Removal of Unwanted Object

canon400d

I took this family photo and as you will see there is another persons shoulder on the left hand side. I use Photoshop CS3 although I am quite familiar with a number of tools I have tried everything to remove this object. I would appreciate it so much if anyone can tell me the technique and the tool to use to carry out this process.
Regards
Bob

pyrtek

This technique will work on the original much better than on the small file you posted.

1) Select the shoulder you want to keep:





2) Select -> Save selection (name it "shoulder", for example)

3) Select the upper left corner of the image:





4) Drop that selection onto its own layer (Ctrl - J) and hit Ctrl - T for the transform tool.

5) Drag the bottom of the selection until it covers the entire image from top
to bottom:





6) Hit Enter to make the transformation stick.

7) Select -> Load selection (make sure "shoulder" is selected in the drop down list).





8) Select -> Invert selection (or Shift - Ctrl - I):





9) Hit the add mask button in the layers palette. This will create a mask
from your current selection.

10) Paint with black on the mask to refine it. In this case I had to paint over
the seam above the man's shoulder.


Final image:

pyrtek

Sorry, I forgot to add that the initial selection of the man's shoulder was done
with the Magnetic Lasso tool. Very easy selection, in this case.

Scott_Quier

WOW - that's amazingly simple (I like simple ) but a technique I would never have thought of! I'm going to make a note of this thread and study it later today (or this week)!

canon400d

Scott_Quier wrote:

WOW - that's amazingly simple (I like simple ) but a technique I would never have thought of! I'm going to make a note of this thread and study it later today (or this week)!

Thanks ever so much. What a wonderful job you have made. I will have to study this well, before I will be able to do it, but I am sure I will get there I am off to have a go.
Regards
Bob

BinaryFx

Prytek, thanks so much for putting up that tutorial.

For those interested, I would like to add a point on general retouching and also colour correction. When dealing with a better original, one would face fewer JPEG compression issues.

Before the healing tools, retouching originals with texture, grain and noise was often a difficult task. One common method to unify the original and the retouching was to use a small amount of noise to blend the two together (in only the retouching or in the combined image, just enough to be barely perceptable in the original image).

One can go a bit deeper than simply adding noise to the original or duplicated image pixels and when retouching CMYK originals there are further considerations to factor in. More can be found in a short how to guide at my website "Smart Noise":

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/howto_smartnoise.html

Of course, one may prefer to smooth the original before or after retouching, instead of adding noise (or to reduce the amount of noise required). Or one may smooth the added noise in the background to achive a smoother unification with a slightly different character to smoothing before retouching.

There are many ways to reduce the red in a face, I prefer the channel mixer over the saturation command, so I mixed 85r 15g in the red channel to tone down the saturation a bit. I did not mask the global edit into the face (the red channel would have made a good start for a mask for this), which is why the background has changed hue (a quick rough sample attached - original image on the left, example image on the right).

P.S. I would also do some retouching to reduce the reflections with the clone tool with the layer set to darken blend mode at say 66% opacity for starters (darken and lighten blend modes are excellent for retouching, as are color and luminosity blend modes, which all separate aspects of colour from each other which can facilitate retouching with the clone stamp, healing or other methods).


Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

canon400d

BinaryFx wrote:

Prytek, thanks so much for putting up that tutorial.

For those interested, I would like to add a point on general retouching and also colour correction. When dealing with a better original, one would face fewer JPEG compression issues.

Before the healing tools, retouching originals with texture, grain and noise was often a difficult task. One common method to unify the original and the retouching was to use a small amount of noise to blend the two together (in only the retouching or in the combined image, just enough to be barely perceptable in the original image).

One can go a bit deeper than simply adding noise to the original or duplicated image pixels and when retouching CMYK originals there are further considerations to factor in. More can be found in a short how to guide at my website "Smart Noise":

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/howto_smartnoise.html

Of course, one may prefer to smooth the original before or after retouching, instead of adding noise (or to reduce the amount of noise required). Or one may smooth the added noise in the background to achive a smoother unification with a slightly different character to smoothing before retouching.

There are many ways to reduce the red in a face, I prefer the channel mixer over the saturation command, so I mixed 85r 15g in the red channel to tone down the saturation a bit. I did not mask the global edit into the face (the red channel would have made a good start for a mask for this), which is why the background has changed hue (a quick rough sample attached - original image on the left, example image on the right).


Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

I have managed ok up to Item 7. Select -> Load selection (make sure "shoulder" is selected in the drop down list).
Can you please tell me where to go to find the Load selection and the drop down list.
Yes Stephen the complexion is much more natural but I am taking one hurdle at a time. Thanks for all the help you have given.
Regards
Bob

pyrtek

canon400d wrote:

I have managed ok up to Item 7.

Then the hard part's over!

canon400d wrote:

Select -> Load selection (make sure "shoulder" is selected in the drop down list).
Can you please tell me where to go to find the Load selection and the drop down list.

When you choose Select -> Load selection the Load selection dialog box will
appear. In it, there are two drop-down lists: Document and Channel. Channel
will most likely say something like "Layer 1 Transparency". You don't want that.
You want to expand the list and choose "shoulder".

aktse

Wow.

I would have never thought of that! Thank you so much for the detailed instructions!

canon400d

pyrtek wrote:

Then the hard part's over!

After I painted the shoulder I wanted to keep the original one which I wanted rid of reappeared.
Regards
Bob

pyrtek

canon400d wrote:

After I hit Select and Invert or Shift Control - 1 I get a small dialogue saying ' there are no pixels added' I have hit the Vector mask button ( if this is the right one) in the layers palette and the same small dialogue appears. I still haven't been able to get the outline of the magnetic Lasso tool to reappear. Does this reappear after after the mask has been created.

No, it has to appear before the mask is created, because it is what the
mask is based on. I think you might be mixing up the order of the steps. Look
at the screenshot after step 7 or step 8. Does your layers palette look the same
as mine?

canon400d

pyrtek wrote:

No, it has to appear before the mask is created, because it is what the
mask is based on. I think you might be mixing up the order of the steps. Look
at the screenshot after step 7 or step 8. Does your layers palette look the same
as mine?

No Bernard my layers palette is half the size of yours. At the top of mine reads Layersx, Channels and Paths. I think I am almost there Bernard if I could get my layers palette to extend like yours as I am making too many layers.
Bob

pyrtek

I didn't mean the size of the palette. I meant - do you have two layers in it:
one named "Background" with the original image and one named "Layer 1" with
the transformed fragment of the background which we created in steps 3 - 5?

canon400d

pyrtek wrote:

I didn't mean the size of the palette. I meant - do you have two layers in it:
one named "Background" with the original image and one named "Layer 1" with
the transformed fragment of the background which we created in steps 3 - 5?

Yes I have those two layers. I have just had another go and I think I have mastered it believe it or not. However, at the finish when I was painting the mask in with black I keep going over the outline and creating a black mark in the background. However, I suppose I can use other tools to get rid of that. Finally can I ask you what I click on to make my layers palette the same size as yours with the Navigator and also the histogram at the top. I explained in my last reply what was at the top of my layers palette. You have done a really first class job Bernard and I am sure there will be a vast number of people who will appreciate it. I am only learning and I apologise for not catching on like the others.
Regards
Bob

pyrtek

canon400d wrote:

However, at the finish when I was painting the mask in with black I keep going over the outline and creating a black mark in the background. However, I suppose I can use other tools to get rid of that.

Can you post a screenshot? I'm not sure what you mean. There shouldn't
be any black marks at this stage.

canon400d wrote:

Finally can I ask you what I click on to make my layers palette the same size as yours with the Navigator and also the histogram at the top. I explained in my last reply what was at the top of my layers palette.

To change the size of the layers palette you simply have to drag the top of
it up or down. If you are missing windows in the tool stack just go to the
Window menu, choose the window you are missing (for example Histogram),
then drag and drop it wherever you need it in your tools stack. Play around
with it. It's all drag-and-drop. If you don't figure it out, just PM me and I'll
walk you through it more specifically.

canon400d wrote:

You have done a really first class job Bernard and I am sure there will be a vast number of people who will appreciate it. I am only learning and I apologise for not catching on like the others.

Don't be silly. This is the Finishing School. We're all here to learn.

canon400d

pyrtek wrote:

Can you post a screenshot? I'm not sure what you mean. There shouldn't
be any black marks at this stage.






To change the size of the layers palette you simply have to drag the top of
it up or down. If you are missing windows in the tool stack just go to the
Window menu, choose the window you are missing (for example Histogram),
then drag and drop it wherever you need it in your tools stack. Play around
with it. It's all drag-and-drop. If you don't figure it out, just PM me and I'll
walk you through it more specifically.




Don't be silly. This is the Finishing School. We're all here to learn.

Thanks for those reassuring words Bernard. I have posted my photo and you will now see what I mean by the black marks on the outline and also you can just see a verticle line too.
Regards
Bob

pyrtek

It looks to me like your initial selection of the shoulder was not perfect. Try
that step again and make sure that your selection looks at least somewhat
similar to mine. Also, the vertical line on the left edge looks suspicious. It seems
that you moved Layer 1 at some stage or that your selection in step 3
didn't start at the edge of the photo, but a little bit in.

canon400d

pyrtek wrote:

It looks to me like your initial selection of the shoulder was not perfect. Try
that step again and make sure that your selection looks at least somewhat
similar to mine. Also, the vertical line on the left edge looks suspicious. It seems
that you moved Layer 1 at some stage or that your selection in step 3
didn't start at the edge of the photo, but a little bit in.

Thanks Bernard I will have a few more attempts, at least I know I am on the right track. I have also been able to drag and drop the navigator and histogram etc.
Regards
Bob