How do I remove greenscreen from a background?

The process of removing a greenscreen background is easier than removing any other type of background. Because green screen is not very complex compared to any other background, I would recommend you to use 'Quick Action Tool'. Steps below: (Full Article Link: 5 Quick Ways: Remove Background In Photoshop)

Step No.1: Open your photo in Photoshop. In the bottom right ‘layer’s section’, right-click on that photo’s layer and click on ‘Duplicate Layer’. In the popup dialogue box, give the new layer a name and click on ‘Ok’. This will create a new duplicate layer above your original layer.

Step No.2: Just above the layer’s section, you will see a tab called ‘Properties’. Scroll down in the properties tab. Inside ‘Quick Action’ you will find a button called ‘Remove Background’, Click on it. (If you don’t see the ‘Properties Tab’, enable it in the ‘Windows’ section of photoshop’s topmost menu bar.)

Step No.3: In the layer’s section, click on the ‘eye icon’ in front of your Original Layer to hide it. (not the duplicate one). Once you do this, you will see the background is now removed.

The ridiculous thing about this is that the best/fastest way to do this is to not use Photoshop at all. Just import the photo into After Effects, use Keylight plugin and remove the background/spill all in one super quick step, and then export the single frame in the format of your choice. Why Photoshop doesn't have a similar plugin is totally mindboggling to me.

See below: This took about 1.5 minutes of work using After Effects and Keylight with Advanced Spill suppressor. One step. No painting out spill, no slow multistep process. Clean results:

Hi,

To get a better result much faster, there is a plugin for Photoshop which will automatically remove the green screen as well as any green spill on your subject. It's called KEY36 and can be downloaded from 36pix.com/KEY36. You can do up to 50 extractions for free and then if you like it, you can purchase more.

Since you are interested in the Lab Color approach, here is some additional information adding images to the list of steps provided earlier.

Click on the image to see them in a larger size.

1. Duplicate the image layer and then change Image > Mode to Lab Color (Don’t flatten)

     Fig 1. RGB duplicate layer

     Fig 2. Lab Mode

2. Choose Channels and drag the  a  channel down to make a copy

     Fig 3. The "a" channel was duplicated

3. Choose Image > Adjustments > Curves and click on Auto

     Fig 4. Curves. Duplicate "a" channel. Clicked on Auto

4. Increase the contrast as shown. Mask is complete without brushwork.

     Fig 5. Curve made more vertical. No brushwork. Mask is complete

     Fig 6. Top: Lab Channels panel.

5. Return to RGB color

     Fig 6. Bottom. RGB Channels panel

6. Place a new layer below the top layer, turn off the eye on the bottom layer

     Fig 7. Shows top 2 layers. Bottom layer not shown. Does not contribute to the result

7. Apply the mask to the top layer

     Fig 7. Mask applied.

Select the green Screen: Choose: select inverse make sure you use the quick selection tool or the correct tolerance with the magic want.

Go to Select and mask View the selection and if need fix it in the same window..

Choose layer Mask and click ok.

While it is with the layer mask you can still update and modify the selection!!

Chana

As I wrote the green spill it hard to deal with a white or gray chroma key background key work better for still images

Since you do not have the latest version of Photoshop and are having problems with the Refine Edge Tool this is another option:

1. Duplicate the image layer and then change Image > Mode to Lab Color (Don’t flatten)

2. Choose Channels and drag the  a  channel down to make a copy

3. Choose Image > Adjustments > Curves and click on Auto (it will look like the curve on the left)

4. Increase the contrast as shown. Mask is complete without brushwork. (It will look like the curve on the right)

5. Return to RGB color

6. Place a new layer below the top layer, turn off the eye on the bottom layer

7. Apply the mask to the top layer

Does blend if green help any? To drop out the green.

then try magic wand tool

Can be very difficult when there is a lot of Chroma Key Spill. If you want to extract something in a still image you would be better served with a white or gray Chroma Key background,  Its easer to blend in a natural Chroma Key then a green or blue one.