Barry Idmess Darkroom Equipment

Digital Darkroom Software

Digital Photography Basics - Removing Backgrounds

Removing the background or backdrop of the picture an object is placed in is known as Background Removal. This can be done in its entirety by removing all of the background completely, or you can merely remove selected parts of the backgrounds that you choose.

Previously, before the arrival of digital photography and the current accompanying technology, background removal was performed in a more laborious process.

In those pre-digital days background removal was done in the darkroom with the essential ambient conditions to include the correct room temperature. The film was submerged in a working solution and had to be constantly monitored. Background blur and decrease in resolution was achieved through overexposure of the film to the solution.

Today, background removal is possible using any digital photo editing software like Image Manipulation Program, GNU, or GIMP. GIMP is a special kind of graphics editing program able to support some types of object-based (or vector) graphics.

The digital editing software you use for background removal does not have to be able to support all kinds of object-oriented graphics. GIMP however offers the advantage of easy vector to raster conversion.

Other popularly used raster graphics editors and digital photo editors will also work just fine. Most digital photo editors have a number of plug-ins which can modify the background in different ways. Plug-ins are computer programs with highly specific purposes. Most sophisticated photo editing programs use special purpose plug-ins and will perform background editing and removal based on different criteria.

Objects without backgrounds gain a new sense of versatility and purpose. They can be placed in a new backdrop, even in a new situational context. An example would be to remove the dining room backdrop of a flower vase and replace the background with that of a hotel lobby. The object can also be moved around in any way and you can change its alignment with the new background.

An object can gain a new sense of purpose without changing itself at all. It retains all of its properties like shape and size but becomes moldable to individual usage.

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