Remove Elements From a Photo in Photoshop CS4

By Sean Duggan

If you’d like to download the images used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal use only.

Disappearing Act

Let’s face it: no matter how carefully you try to compose your image, in some photos there’s something in the shot that just has to go! In this tutorial, we’ll review some key techniques for removing elements from a photograph using cover-up layers and the new live brush preview for the Clone Stamp in Photoshop CS4.

1 [CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW]
The Clone Stamp and the Healing Brush are both great for retouching and, in some cases, removing smaller objects from an image. But for larger items, especially in areas of more complex detail, you often have to use another approach that involves copying sections of the background onto separate layers. In order for this technique to work, there needs to be enough “extra” background information that can serve as a patch to cover up the unwanted object. Both the Clone Stamp and the Healing Brush can be used to fine-tune rough edges after the main cover-up layers have been created.

2 [SELECT THE AREA TO BE COVERED]
In the image of the girl walking through rain puddles, our goal is to remove the white fence post. It’s a bit distracting and the image will be more pleasing without it. Fortunately, there’s plenty of background that we can use to cover the post. It’s also slightly out of focus, which will make it easier to blend over the post. Use the Lasso tool (L) with a 2-pixel Feather in the Options Bar to drag a loose selection around the fence post. It’s okay to have irregular edges, as this will help camouflage the cover-up. (Note: You can download this image from www.layersmagazine.com.)

3 [MOVE SELECTION TO GOOD DETAIL]
With the Lasso tool still active, click inside the selection, hold the Shift key down, and move the selection over to the left to an area of background detail that will provide good image information for covering up the fence post. The use of the Shift key will constrain the movement of the selection to keep it aligned horizontally with the original position. In some images, such as this one, this is not that critical, but in others it may be important to have precise alignment of the data you’ll be copying.

4 [CREATE THE COVER-UP LAYER]
To create the cover-up layer, choose Layer>New>Layer via Copy, or use the handy shortcut Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Select the Move tool (V) and, holding down the Shift key again to constrain the movement horizontally, move the new cover-up layer back to the right until it covers the fence post. So far, so good. Now we need to zoom in for a closer look, adjust the positioning so that the fence wire matches up as well as possible, and touch up other areas with the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush.

5 [FINE-TUNE THE LAYER ALIGNMENT]
Double-click the Zoom tool to view the image at 100% (you can also choose View>Actual Pixels). It’s clear that the fence wire does not line up perfectly in some areas. Make the Move tool active (V), and use the Arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge the layer in 1-pixel increments until the wire mesh is better aligned.

6 [ADD LAYER MASK TO REFINE EDGE]
With the cover-up layer active, click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel (it’s the third icon from the left). Choose the Brush tool (B), press D to set the default colors, and then X to exchange them to place black in the Foreground color swatch. In the Brush Picker in the Options Bar, choose a 45-pixel, soft-edged brush. Double-check to make sure the layer mask is active. Now check for any hard, obvious edges on the cover-up layer and brush over them to add black to those areas of the layer mask and hide or soften those edges.

7 [CHECK FOR REPEATING ELEMENTS]
The cover-up layer is now working quite nicely; however, because we copied a section of the background, we now need to double-check to see if there are noticeable repeating elements. In this case, there are¬ some grass patterns at the base of the fence that are obviously the same in two places. This needs to be retouched to hide the fact that it’s the same chunk of grass. You can choose to retouch either the cover-up layer or the original place from where the data was copied. For this example, let’s retouch the cover-up layer. Click the layer thumbnail to make it active instead of the layer mask.

8 [RETOUCH REPEATED ELEMENTS WITH CLONE STAMP]
Choose the Clone Stamp tool (S), set the Sample drop-down menu to Current & Below in the Options Bar, and Option-click (PC: Alt-click) to sample some of the dark green grass. Now retouch the lighter yellow strands of grass to hide the fact that it’s the same image information as elsewhere in the image. In Photoshop CS4 the Clone Stamp cursor will show you a preview of the data that you’ll be stamping, which makes it very easy to correctly align the data you’re cloning with existing image information. For this photo this is not that critical due to the slightly out-of-focus background.

9 [REMOVE OTHER ELEMENTS]
As a final step you can use the Clone Stamp tool to remove the short white pipe near the upper center of the image. Keep the cover-up layer active so the retouching can be added to this layer and separate from the Background layer. Because the Sample drop-down menu is still set to Current & Below in the Options Bar, you’ll be able to clone the information from the Background layer to the cover-up layer.

10 [SHOOTING TIPS]
So the key is to look for background detail that can be copied onto cover-up layers. When photographing, if you notice something that needs to be taken out, be sure to take extra shots containing good source material that can be used for a cover-up. For wedding group shots, take a shot of the background with no one in front of it. That way you can use it as source material in case someone needs to be removed from the group (hey, it happens!)

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Dealzmodo Hacks: 8 Ways To Get More Miles Out Of Your Old PC

By John Mahoney

Before you drop the dough on a whole new system, here's a list of upgrades for squeezing a few more months, years even, out of ol' faithful, during these trying economic times.

If your Windows PC is seriously Dark Ages material, you might want to try converting it into something altogether different, like an NAS or media center. But stick around here if you're riding that thin line between acceptable day-to-day use and the scrap heap and try these quick and cheap upgrades first.

1. Reinstall Your OS
Over the years, operating systems inevitably pick up random pieces of clutter that start hogging your limited resources and bring your system to its knees. Forget spyware and malware cleaners—they're often just as guilty of mucking up your machine.

No, the best way to start fresh is of course to reinstall Windows. It's a pain, but thankfully there are a number of tools that will make the process easier.

• nLite and vLite for XP and Vista respectively are great tools for not only automating a large chunk of the reinstall process, but also for slimming down and customizing the installation to make sure you have a version of Windows that's optimized for your old hardware

• Kevin from Lifehacker also has a great guide for slipstreaming XP Service Pack 3 onto a custom install disc so you can avoid hundreds of Windows Update downloads after you reinstall using the older XP disc you probably have lying around.

• There are a ton of tools to help back up your data before a reinstall, but an easy no-brainer (especially if things have gotten so bad that you can't boot) is to boot with a Linux live CD like Ubuntu and move your files from your Windows volume to an external drive before wiping it.

2. Buy a New Graphics Card
A huuuuge part of what we humans perceive as slowness while using a computer are delays and hang-ups in the graphical UI—something that doubling or quadrupling your available video memory and beefing up your GPU rendering muscle will go a long way in alleviating. Graphics cards are super cheap these days, so think about dropping $100 or less on a new video card for your system and see where that gets you before going full monty on the replacement. As you probably well know, Newegg is the place for cheap hardware—for $150 or less you can do very well with a variation on the solid Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 4850.

3. Max Our Your RAM
Many of you may be saying "duhhh" here but this can't be more of an important point—if you haven't maxed out your RAM yet, do it. Now. Just like graphics cards, RAM is super cheap, especially if you're running a common motherboard configuration. So head to Crucial or OWC, have it scan your system, and price out some new RAM sticks for you. Remember—matched pairs (in terms of size) are always faster than unmatched, and to taste every last bit of a 4GB upgrade, you'll need a 64-bit OS.

4. Get a Bigger Display
This one is more of head game than an actual upgrade, but I swear, every time I hook my laptop up to the big 22" widescreen monitor here in the office, my machine feels about a year or two faster. Something about having more screen real estate just helps. Plus, once you do finally get a brand new screamer, you can just swap it right over. Cheap LCDs are our daily Dealzmodo Roundups bread and butter, so keep an eye out there for a good bargain on a decent brand.

5. Get a Bigger, Faster Hard Drive
You can never have too much storage. So abiding by this rule, a few bucks spent on a new HD will at the very least free up more space for virtual memory on your boot volume. You could also look at a 10,000RPM drive for a desktop or a 7,200RPM drive for your laptop, which will undoubtedly be faster than your stock drive. Don't worry so much about your new HDD's cache size so long as its at least 8MB (which is common), as anything higher tends to offer diminishing returns. For everything else you'd want to know and more about getting a new hard drive, check out yesterday's Giz Explains on HDDs.

6. Optimize Your Boot Time
Another psychological downer is waiting 5 minutes for your machine to boot. Again, Lifehacker to the rescue: Less than a month ago, Gina published a complete guide to streamlining your Windows startup speed—make that your first stop.

7. Clean Out Your Browser
Your web browser is where you spend most of your time—and just like Windows, Firefox can get bogged down in bloat. If you have a ton of extensions installed that you never use, disable or remove them. You can also dive into the world of about:config and follow the numerous guides to tweaking FF's guts for more speed. Opinions on whether these are real or placebo is mixed, but even so, there are a lot of cool things you can do.

You can also make the leap to Firefox 3.1 (still in beta) with its drastically sped-up TraceMonkey rendering engine. Here is a guide for safely playing with the Firefox 3.1 beta without touching your Firefox 3 profile.

And if you're using Internet Explorer, um, stop it.

8. Ditch Windows Entirely
If things are really dire (on the money or performance front, or both) you might want to think about making a switch to Linux—especially if your main PC usage entails not much more than your typical web browsing, emailing, IMing and media playing/managing. There are a million and half tutorials out there for switching to Linux (Ubuntu's own is pretty good), which will almost certainly run considerably faster on your hardware than Windows does.

Special thanks to the Lifehacker folks for just doing what you're doing.

Dealzmodo Hacks are intended to help you sustain your crippling gadget addiction through tighter times. If you come across any on your own that are particularly useful, send it to our tips line (Subject: Dealzmodo Hack). Check back every Thursday for free DIY tricks to breathe new life into hardware that you already own.

50 Excellent Digital Photography Photoshop Tutorials

Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for digital-image editing and graphics creation. Photoshop’s versatility makes it a popular choice among Web designers, graphic designers, digital media artists, print designers, photographers and other professionals in design and image-editing. Whether you’re designing a business card or website or digitally enhancing an image, you can rest assured that Photoshop will give you the necessary tools to get the job done.

In this article, we focus on tutorials on digital photography. You’ll find an assortment of top-notch tutorials that deal with applying post-production techniques and effects, color correction, enhancement and photo retouching. So fire up Photoshop and try out some of these wonderful tutorials on your own photos!

Without further ado, we present you with 50 Excellent Photoshop Tutorials for Digital Photography.

Photo Effects

HDR-Style Results Using Layers in Photoshop
Learn how to achieve HDR results in Photoshop using bracketed exposures during the production process and then Photoshop layers afterwards.

How to Create Professional HDR Images
Here’s an excellent (and very popular) tutorial on creating high dynamic range (HDR) images; the author focuses on realism instead of going overboard with the application of HDR.

Photoshop HDR tutorial
This tutorial shows you how to create true HDR using bracketed exposure and Photoshop for post-production.

Using the HDR Feature in Photoshop CS2/CS3
This thorough tutorial walks you through the basic concept of HDR photography and how to use Photoshop to make your photographs pop.

How to Make Digital Photos Look like Lomo Photography
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to apply the “lomography” effect to your digital photos.

Infrared Photo Effect in Photoshop
This tutorial shows you a way to simulate the infrared effect with photos taken using point-and-shoot cameras.

Exposure blending tutorial
Create an HDR photo by blending exposures with this Photoshop tutorial.

Your photos, 300-style!
Give photographs the sepia-toned 300 movie effect.

How to Use Photoshop’s Lens Blur Tool for Tilt-Shift Fakery
Tilt-shift lenses are expensive and not very versatile. Save some money by checking out this Photoshop tutorial on how to fake tilt-shift photography.

Tilt Shift Photoshop Tutorial: How to Make Fake Miniature Scenes
Here’s another method for faking tilt-shift photography.

The Tilt-Shift Miniature Fake Technique
This tutorial walks you through the basics of picking a subject for the tilt-shift effect and using Photoshop’s blur and gradient tools to fake it.

Vignette 2.0
Give your photos a natural-looking vignette effect by following along in this Photoshop tutorial.

Adding a Diffuse Glow to Your Images
Apply diffuse glow to your photographs to create a dreamy effect with this Photoshop tutorial.

Image Enhancement and Correction

Improving Landscape Photographs
Enhance your landscape images by reading through this Photoshop tutorial.

Using Masks to Improve Landscape Images
Use the masking feature in Photoshop to improve your landscape images.

Color Correction, by the Numbers
Use CMYK values (obtained with the eyedropper tool in Photoshop) to correct colors in a photograph.

Color Correction Using Levels and Eyedroppers
In this Photoshop tutorial, you’ll see another method of correcting colors by using the levels-adjustment feature and by sampling colors with the eyedropper tool.

Enhance Your Image with Selective Color Adjustments
This tutorial uses a “non-destructive” and selective method for enhancing colors in a photograph.

Black and White Is the Key to Better Color
Temporarily convert your image to black and white to improve color enhancement methods in Photoshop.

Understanding Local Contrast Enhancement
This excellent Photoshop tutorial explains local contrast enhancement and a method for using the unsharp mask feature.

Local Contrast Enhancement
Learn the theory behind local contrast enhancement and learn a practical way of applying the method to enhance images.

Sharpening Using an Unsharp Mask
Learn the concept behind the unsharp mask feature in Photoshop to sharpen photographs.

Sharpen Those Photos: Unsharp Mask
This tutorial shares a brief history of traditional photo sharpening techniques and how to sharpen images digitally in Photoshop.

Noise Reduction by Image Averaging
Reduce image noise in Photoshop by following this in-depth tutorial.

Using the Photoshop Levels Tool
This tutorial discusses the concept behind Photoshop’s levels tool, as well as how to use it effectively to enhance photographs.

Using the Photoshop Curves Tool
In this Photoshop tutorial, you’ll learn about the curves tool in Photoshop and how to use it to improve photographs.

Advanced Photo Sharpening
This Photoshop tutorial shares a more complex method for sharpening photos using a variety of techniques such as using filters and setting threshold adjustments.

Controlled Image Sharpening
Learn another method of controlled image sharpening via this Photoshop tutorial.

Digital Blending
Learn how to enhance dynamic range by reading through this excellent Photoshop tutorial.

Gaussian Blur
Learn how to use Gaussian blur to enhance and soften photographs in Photoshop.

Lens Correction Filter in Photoshop CS2
Learn about the lens correction filter in Photoshop to fix image distortions.

Photo Manipulation and Retouching

Add Dynamic Lighting to a Flat Photograph
Add dynamic lighting to a photograph to make it pop in this Photoshop tutorial.

Getting a Grip on the Vanishing Point Filter
Learn how to use Photoshop’s vanishing point filter to extend certain areas in the photograph.

How to Stitch Photos in Photoshop
Learn a method of stitching together two photographs using Photoshop.

Super-Fast and Easy Facial Retouching
In this tutorial, you’ll learn a method for hassle-free and speedy facial retouching.

Quick and Effective Facial Photo Retouching
Here’s another method for quick and easy facial retouching.

Four Easy Photoshop Techniques to Make Your Pictures Pop!
This tutorial shares four simple but effective Photoshop techniques for isolating a subject.

Awesome Photo-Realistic Coloring Techniques
Learn the basics of coloring techniques via a practical example (coloring the hair of a black-and-white photograph) in this wonderful Photoshop tutorial.

Removing Objects From Photos
Learn the basics of removing objects you don’t want to be seen in your photographs by following along in this Photoshop tutorial.

Black and White with a Splash of Color
In this tutorial, you’ll see a method for the selective coloring of a black-and-white photo.

Hand-Colouring a Black-and-White Photo in Photoshop
Learn a method of manually coloring a black-and-white photo in Photoshop.

Converting a Digital Color Photo to Black and White
Here is another effective method of converting colored photographs to black and white.

Colour to Black and White Using Channel Mixer
Convert photos from color to black and white using Photoshop’s channel mixer.

Quick Fix for Cluttered Backgrounds
Cluttered backgrounds can be a distraction from the photo’s subject. Here’s an introductory-level tutorial on reducing visual clutter in the background of a photograph.

Antiquing Digital Images in Photoshop
You don’t have to wait decades for your photographs to fade in color; simulate the effect using Photoshop.

Change Hair Color Photoshop Tutorial
Learn a method of retouching a subject’s hair color via this excellent Photoshop tutorial.

Creating a Sunset Effect in Photoshop Tutorial
Give photographs taken in the middle of the day a sunset effect by following along in this Photoshop tutorial.

Photo Retouching: Spotlight Effect
In this Photoshop tutorial, you’ll learn how to highlight parts of a subject by giving the area a digitally placed, but natural-looking, spotlight.

Image Retouching: Advanced Skin Softening
Learn a method of removing skin blemishes by softening the skin using the surface blur filter in Photoshop.

Nesting Smart Objects for Multi-Mask Effects in Photoshop
Learn all about nesting smart objects in Photoshop to smoothen and sharpen details in a photo.

About the Author

Jacob Gube is a Web developer/designer and author of Six Revisions, a blog on Web development and design. If you want to connect with the author, you can follow him on Twitter.

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