Photoshop: Removing the white background

A stumbling block which I ran into was how do I remove the white background from images and logos to use them on my digipak. After checking out a number of videos I stumbled across how to do it properly. It was difficult at first but I know have the hang of it.

Here is the Columbia Records logo, which unfortunately came with the white background surrounding it. Putting it on the album cover like this wouldn't be a big deal but its the small details which help sell albums. Central to this method is the 'magic wand' tool which looks like this.

It allows you to highlight the outer white background of the image to make it a transparent layer in a few simple steps.

- First you delayer the image from the background like so:

- You then open up a new layer and put the image right at the top of the layer list.

- From here you select your magic wand tool and click on the white background which will highlight every thing around the image like this:

- From here you press delete and the logo should be left on a transparent background waiting to be added to  the digipak:

Without the white background it looks far more presentable.