Easy background removal for photos on your phone

[Doctor Mud]

There is an update on the IPhone now that allows you to quickly and easily remove the background from any photo. 
 

For example. The background in this photo is white, but there are shadows, and the ruler. 

 

1. To remove the background on your IPhone, simply hold your finger on the subject until a white line races around the edges and “copy or share” shows up. Like in the video below

 

 

 

2. Click on “share” and scroll down to “save image” and that’s it.

 

 

Look in your photos and you will have a photo of your fossil with the background removed like this.

 

 

It has done quite a nice job at picking out all those cusps and serrations.

 

Have fun. And it might be fun if people feel inclined to post some results of their experiments with this technique. 
 

 

 

[Doctor Mud]

A few for examples:

 

You can do multiple objects at once

 

 

[Doctor Mud]

And it can handle complex backgrounds. Like me holding this little crab fossil

 

 

[Doctor Mud]

Not the best photo, but a good example of how background removal tidied up the photo of the fossil and removes any distractions in the photo.

 

 

[JBkansas]

Samsung also has this under it's gallery app. It's under edit/pencil icon and then the dotted circle icon.  The Samsung one makes the background transparent so it's slightly different.

Edited March 6, 2023 by JBkansas

[Doctor Mud]

9 minutes ago, JBkansas said:

Samsung one makes the background transparent

Glad there is an option for non iPhone users too.

 

It does make the background transparent on the IPhone too, but it just comes up as a white background on here and on your phone. So if you pasted it over a black background it would still just be the fossil. 
 

like for the shark tooth example above. Looks better on black.

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Doctor Mud

[JBkansas]

The new toy for the android users is the magic eraser. You can make things disappear (like my son who is no longer walking a dog). Only his shadow is left:

Edited March 6, 2023 by JBkansas

[Doctor Mud]

2 minutes ago, JBkansas said:

The new toy for the android users is the magic eraser. You can make things disappear (like my son who is no longer walking a dog). It's weird because it left his shadow:

That does look like fun. Amazing how it puts a background where he was blocking. Must extrapolate it from around him. 

[Doctor Mud]

P.s. @JBkansas nice to see someone else’s photos on their phone are full

of fossils. 

[JBkansas]

5 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

P.s. @JBkansas nice to see someone else’s photos on their phone are full

of fossils. 

I'm actually hopelessly behind on taking pictures and recording my finds (both field and mailbox). I also need to start trying to prep some of the hash plates I'm stacking up to see what's in them.

[Doctor Mud]

19 minutes ago, JBkansas said:

I'm actually hopelessly behind on taking pictures and recording my finds (both field and mailbox). I also need to start trying to prep some of the hash plates I'm stacking up to see what's in them.

I’m the same! I enjoy being out in the field and that excitement of discovery, but I’ve got lots to do at home. I find it hard these days to be indoors on a nice day and not out exploring. 

[dsalles]

Works only with iPhone XS and newer,  iPad mini 5 and newer, iPad Air 3 and newer, iPad 8 and newer or iPad Pro.

[Yoda]

2 minutes ago, dsalles said:

Works only with iPhone XS and newer,  iPad mini 5 and newer, iPad Air 3 and newer, iPad 8 and newer or iPad Pro.

Was about to say. I couldn't get this to work on my i14. 

[Doctor Mud]

15 minutes ago, dsalles said:

Works only with iPhone XS and newer,  iPad mini 5 and newer, iPad Air 3 and newer, iPad 8 and newer or iPad Pro.

 

11 minutes ago, Yoda said:

Was about to say. I couldn't get this to work on my i14. 

Good to mention which models it will work on. Would have thought it would work on i14. I’m using an iPhone 12 using iOS 16.2. Do you have the latest operating system installed? Recent updates?

Edited March 6, 2023 by Doctor Mud

[Misha]

This a very interesting and useful tool, unfortunately Google Pixel has yet to add this, hopefully in a future software update this will be possible.

 

There is a feature that's somewhat similar called magic eraser, it can remove an object from the photo and patch it up with parts of the surrounding image, it can have some niche applications like if you are taking photos on a solid background and want to remove something like a scale, and it can do an almost convincing job at removing something from more complex backgrounds, but it's by no means perfect

 

it's accessed in Edit > Tools > Magic Eraser

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Misha

[Yoda]

31 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

 

Good to mention which models it will work on. Would have thought it would work on i14. I’m using an iPhone 12 using iOS 16.2. Do you have the latest operating system installed? Recent updates?

Apologies. It's an i13 

 

Just checked my settings 

IOS 16.3.1

[Yoda]

I got it to work  - sort of 
If there is a distinct border between object and background it works 

But I tried a photo similar to the one above with the dogs, and it doesn’t. 

 

 

[Doctor Mud]

1 minute ago, Yoda said:

I got it to work  - sort of 
If there is a distinct border between object and background it works 

But I tried a photo similar to the one above with the dogs, and it doesn’t. 

 

 

Glad you got it to work!

It doesn’t always work, there still needs to be a bit of contrast between the subject and the background. 

[Doctor Mud]

43 minutes ago, Misha said:

There is a feature that's somewhat similar called magic eraser,

Looks like that is handy for removing scales afterwards though. 

I do remember a tool in PowerPoint that is good for background removing if you are using a windows PC.

 

[RuMert]

Pity we still have problems with it on computers apart from Photoshop which is not the most comfortable either