Background Removal refers to the removal of the background or the backdrop of the picture wherein the object/objects are placed. While removing the background, the entire background or merely parts of the background we desire can be removed.

The advent of digital photography and its accompanying technologies has made background removal an easy editing fix. Before such capabilities were available, background removal of a photograph was a more difficult process.

It was performed in a darkroom with the necessary ambient conditions including proper room temperature. The film was submerged in working solution and was monitored constantly. Overexposure of the film to the solution could result in an increase in background blur and decrease in resolution.

Today, background removal is possible using any digital photo editing software like Image Manipulation Program, GNU, or GIMP. GIMP is a special kind of graphics editing program able to support some types of object-based (or vector) graphics.

Should your digital photo editing software used for background removal not be able to support all kinds of object-oriented graphics don\’t worry. The advantage to GIMP is that it allows for easy vector to raster conversion.

Other widely used raster graphics editors and digital photo editors will also work well. Most digital photo editors are equipped with a number of plug-ins which can adjust the background in various ways. Plug-ins are computer programs with specifically dedicated purposes. Most sophisticated photo editing programs use special purpose plug-ins and will execute background editing and removal based on different criteria.

Objects without backgrounds can be used in several different ways. They can be placed in a new backdrop and in different situational contexts. For eg.: a couch in furniture showroom could have the furniture showroom replaced with an office. The object can be moved around any which way and it\’s alignment w.r.t the new background can also be changed.

An object can gain a new sense of purpose without changing itself at all. It retains all of its properties like shape and size but becomes moldable to individual usage.