Removing backgrounds from glass and transparent products

Standard background removal treats every pixel as either subject or background. That works for opaque subjects, but it falls apart on clear glass, transparent plastic, acrylic displays, and liquid in bottles. The model has to choose between making the glass fully opaque (which kills the see-through quality) or fully transparent (which removes the product entirely).

Glass / plastic mode solves this by preserving partial alpha through clear materials.

When to use Glass mode

Turn it on for:

• Jewellery — clear gemstones, glass beads, faceted crystals
• Drinkware — wine glasses, tumblers, coffee mugs, water bottles
• Cosmetics — perfume bottles, clear lotion bottles, lipgloss tubes
• Packaging — clear blister packs, plastic clamshells, acrylic display cases
• Eyewear — glasses lenses, transparent frames
• Tech accessories — clear phone cases, screen protectors

Leave it off for opaque subjects (clothing, food, electronics with solid casings) — the default mode produces cleaner edges in those cases.

How to enable it

On the homepage upload zone: check the "Glass / plastic mode" box before uploading.

In the editor: open the "AI Background Removal" panel in the right sidebar and toggle the Glass mode option, then click "Best Quality" or "Clean Edges".

Via the AI assistant: type glass mode or enable transparent mode in the AI panel.

What it actually does

Glass mode adds a post-processing pass after the AI model runs:

1. Lab ΔE background detection — samples the background colour from fully-transparent pixels at the image border.
2. Specular preservation — keeps bright reflections and highlights on the glass surface at full alpha so the product still looks like glass.
3. Partial alpha smoothing — pixels inside the glass body (where background colour shows through) get reduced alpha proportional to how close they are to the sampled background. Subject colour is preserved.
4. Edge protection — the rim and edges of the glass stay sharp; only the body softens.

Tips for best results

• Shoot against a plain background if possible — single-colour backdrops (white, light grey, soft blue) give the cleanest results because the Lab ΔE detection is more accurate.
• Avoid busy backgrounds behind glass — if the background has high frequency content (text, patterns), Glass mode can't separate it from the glass body.
• Combine with Best Quality for the most accurate cutout — Fast mode works but Best Quality has sharper internal mask edges that Glass mode then refines.
• Refine after — the in-editor "Clean Edges" button now includes the same fringe decontamination, so a single click can tidy up any remaining background spill.

Limitations

• Coloured glass (cobalt blue, amber) — works, but tinted highlights may get partially removed if they match the background colour closely.
• Liquid in clear bottles — the liquid itself is preserved correctly, but the empty top of the bottle (above the liquid line) is treated as glass and gets partial alpha.
• Frosted glass — depending on opacity, may not need Glass mode at all. Try default first; switch to Glass mode if too much detail is lost.