Give your product a clean background

A desk, wall, or pile of packing supplies can pull attention away from the thing you are selling. Lightbox’s background remover starts with the subject and lets you choose what belongs around it.

Start with a clear cutout

The workflow is to choose a photo, separate the product from its surroundings, and review the selection before adding a new background. A useful cutout preserves the parts that are easy to lose, including a mug handle, a chain, laces, and the space between an item and its strap.

After the automatic selection, use Erase to remove background left around an edge and Restore to bring back part of the subject. On a Mac or iPad, the brush’s size shows under the pointer, or under a hovering Apple Pencil, before you start a stroke. Inspect and refine the cutout before exporting.

For a solid backdrop, choose Remove a plain backdrop in the Edges tool. This removes matching areas connected to the edge of the photo. It works best when the product is clearly separated from the background color. Review the result with Erase and Restore before adding your next setting.

Choose the next background

Use a white background for a simple listing image. Keep a transparent background when the cutout will be placed in another design. Explore AI backgrounds when a product needs a setting rather than a plain canvas.

For a collection, use the same background and similar space around each item. Changing the setting on every photo can make a product grid harder to scan.

Know when to retake the photo

Clear separation in the original makes the edit easier. Photograph a pale product against a slightly darker surface. Keep the whole item inside the frame. Move reflective packaging away from strong highlights that hide its edges.

Glass, translucent fabric, hair, and fine chains need particular care. A new background cannot recover parts of a product that were cropped out or hidden behind another object.

Try it on your photos

Try Lightbox on your own images through the TestFlight beta. To remove the backgrounds of a whole shoot, select the photos and give them one background in the batch editor.

Need one cutout today? Start with our guide to removing a background using iPhone Photos. For a repeated shop workflow, read about templates.