Remove white background from white object in Photoshop

Question

How can I remove the white background with Photoshop?

I am having trouble doing it with the quick selection tool, because of the whiteness of the object, specially on the top.

Answer 1

Since this is a relatively simple shape, I would just outline it with the pen tool and convert to a selection. Do note the little details around the corners and side buttons though. I would say that would take me a couple minutes at most.

Answer 2

If you click and hold eraser tool there is few other options than standard eraser. One is called Magic eraser, which is perfect for things like this. It's like a combination of magic wand and eraser, so you just need to adjust the tolerance (something like 10 in this case) and click the background. In case you have the image loaded as smart object, you need to get inside the object to erase.

Answer 3

Actually, the object is not white, it's almost white. That's a big difference :)

First of all, you can select it manually as suggested TCDesigner.

But if you don't want to make your hands dirty with tools like lasso or pen, here's a more automatic way:

1. Duplicate your layer with photograph (CMD + J)
2. Adjust its contrast, for example, with Levels (CMD + L)
3. Select the white background with a Magic Wand tool.
4. Invert the selection and apply it as a mask for your image.
5. Profit :)

Additionally you can adjust a sharpness of your mask with Gaussian blur or manually for better result.

Here's a short screencast to display the process in action: http://quick.as/GGk9uzgoo