One of the coolest features of using Adobe's Photoshop is in having the ability to remove background images from a photo or other graphic. Now, there are various ways in which to get this done. You can use the Lasso tool, the Magic Wand tool, and even use the Pencil tool to cut away your primary image from its background.
The problem that users will run into when using any of the aforementioned methods is one of pixels. When you basically "cut" to separate an image you need to decide which pixels will be contained in the foreground or in the background. This is a problem because, dependingon the image you may have a graphic where certain pixels will need to be seen in both the foreground and the back ground. If you have a drop in the number of pixels from your image that are in the background and they don notalign with the pixels in the foreground the image edges will not be smooth. This can cause your separated image to look like it was chopped from a background and not like an image all on its own.
So, how do you separate an image from a background to make it smooth? Well, here we are going to go over the steps you need to do just that.
Once you have the original image open in Photoshop, select the Freeform Pen tool. Next you'll want to make sure that you have the "Paths" option selected at the top left of the screen. Then use your Freeform Pen tool to make an outline of the image that you wish to separate from its background. When you have created your outline, right-click and choose the Make Selection option.
Now, take your selected image and paste it into a new layer. Once your image is in the new layer you will be able to play with the options and choose a new background or you can opt at not having a background at all.