Make Transparent Background Images With the ClearPhotos App

Create transparent background photos in seconds with ClearPhotos. If you have tried it before, you know how time-consuming it can be to make the background of your favorite photos transparent even with the most expensive software packages. Now you can make transparent background photos using our ClearPhotos app in a breeze, literally in seconds instead of minutes or hours. This app is designed for your Android phone/Tablet. You take the photos, and then use the app to make the background transparent, no matter how complex the photos are.  It's all automatic, and no painful tracing or manual editing involved. The calibration algorithm has been used to generate transparent background photos for hundreds of images automatically in a single run – unbelievably fast!

To avoid shadows, take the photos during day time. Bright daylight is best for making transparent background photos. If you look at the details in the example photo, you can see through the sail in this model ship because those tiny holes are also made transparent. How can this be done if you had to do it manually?

Here are step by step instructions:

Step 1: Setup the studio. The studio can be just as simple as your home, using the wall as background. You will need:
a) Dark background: A piece of black cloth with a size large enough to cover the entire scene to be photographed. The best choice would be 100% cotton black cloth bought from a fabric store. Cotton cloth has the nice property of diffuse reflection, while polyesters and nylons may cause unwanted specular reflection. Hang the cloth on the wall with pushpins.
b) White background: A white paper such as the printer paper will do. Make sure the size is large enough to cover the entire scene. White cotton cloth is even better. The white reference will be used later.
c) The object to be photographed. This can be anything you want to photograph. Small or big, complex or simple. Or it can be a live person. As long as the size is smaller than the black and white background.
d) An android phone or tablet fixed on a tripod with a holder. If you don’t have a tripod, you can attach the phone/table to a stable object (such as a bottle) using a rubber band. The camera needs to steadily point to the wall. Adjust the distance so that the dark and white backgrounds, and the object are within the field of view entirely.

Step 2: Take the photos: take a photo of the object with the dark background first, then cover the dark background with the white background and take the second photo. This creates a pair of images to be used for processing. For best effects, take the photos during day time with plenty diffuse light. You could also use camera flash but it may cause shadows in the images.

Step 3. When the pair of photos is taken, start the ClearPhotos software and load these two images. Then click the bottom of the software to create the transparent background image which is saved on your phone/tablet. It should only take a few seconds before the result image is shown on the bottom view. The image produced is saved in the same directory where you loaded the image, except the text “.clear.” is added to the filename and it is in .png format (note .jpg doesn’t support transparent background format). Now you can go there find it and do whatever you want with it. It’s unbelievably easy.