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How to Use the Background Eraser Tool for Clean Cutouts

4 min read

Why the Background Eraser Tool Deserves a Spot in Your Editing Toolkit

You have a wonderful photo of your grandson at the park, but the background is cluttered with strangers and rubbish bins. You want to place him against a cleaner backdrop for a birthday card. The Background Eraser Tool in Photoshop Elements is designed exactly for moments like this — it lets you paint away the background while preserving the subject you want to keep.

Unlike the regular Eraser Tool, which removes everything it touches, the Background Eraser is smart about colour. It samples the colour under the centre of your brush and erases only similar colours as you drag. This makes it brilliant for tricky edges like hair, fur, and wispy details that other tools struggle with.

Whether you are creating a photo collage, making a custom greeting card, or simply cleaning up a distracting scene behind a treasured subject, this tool gives you hands-on control that automatic selection tools sometimes miss.

Finding the Background Eraser Tool in PSE

The Background Eraser Tool lives in the Advanced mode toolbar, grouped with the other eraser tools.

  1. 1Open your photo in Photoshop Elements and switch to Advanced mode using the tabs at the top of the Editor.
  1. 1Look for the Eraser Tool in the left-hand toolbar — it looks like a rectangular eraser.
  1. 1Click and hold on the Eraser Tool icon to reveal the flyout menu.
  1. 1Select Background Eraser Tool from the flyout options.

You will see your cursor change to a circle with a small crosshair in the centre. That crosshair is the key — it is the sampling point that tells PSE which colour to erase.

Understanding the Tool Options Bar

Before you start erasing, take a moment to look at the Tool Options bar along the bottom of your screen. These settings control how the tool behaves:

  • Brush Size: Use the slider or bracket keys ( [ and ] ) to adjust. Start with a brush slightly larger than the edge details you are working on.
  • Limits: Choose Contiguous to erase only connected areas of similar colour, or Discontiguous to erase that colour anywhere within your brush circle.
  • Tolerance: This controls how similar a colour must be to get erased. Lower values (around 20–30) erase only very close colour matches — useful when your subject and background share similar tones. Higher values (50 or above) erase a wider range of colours.
  • Sampling: Set to Continuous to keep sampling new colours as you drag, or Once to sample only when you first click — helpful when the background is varied but your subject has a consistent edge colour.

Step-by-Step: Erasing a Background Around a Person

Let us walk through removing a busy background behind a portrait photo.

  1. 1Duplicate your layer first by pressing Ctrl+J (Windows) or Cmd+J (Mac). This protects your original photo.
  1. 1Select the Background Eraser Tool as described above.
  1. 1Set your Tolerance to around 30 as a starting point.
  1. 1Position your brush so the crosshair is over the background colour — not on your subject.
  1. 1Click and drag along the edge of your subject. Watch as the background disappears while the subject remains.
  1. 1If the tool accidentally eats into your subject, press Ctrl+Z to undo, lower your Tolerance, and try again.
  1. 1For areas where the background colour changes (such as from sky to trees), you may need to release and click again so the tool samples the new colour.
  1. 1Work your way around the entire subject. Take your time around hair and fine details — this is where the tool truly shines.

Tips for Cleaner Results

Zoom in close. Use View → Zoom In or the Zoom Tool to see edges clearly. Precision matters most at the boundaries.

Work in short strokes. Rather than dragging in one long sweep, use shorter movements. This gives you more opportunities to sample correctly and undo mistakes.

Adjust Tolerance as you go. Different parts of the photo may need different settings. Hair against a blue sky might need a higher Tolerance than hair against a pale wall.

Check against different backgrounds. After erasing, add a temporary solid colour layer beneath your cutout (go to Layer → New Fill Layer → Solid Color). This reveals any leftover fringing or missed spots.

Finishing Your Cutout

Once you have erased the background, you have a clean cutout ready for creative projects. You might:

  • Place your subject on a new scenic background using the Move Tool
  • Add them to a photo collage
  • Use them in a custom greeting card or calendar

If you notice colour fringing around edges, consider using Enhance → Adjust Color → Adjust Hue/Saturation on the cutout layer to neutralise any unwanted tints.

The Background Eraser Tool in Photoshop Elements gives you the hands-on control that family photo projects often need — especially when automatic tools do not quite get it right. With a bit of practice, you will be creating clean cutouts of grandchildren, pets, and treasured subjects in no time.

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