Adding a New Background to a Photo in Paint Shop Pro

Based on some discussion from the comments section of the tutorial on using the background remover on Paint Shop Pro, I thought it might be helpful to give some more detailed explanation on changing the background of a digital photo when that background is a solid color. Sometimes when trying to describe the details, the process starts to sound a lot more complicated than it really is so I am hoping that a few screenshots along with the instructions will help.

If you're actually starting with a photo that has a solid background, you probably won't even need to use the background remover plugin and can just use some of the other tools found in Paint Shop Pro. The plugin is really for photos that have a more complicated background that is harder to distinguish from the main subject of a photo. This guide will look at some easier ways that you can change the background when it is less complex in nature.

For this tutorial, we'll start off with a digital photo of a woman that has a solid green background as shown below. (Click any image for a larger view.)

Before getting started, make sure that you have both the Materials and Layers palette open since we'll be referring to them at various points in the tutorial. If they're not currently visible, you can toggle them on by going to the View menu on Paint Shop Pro's main toolbar, selecting Palettes, and making sure there is a check mark next to Materials and Layers.

Also, while it isn't necessarily needed for every example we'll be showing, it's a good idea to go ahead and convert your photo to a full layer rather than working on the default background layer that is standard for JPEG images. So, after opening your photo in Paint Shop Pro, go to the Layers menu on the main toolbar and select Promote Background Layer.

After doing this, your photo will show up in the Layers palette as a raster layer labeled Raster 1.

Now, we can move on to showing how to change the existing background or add a new one.

If the only thing you want to change about the background of the photo is the color or if you want to use a pattern that comes preloaded with Paint Shop Pro, walk through these steps.

Step 1: Begin by selecting the Magic Wand tool from the side tool panel of Paint Shop Pro.

A new toolbar for the Magic Wand will appear underneath the main toolbar at the top of your screen. Here, make sure that Replace is chosen for Mode, Color for Match Mode, and that your Tolerance is set to be around 25. (You may need to adjust the tolerance level depending on the photo you are working with, but 25 is generally a good area to start experimenting with.) If you click the screenshot above, you should be able to see these settings chosen in that larger view.

Step 2: With the Magic Wand selected, click on any part of the solid color background. It should select the entire area and surround it with dashed lines as shown below.

Continue on to the next page for the rest of this tutorial on replacing backgrounds in digital photos with Paint Shop Pro.