Is the background spoiling your favorite photo? Perhaps someone photo-bombed a holiday snap? Or the dog accidentally wandered into an otherwise perfect family portrait? If so, you need a way to remove the background of the image.

And one of the best tools for the job is Clipping Magic.

It's a web app, so there's no download, no compatibility issues, and no worries about malware or bundled adware. Just upload your pic, make the changes, and save it. Here's a step-by-step look at how to use this nifty tool.

Removing the Background of Any Image

When you navigate to the Clipping Magic homepage, you're immediately presented with the upload options. There are three ways to add photos to the app:

  1. Upload from your machine.
  2. Drag the image into the highlighted box.
  3. Paste the image's URL (for online images).

Give the image a few seconds to upload. When it's done, you'll see some quick instructions about how to use the app. Anything you mark green is kept, anything you mark red is removed, and anything you leave unmarked is determined by the Clipping Magic algorithm.

In the example, you can see I'm removing the background from my MakeUseOf profile picture. In the picture on the left, I marked the areas I wanted to keep and remove. The image on the right is the live preview.

Because Clipping Magic now requires a subscription, you need to perform one more step if you want to download your image for free.

Take a screenshot of the output, paste it into Microsoft PowerPoint, and go to Format > Remove Background.

Use the Mark Areas to Keep and Mark Areas to Remove tools to touch it up, and click Keep Changes when you're happy with the output.

Did you find this helpful? How do you delete the background of an image? Let us know in the comments below.