Editing pictures to remove unwanted stuff. What features would you use?

[atikovi]

I'm using a 15 or 20 year old version of ArcSoft Photostudio 5.5 that came with some forgotten piece of hardware, maybe a discarded scanner I once had. I use it most to remove distracting background features and I don't want in the photo. The most frequent function I use is the clone to cover up the offending feature by copying the good part of the photo surrounding it and covering over with that. Example is this bungee cord hook I used to move the wire harness out of the way when I took a photo of changing the coolant from the block drain plug.

Before:

After:

To remove the hook from the picture I used the clone function. Took a few minutes and wasn't perfect but got the job done. Are there any easier ways this could have been done with more modern software with just a few clicks?

 

[AZjeff]

That's a good job with the clone tool, nobody is going to notice it's not perfect. I used the clone tool a bunch when I was doing photography professionally but it was a while ago and I haven't kept up. Keep doing what you're doing, you're familiar with it and getting results. That would take a couple of minutes tops with the Photoshop edition I was using.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Well done. For something that small I think you are better off going manually with clone. I think photoshop has an advanced too for blending in backgrounds as does gimp with a plugin.

 

[vavavroom]

Desaturate to make bloodstains less obvious.

 

[wkcars]

Gimp clone tool would do that as well

 

[bunnspecial]

I think that if your goal is to just remove distractions, you've got it already. If you want to get rid of the obvious editing hallmarks, what you've done is probably 90% of the way there.

If I were working in Photoshop(I'm not a Photoshop master by any means but can poke around and usually accomplish what I'm trying) my go-to tool is generally the spot healing brush. This basically interpolates from the surrounding area to "blend in" and get rid of a certain elements. When I'm working with a scan, for example, and I have a dust spot, a single click of the spot healing brush over the spot will make it go away(larger ones need to use the brush to "massage" out the spot).

If that didn't give me the result I wanted, I'd probably mask off the area of interest, duplicate it into a separate layer, then use the clone stamp to again "massage out" the distracting element. You can then take the layer where cloned it and adjust the transparency and how "hard" the edges are to make the blending a bit more smooth.

I think you can get a 2 week trial of Photoshop now, so if you wanted to play with it you can try it(just be sure you cancel before the 2 weeks is up!).

A lot of the free programs have similar functionality. In many cases the button clicks/way of thinking about it may be different than in PS but the ultimate result is the same.

To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that I want Lightroom and it does 99% of what I need, I'd probably drop my Photoshop subscription(the two programs are now inseparable) and just use something like Gimp for when Lightroom doesn't get there for me. Since I'm going to get it anyway, I use PS as I don't have to relearn how to get around and do things in a different program and it does make lossless transfers between PS and LR pretty much seamless.

 

[Owen Lucas]

I think that if your goal is to just remove distractions, you've got it already. If you want to get rid of the obvious editing hallmarks, what you've done is probably 90% of the way there.

If I were working in Photoshop(I'm not a Photoshop master by any means but can poke around and usually accomplish what I'm trying) my go-to tool is generally the spot healing brush. This basically interpolates from the surrounding area to "blend in" and get rid of a certain elements. When I'm working with a scan, for example, and I have a dust spot, a single click of the spot healing brush over the spot will make it go away(larger ones need to use the brush to "massage" out the spot).

If that didn't give me the result I wanted, I'd probably mask off the area of interest, duplicate it into a separate layer, then use the clone stamp to again "massage out" the distracting element. You can then take the layer where cloned it and adjust the transparency and how "hard" the edges are to make the blending a bit more smooth.

I think you can get a 2 week trial of Photoshop now, so if you wanted to play with it you can try it(just be sure you cancel before the 2 weeks is up!).

A lot of the free programs have similar functionality. In many cases the button clicks/way of thinking about it may be different than in PS but the ultimate result is the same.

To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that I want Lightroom and it does 99% of what I need, I'd probably drop my Photoshop subscription(the two programs are now inseparable) and just use something like Gimp for when Lightroom doesn't get there for me. Since I'm going to get it anyway, I use PS as I don't have to relearn how to get around and do things in a different program and it does make lossless transfers between PS and LR pretty much seamless.

You cam get a Photoshop subscription for $20 if you are attending college classes. I don't think you even have to be full time, verification is via .edu email.

 

[bunnspecial]

You cam get a Photoshop subscription for $20 if you are attending college classes. I don't think you even have to be full time, verification is via .edu email.

I am a college professor and pay the .edu price. It's $20/month for the full CC suite(not just LR and PS but all of the other Adobe software).

For $10/month anyone(whether edu or not) can buy the "Photographer's Plan" that's just Lightroom and Photoshop. There's also a Photoshop only plan that gets you more cloud storage(not relevant to me since I store locally).

Still, though, this stuff does add up if you're paying $20/month. I wouldn't do it if I didn't see value to having the software.