I've tried every AI tool that claims to fix photo backgrounds, but the results usually look like a rushed collage. After so many disappointments, I finally found one that doesn't leave me embarrassed to put my name on the result.
Stunning Backgrounds in Minutes
It's no exaggeration to say that Canva has made everyone a designer with its intuitive and easy-to-use tools. When I had a selection of tools, including Photoleap for AI photo editing, I decided to go with Canva mainly for its user-friendliness and ease of creating designs in various formats.
As a longtime Photoshop user, I've always relied on it for my photo editing. However, Canva's free version is a crucial part of my workflow, both as a photographer and an educator. When I heard about Canva's relight feature, I immediately tried it, and was pleasantly surprised with the results.
The background generator is available only in the pro version, which costs $12.99 monthly or about $120 annually.
Once you're in Canva, upload your photo and then go to the Edit section. Click on BG Generator, and add your prompt. The results aren't always perfect, so keep tweaking your prompts until you're satisfied.
Remember to be as specific as possible to get the desired result. At the same time, avoid asking for too many elements. For instance, when I added, "on a black plate on the beach," the generator ignored the plate and generated only the beach. The tool worked well with images on a clean white background. But, the results were less than ideal when I tried with photos having a cluttered background.
Note that this tool is meant for creating clean, professional-looking photos. So, start with a good quality photo, and you'll get a usable image. Avoid elaborate or funky prompts -- the aim is to keep the photos authentic and polished.
Canva's Relight Nails Lighting Every Time
This is the feature I was most excited about, and it didn't disappoint. It worked surprisingly well on my perfume bottle photo. Photos are two-dimensional, and they inherently appear flat. The highlights and shadows are what add depth and make them look three-dimensional and realistic. In many basic AI generators, the subject is simply cut off and placed on a new background, resulting in an artificial-looking image.
If you're not a pro, you may not be aware of white balance in photography, but it's one of the crucial things that photographers look for. Your images may have different color tints under different lighting. That's why we photographers use big soft boxes and studio strobes to make colors look as neutral as possible. I've always found that AI generators struggle to tweak colors properly. But Canva surprised me by matching the colors perfectly.
I photographed the perfume bottle in my walk-in closet, under daylight-balanced overhead lights. I did this to keep the colors neutral as much as possible. I then uploaded my unedited photo to Canva.
First, I generated a beach with golden sunlight streaming in the background. To the untrained eye, the result may look fine, but if you look closely, you'll notice the bottle is too white for the background. It seems as if the bottle was artificially pasted in. This is where Canva's Balanced Relight worked its magic. You can see it in the second photo. A gentle, warm tone is added to the bottle.
If you want backgrounds that blend seamlessly with your subject, then Canva's relight option is your best bet. The relight worked phenomenally well with a rainforest background I generated. Look how the green tint elevated the photo and made it blend in well with the colors in the scene.
You have two ranges to adjust the lighting: Balanced and Maximum Relight. The balanced option works well in most situations. If you have an extreme lighting situation, maximum relighting can help.
The key thing to remember is to take your photo under neutral lighting, like outdoors or near a window, preferably on a white background. It's better if you could use a basic studio lighting setup.
I placed my bottle on my textured sofa, but the generator couldn't remove my sofa's reflection from the bottle. So, attention to detail is crucial to getting the most out of the tool.
Canva's AI Tools Are Really Impressive
As we have seen in our examples above, Canva's BG Generator is a dream come true for small business owners who may not have the budget to hire a professional photographer for their product shoots. They don't have to limit themselves to using only bland, white background photos all the time. Nor do they need to buy different backgrounds and props for their photoshoots.
A professional photoshoot with studio lights, props, and expertise will cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Compared to that, Canva only costs a tiny fraction of that amount. If you're a small business owner, you can add this to your workflow to create fantastic product photos without much effort.
The tool can be beneficial even if you're not a business owner. Any creative can use this tool to bring their vision to life. You can use it as an interior designer to visualize the different furniture in a room. For example, my round dining table looks at home in a farmhouse setting.
Beyond products, I tried this with portrait photos, and the tool adjusts highlights and shadows very well in faces, too. You can use this for creating corporate headshots or lifestyle portraits.
Follow the same rules as product photos -- clean background, even lighting, and sharp focus.
But, They're Not Perfect
Although I'm sold on Canva's BG Generator, there is still scope for improvement. My main issue was the shadows. The shadows were almost always off. I tried different prompts, but nothing worked. So, I gave up and generated images with minimal shadows.
Take a look at my photo to see how the tool struggles to create a realistic shadow. I wish there was a way to adjust the direction and length of the shadow to make it look realistic. I've seen this feature in some of the other background generators.
The generator also struggles if there are multiple subjects, especially at different focus points. The subjects in the background, which are generally blurry, didn't blend seamlessly into the final image. For instance, in my earrings photo, the one in the background stands out from the rest of the elements.
I also wish I had the option to move and resize the background. I found that some of my close-up photos were taking up the whole scene. There was no way to resize the subject in relation to the background to get the right proportion. The resizing option could be a practical feature for photographers to have more control over the final results.
In addition, the relight option has only two levels. Having a slider with a range can be so helpful to fine-tune the lighting and colors. These are some features that could make a good background generator into an extraordinary one.
Overall, I'm impressed enough to recommend this excellent tool for photographers and creatives. Despite the challenges with shadows, multiple subjects, and proportion, Canva's BG Generator has great potential to speed up your workflow and help you achieve high-quality results. If you're not convinced yet, try the trial version for a month and test it yourself.
