How to Change the Background in a Photo With Paint.NET

By Alexander Abbott

Use Paint.NET  to change the background of your photos
i Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images

If you are an amateur photographer or a graphic artist, you may be hoping to use your computer to customize and enhance your images. Paint.NET is a freeware graphics editing program that allows you to manipulate photos and other image files in interesting ways. You can use the tools in Paint.NET to replace the background in one of your own photos with a new background image from a different source.

Open Paint.NET and select "Open" from the "File" menu. Locate the photo you wish to edit, highlight it and click "OK."

Click on the eraser tool from the "Tools" palette. Erase the background of your photo. Adjust the size of the eraser by clicking and holding the eraser icon and dragging the size selector.

Click on the "Layers" menu and select "New." Locate the "Layers" window in the bottom right hand of the main application screen and drag the new layer below the layer containing your photo.

Locate the image on your hard drive or online that contains the background you wish to use as the replacement for the original photo. Use the "CTRL+C" command to copy the image.

Return to the Paint.NET application, and highlight the blank layer that you dragged below the layer with the photo. Use the "CTRL+V" command to paste the background image behind the original photo. Click on the the pointer tool in the "Tools" palette to drag the background image into the correct location on your canvas. Use the "File" menu to "Save" the new image once the background is in the correct position.

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