Remove Background VS Select Subject: Photoshop 2020

How to use Remove Background in Photoshop

Since the beginning of time, Adobe has made Photoshop a powerhouse for manipulating and obscuring pixels.   One thing it is notorious for is its ability to remove a background in any photo with ease.   Well, with Photoshop 2020, they made it even easier, but is it necessarily better?

In the new Photoshop 2020, if you select an unlocked layer (a locked background layer won't allow this), you can now remove the background with the click of a button.  This great little button is found in the Properties Palette.  With one click and a blink of time, your background will magically disappear.

At first glance, this new feature is INCREDIBLE! It feels like an act of wizardry.  But when you take a closer look, you will find that it has a hard time with hair.  After all, that seems to be the pinnacle of success in masking, how well you can include gaps in curly locks like this handsome young man or flyaway hairs in a female portrait.  It isn't until you put your subject on a contrasting background that you can see the flaws in this new remove background feature.

Have no fear, though.  In today's tutorial,  I am going to show you how to use another feature that, while similar in function, is far more effective than the Remove Background button.  Let us not forget that while we have access to tools like these in Photoshop, it is always best to photograph your subject in a way that makes it easy to remove if that is your goal.  Photoshop can only do some much so don't photograph a girl on a windy day with trees behind her and expect magic to happen :)