How to remove the background from a product photo

Free in Refine, on every plan: four steps, five qualities, three fills

Quick Answer

Open the photo in Refine, choose Remove background, pick Transparent, White or a colour, and press Apply. It costs no credits: every plan has a daily allowance instead, from 2 removals a day on Free to 75 on Studio. The cut-out comes back at the photo's own size as a new version, so the original stays in your gallery.

The four steps

Open the photo in Refine

Sign in at lume.pics and upload the product photo, or open one you already generated from the gallery. In the editor, switch to Refine. Any photo works: a phone shot on a desk, a flat lay, a template render.

Choose Remove background

It is the first tool in the Refine rail. Lume reads the photo and suggests a quality: People for on-model shots, HD for jewellery on a big enough photo, Standard for everything else. Change it if you know the product needs something different.

Pick a fill

Transparent keeps nothing behind the product and gives you a PNG with an alpha channel. White paints every background pixel pure white. Colour lets you type any hex value, for a brand colour or a flat studio tint.

Apply, check, download

The cut-out comes back in a few seconds as a new version of the same photo. Hold on the result to see the original underneath. Download saves the version you are looking at; the file is named after the product.

Which quality to pick

Lume suggests a quality from what it knows about the photo, and the suggestion is right most of the time. The table is for when you want to override it.

Standard

Every plan

Bottles, boxes, bags, shoes, ceramics, electronics. The default for most products.

Hair and fur

Every plan

Plush toys, brushes, knitwear, feathers, frayed textiles: anything whose edge is not a clean line.

People

Every plan

On-model apparel, products held in a hand, anything where a person is part of the subject.

HD

Business, Growth, Studio

Big photos where edge detail matters: jewellery, glassware, lace. Needs a photo of at least 2048 px on its long side.

Max

Studio

The highest operating resolution for the most detailed products. Also needs 2048 px. Not suggested automatically because busy scenes can go either way.

Two rules apply to all of them. HD and Max need a photo of at least 2048 px on its long side, because they run at a higher resolution and would otherwise have to enlarge the photo first. And the output is never enlarged: a 1024 px photo comes back at 1024 px whichever quality you pick. The quality changes how carefully the edge is cut, not how big the file is.

The three fills

Transparent

A PNG with an alpha channel and nothing behind the product. The one to keep if you plan to place the product on your own backgrounds, in a design tool, or in a Lume scene.

White

Every background pixel becomes pure white, RGB 255, 255, 255. This is the marketplace main-image rule: Amazon requires it, and eBay, Walmart and most comparison engines want it. A rendered white studio scene looks white, but its pixels drift with the lighting and cannot promise exactly 255. The fill can. Use it for the main image and rendered scenes for the rest of the listing.

Colour

Any hex colour: a brand colour behind the whole range, a pastel for a seasonal collection, a dark tint for a premium line. The colour is flat, without shadows; if you want the product to sit on a surface with real light, put the cut-out in a scene instead.

What each plan allows per day

Plan	Removals a day
Free	2
Pro	10
Business	20
Growth	40
Studio	75

The allowance resets every day at midnight UTC, and the app shows the reset time in your own time zone. Every accepted request counts toward it, kept or not, so check the suggested quality before you press Apply rather than after.

After the cut-out: put it in a scene

A transparent product is the starting point for everything else Lume does. Pick a template, drop the cut-out in the placement zone, and the scene is rendered around it with its own light and shadows. That costs 1 credit at 1K, 2 at 2K and 3 at 4K, like any generation, and a new account starts with 3 free credits. If the first scene is not right, you can change the background again afterwards with New background, or erase a prop with Erase, without starting over.

Related Resources

Free Background Remover

The tool page: allowance, qualities and the white rule at a glance

Refine

Every editing tool, what it does and what it costs

Amazon Product Photos

The main-image rules and how to meet them

How Credits Work

What is free, what costs credits, and how much

Export Formats

PNG, JPG, sizes and the all-versions zip

Upload Requirements

The photo to start from

Frequently Asked Questions

Does removing the background cost credits?

No. Remove background is free on every plan. Each plan has a daily allowance instead: 2 removals a day on Free, 10 on Pro, 20 on Business, 40 on Growth and 75 on Studio. It resets every day at midnight UTC, shown in your own time zone in the app.

Why is HD greyed out for my photo?

HD and Max run at a higher operating resolution and need a photo of at least 2048 px on its long side. On a smaller photo they would have to enlarge it first, which punches holes in the edges, so the picker greys them out and says why. Standard, Hair and fur and People work at any size.

Will the cut-out be bigger than my photo?

No. The output is never enlarged. A 1024 px photo comes back at 1024 px on every quality. If you need a bigger file, start from a bigger photo, or put the cut-out in a scene and generate at 2K or 4K.

Which fill should I use for Amazon?

White. Amazon asks for a pure white background, RGB 255, 255, 255, on the main image, and the White fill writes exactly that value into every background pixel. A white studio scene rendered by a model looks white but cannot promise 255. Use the fill for the main image and rendered scenes for the lifestyle slots.

Two free removals a day, no card

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Last updated: 2026-10-30