The Background Remover effect in Canva can be used (if you are a pro user) to erase the background of a photo or image. If you aren’t a Canva Pro user (i.e. you use the free version) DON’T PANIC – there’s a great alternative for you to use.
How to Remove the background of a photo WITH Canva
Time needed: 2 minutes
To use the background remover effect in Canva,
- Open Canva and create a (or open an existing) design
- Insert the image into your design (either from photos or your own uploads)
- Make sure the image is selected (i.e. has handles around it)
- Click on Effects
- Choose Background Remover
- It may take a few seconds…
- And your background is removed!
- If you want to restore any of the removed background, click on Restore
- Use the slider to amend your brush size
- Remember to use the Zoom slider in the bottom right-hand corner to zoom in on your design
- Click and drag where you want to restore part of your image/photo
- When you are happy, click on Done (If you don’t like your amendments, click Cancel!)
- If you want to remind yourself of how your original image looked, click on Show Original Image
- The original background will appear as a transparent image
- To remove more of the image, click on Erase
- Use the slider to amend your brush size
- Remember to use the Zoom slider in the bottom right-hand corner to zoom in on your design
- Click and drag where you want to remove more of your image/photo
- When you are happy, click on Done (If you don’t like your amendments, click Cancel!)
- Finally, click on Apply 🙂
How to Remove the background of a photo WITHOUT Canva
You can easily remove the background of an image or photo using a free online tool called remove.bg
How to Remove the Background of an Image or Photo using Remove.BG
To remove the background of an image or photo without Canva, access the website remove.bg
Either drag and drop your image onto the browser page, or, click on upload image, navigate to your image, click on your image to select it then click open.
The background is automatically removed. 🙂
You can toggle between the original image and the one with the background removed here.
If you are happy with your image either click on it (to download it) or click on the blue download button
(To download an HD image, you will need to either purchase individual credits or or sign-up to a subscription plan)
Adding a Different Background
You can make more adjustments (e.g. add a new background image or colour) by clicking on edit in the top right-hand corner of your image.
On the background tab, in the editor, scroll down and choose a new image for your background.
Alternatively, to choose one of your own images or photos to use as a background, click on Select Photo, navigate to your image, click on your image to select it then click open.
You can use the Blur icons to blur your background (if you want).
Alternatively, click on Color, to change your background to a solid colour.
Select a colour from the pane, or choose the multicoloured icon (in the top left of the pane) to select your own colour
Click on the Erase/Restore tab to add some of the erased parts back to your photo, or erase more.
Click on either Erase or Restore (depending on what you want to do.
Use the slider to increase or decrease the size of the brush
Click and drag on your image to add to or subtract the original background from it.
Remember you can use the undo button!
Click Download to download your image onto your device.
Click on the X to close the editor…and that’s it! 🙂
Remove the background of an image/photo with or without Canva
I hope you enjoyed reading about the background remover in Canva. To see more resources about Canva, just visit our resource page here. If you’re interested in other software applications, just click here. For a list of FREE image/photo editors, just click here.
The things you share are really helpful and very interesting to me. I often have difficulty separating the background of the image. That’s why I’ve always wanted to find a background remover tool that can help me do that. I found such a tool and reading your post today I found another tool. Thank you for this.
Thanks for taking the time to comment – I really appreciate it. I’m glad you found it useful