How to Remove the Background from a Photo on Mac

In macOS Ventura and later, Apple has included artificial intelligence tools for editing images. In particular, there is a very practical function for removing the background from an image, as is the case since iOS 16 on iPhone. To do this, you need an Apple Silicon Mac (minimum M1 chip) and a photo to edit. Here’s a quick and easy tutorial for removing the background from an image and keeping only the main subject.

A tip for MacOS

As you can see below, there are three ways to remove the background from an image in macOS 13 Ventura and above. There is rapid action in the Finderan option in the app Pictures and a tool in Preview.

Each time, this function removes the subject from the image and transforms it into a PNG file, making the background transparent. Fast action works best on images where the subject is clearly defined in the foreground, such as a person or object, against a relatively uniform background. But over time, engineers improved it, providing increased efficiency.

Here is a before/after example made in Preview under macOS 14 Sonoma:

After several attempts, you will notice that certain cases are less well treated than others, like a woman’s hair for example. If you need extreme precision, then it is better to turn to Pixelmator Pro or Photoshop.

Remove the background from an image

To remove the background and keep only one element, here are the three possible solutions on Mac:

In Overview

1. In the Preview app on your Mac, click the “Tools” button in the toolbar
2. Hover over the “Remove background” button
3. Preview selects the area that will be removed, validate to proceed.
4. To remove everything around the selected area, choose Edit > Invert Selection, then press the Delete key.

In Photos

1. Select a photo in the Photos app
2. Right-click on the image
3. Choose Copy topic. When you hover over Copy Subject, the background fades and the automatically selected subject appears highlighted – hold your mouse there and the highlighted line moves around whatever it will capture
4. You can now paste the subject without the background wherever you want.

In Finder

1. Find a photo you want to remove the background from.
2. Right-click the image in Finder, on your desktop, etc. Near the bottom, choose Quick Actions, then click Remove Background.
3. The PNG copy of your image with the background will appear in a few seconds next to the original image.

Do not hesitate to browse our “tutorials and tips” section to get the most out of your Mac. The last interesting tool we talked about was Onyx.