used for various purposes, especially in marketing contexts. It can help you use a picture in multiple contexts, saving you time and effort.
Final Thoughts
Now you know how to make image background transparent in different ways, from Photoshop, Adobe Spark, online tools, to mobile apps. Transparent backgrounds are not only practical but also essential for product photos and branding.
Of course, if you run a growing business, editing all your product photos yourself can be time-consuming. That’s where Dropicts comes in. Our professional background removal service will help make your product photos stand out, look consistent, and attract more customers.
Let Dropicts handle your photo editing needs, so you can focus on growing your business!
