Remove.bg is a website that helps you remove backgrounds from images and photos without needing heavy software such as Photoshop. Let’s take a look at how it works.
Background Info on Remove.bg
The company that runs Remove.bg is scattered all over, but they have a headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Their main goal is to use AI to make things such as removing backgrounds super easy for people that just want to get it done and move on.
The site is free to use for normal users (to an extent), but people wanting to be able to batch remove backgrounds or companies wanting to make use of the tech need to pony up for a paid plan.
Does remove.bg work well enough?
All right, so remove.bg happens to be one of the most well-known sites for getting rid of backgrounds. I ended up trying 4 to 5 other different background removal sites, with varying results. I came to the conclusion that the AI or whatever they’re using at remove.bg seems to be the most effective and that they do deserve much praise for their AI/software.
Let’s try it
I assembled a few different example photos to try and see how well remove.bg works depending on what’s in the background.
Trial 1
First up, we have the famous video game designer Will Wright speaking at a conference. I dragged the photo onto the website and let it upload. After a quick moment of waiting for the AI to do its thing, I was given the following results.
We can see that the AI did an amazing job at getting rid of everything around Mr. Wright, including the podium behind which he is standing. I have to say, this is a really good job. Well done!
Trial 2
I thought I would try using an object in a photo. Here is a photo taken of a fire hydrant from Wikipedia. Let’s see if the AI is smart enough to detect what the main focus of the picture is and if it can successfully remove everything around it.
That is a clean background removal if I’ve ever seen one. Can’t you just imagine putting that great transparent object into one of your PowerPoints or on a website? It’s dynamite. Color me impressed.
Trial 3
I decided to go with a more natural photo that someone would take. Here is video game designer Yu Suzuki, sitting at some sort of gaming event.
Aha, so this time it wasn’t perfect, mostly because of the chair he is sitting in. However, Remove.bg has tools to help if the AI didn’t get what you wanted perfectly. I went to the restore tab and slowly brushed in the areas that I wanted to keep. I was pleasantly surprised that nothing outside of the chair was accidently restored, so that’s a win.
Trial 4
All right all right, so let’s see what happens when we throw something a little more difficult into the mix. How about Japanese actress Kitagawa Keiko and her hair? Photos with strands of hair are always difficult to deal with, so I wanted to see what results Remove.bg would throw back at me.
Holy cow, look at that. While we might be missing a few strands from the back of Ms. Kitagawa’s head, the background was mostly removed, even in between some of her hair strands. I remember trying to erase a background the old-fashioned way back in the day with some old version of Photoshop and it being an exercise in frustration. Look how effortlessly we were able to get rid of the background with all that stuff happening from her head.
Final Thoughts on remove.bg
I came away really impressed with the AI on this site. I tried a few other websites claiming background removal features, but none of them were as solid as remove.bg. Whether you need to remove a background for something to put in a presentation or on a website, having this powerful tool right in the web browser is simply amazing. I’m excited just looking at the results of some of these.
Yes, you can sort of achieve similar results by hand trying to do it in Photopea, or offline image editors, but nothing comes close to how fast and simple you can get background removal jobs done with this site.
This is definitely a site to bookmark and come back to when you need it. The AI is so good and it’s a real time saver for those wanting to just remove a background to get on with something else.
Link: Go try it!