How to cover something up in a photo using Photoshop?

Question

I took this really great photo and I didn't notice it at the time but someone's arm is sticking into the image. It's really distracting and I want to cover it up. The arm is over a concrete bench and it can easily be hidden. I think someone once told me I can "copy" something on an image and then paste it over whatever I want to cover up. I have Photoshop at work and I never use it. I would appreciate some detailed steps on how I can do this (FYI - I know very little about PS so please be specific). Thank you.

Answer 1

There's lots of way do to this. As you probably guessed, which for some reason a lot of people cannot grasp, is that you cannot simply erase the arm, you have to replace it with something.



Photoshop has a great tool called the Content Aware Fill Tool - http://katemarieldizon.blogspot.com/2010/07/content-aware-fill-photoshop-cs5.html - it's not perfect for a lot of things but it is good at what it can do. This is not available in CS3, but there are other things you can do.



Another method is to copy another part of the image then use the color adjustment tools to blend it in with what's already there.



Another method, which can be a bit gross is the clone stamp tool which can do some amazing things, way past the basics - http://designm.ag/resources/photoshop-clone-stamp-tool/



Here's something I did myself similar to what you want to do. I made a mistake though and made it a little obvious when I copied the coat buttons that they were clones - http://brisray.com/test/rebecca/rebecca.htm

Answer 2

Do you have PS CS5? If so, us the lasso tool (press l) and then make a selection around the area you want to get rid of. Then right click what you selected and choose "fill". When the dialog box appears, click on "color" under contents, and select "content aware fill." This will replace this part with the background.



Another tool is the clone stamp tool (press s) and click alt on the area you want to replace the thing with (the concrete bench in this situation). Then go over the area you want to fix.

Answer 3

Crop out the part of the photos you want; that is everything but the date. It might not be possible on all the photos so you could also clone a color from another area of the picture and cover the date. This isn't easy most of the time but it is a learning experience.

Answer 4

No questions asked, the best site for Photoshop tutorials is: http://www.photoeditinglessons.com



All tutorials are in video format, which makes them easier for you to follow along with the instructor. The videos are interactive and very easy to follow, this will help you learn piano three times faster. Good Luck!