How To Change a Background In Photoshop [For Beginners!]

Time needed: 3 minutes.

How To Change a Background in Photoshop

1. Select the Object

   The first step is to select the headphones. Go into the Select menu and choose Subject.
   This will use Artificial Intelligence, known as Adobe Sensei, to analyze the image and select the main subject.
   

2. Refine The Selection

   The Select Subject command will often do an excellent job selecting the subject, but it’s not perfect. Refine your selection by subtracting the remaining white areas.
   
   To do this, choose the Quick Selection Tool nested under the Object Selection Tool.
   
   Then simply hold the Alt key (Windows) or Option key (macOS) and click-and-drag over the white area to subtract from the selection.
   

3. Duplicate The Layer

   To change a background in Photoshop consider keeping the original shadows to make the composite looks more realistic. To do so, we need to duplicate the layer.
   You can go into Layer > New > Layer Via Copy.
   

4. Invert the Layer Mask

   To bring the white background back, go into the black and white Layer Mask thumbnail of the original headphones layer. The white outline, which will appear around the Layer Mask thumbnail, indicates that this layer mask is active.
   
   Then invert the Layer mask so that the headphones are now hidden and the background is revealed. You can do so in one of two ways. You can press Ctrl I (Windows) or Command I (macOS) or go into Image > Adjustments > Invert.
   

5. Set The Blending Mode to Multiply

   Next, hide the white pixels of the background and only keep the dark tones to reveal the headphone’s shadow. To do so, we can use Blending Mode.
   
   Go into the Blending Mode dropdown and choose Multiply. The Multiply Blending Mode hides the white pixels and keeps the darker ones.
   

6. Create a Levels Adjustment

   Next, we will create an adjustment layer to control the intensity of the shadow.
   Go into the New Adjustment Layer icon and choose Levels.
   

7. Clip It To The Layer Below

   Then, from the Properties panel, make sure that you click on the Clipping Mask icon.
   This down-pointing arrow indicates that this adjustment layer will only affect the layer directly below it.
   

8. Use The Levels Adjustment to Control the Shadow Intensity

   From the Properties panel, click and drag on this Gamma slider. Use the slider in the center to control the intensity of the shadow.
   For example, you can set it to about 0.65 to darken the shadow to make it more visible on the surface of the wooden table.