How to Remove a Background in Silhouette Studio (Two Methods)

One of the most common questions I get is how to remove a photo background in Silhouette Studio. And the good news is there are two ways to do it right inside the software - no Photoshop, no Canva, no extra apps needed.

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Here's the thing. The method you use depends on your photo. I'm going to show you both so you can pick the right one for whatever you're working on.

I'm using these techniques to make DIY big head cutouts - but this works for any project where you need a cut-to-shape image, like photo booth props or custom stickers.

Method 1: Remove a background in Silhouette Studio with trace and detach

This method works best when there is good contrast between your subject and the background - like a person standing in front of a plain wall.

Open your image in Silhouette Studio and open the Trace panel. Silhouette Studio's trace tool works on contrast, so the more color contrast between your subject and the background, the cleaner your trace line will be.

This one works great because of the brown hair against the white wall. (I only traced the head because I was make DIY big heads for this project).

If your trace area is not completely yellow when you select the trace area, slowly adjust the Threshold bar. You want a solid trace, but you don't want any yellow static outside or you'll get extra cut lines.

Once the trace area is ready, click Trace and Detach. The trace is going to go away and it's going to look like nothing happened. But don't panic.

Silhouette Studio has automatically created a cut line around the traced area and cropped it from the background. Now all you need to do is pull away the unwanted background, leaving just the part of the image you wanted!

Method 2: Remove a background in Silhouette Studio with the draw a curved shape tool

If there's a lot going on in the background or not enough contrast between the subject and the background - the trace tool isn't going to work to remove the background.

This is when you want to use the Draw a Curved Shape tool instead.

Select the Draw a Curved Shape tool from the left toolbar. Click around the outside edge of your subject, dropping edit points as you go.

Take your time around the hair, chin, and ears that's usually where it gets tricky.

When you get back to your starting point the line will close itself into a complete shape.

Now select both the line you just drew and the original image.

Open the Modify panel from the right sidebar and click Crop.

Everything outside your drawn line disappears and you're left with just your subject on a transparent background.

Double click the image to access the point editing panel. You can use your mouse to manually move the edit points. For this image I moved the points around her chin up and in to get rid of the black edge.

See it in action

I used both of these methods to prep the files for my daughter's graduation party big head cutouts. If you want to see the full process - from removing the background all the way through laser cutting and UV printing - watch this:

Need more help with Silhouette Studio? I have close to 700 tutorials — plus same-day one-on-one support — over at Silhouette U. And yes, it covers way more than just Silhouette machines.

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