A friend asked me how I remove the background from an image in order to save the object with a transparent background for use on Zazzle products. It really is a lot easier than it sounds and I’m sure that there are as many ways to do this as there are photographers; this is just what works for me. Keep in mind that I am using PSE 5 so your mileage, as they say, may vary.
1. This step is easy; open your photo! 
2. Duplicate that photo to a new layer.
3. Now go back to the original (background) layer and erase it. Yep, clean everything off so that you have a blank layer. You’ll see that little gray and white checkerboard pattern indicating that the layer is empty; totally transparent.
4. Working on the new layer, which is now your image layer, use the lasso tool to trace the outline of your object. Some of you may have good results using the magic wand, others may like the magnetic lasso. I find that I am most comfortable using the polygonal lasso tool.
5. Chip away at the background and whatever parts you want to remove a little at a time. Just simply draw an outline of the area you want cut away. This is easier if you zoom in close while you are working and work in a small area at a time. Zoom in to 150% – 200% or even more!
6. Once you have an area to be removed outlined and you have that nice row of “marching ants” surrounding it you’re ready to cut it away. First right-click inside those “marching ants”, now select “feather” and set the radius to 1 or maybe 2 pixels (don’t go any more than 2 unless you want a feathery edge to your object). Next move up to the top menu and click “edit” -> “cut”.
7. Now that area will be removed and you should see the gray and white checkerboard pattern from the background layer showing through.
8. Work slowly and carefully removing all parts of the image that you no longer wish to see.
9. Once you have your object completely cut out and isolated the way you like it you have two choices. One; save it as a .jpg with the background color of your choice. -or- Two; save it as a .png with a transparent background.
10. If you are saving as a .jpg you need to go back to the background layer and fill it in with your color. Stock photo buyers tend to like a perfectly white background best so that they can do what they like with the isolated object.
11. You can make the background any color you choose by grabbing that color picker and selecting something like black or blue or green or… and painting the background with either the paint brush tool you like best or simply using that friendly “spill bucket”.
12. You can be creative with your background and draw fluffy clouds or even layer your isolated object over another image.
13. If you want to save your image with a transparent background you will need to make sure that all the color has been erased from the background layer. We did this way back in step 3 but if you had some fun playing around with other colors erase them now.
14. With the background erased and nothing but that checkerboard pattern showing behind your object you will need to save your image as a .png file. Move up to that top menu and click “file” -> “save as”. When the window opens you will see the word “format” next to a drop down with your choices of file types. Choose PNG and save your file.
15. You should now have an image of your object on a transparent background ready for uploading and creating all those awesome Zazzle products!
I hope you can understand my clear as mud directions and can make them work for you with whatever photo editing software that you may have. If anyone has anything to add please feel free to share in the comments!
