Photo Retouching - - How to remove a distraction from a photo

Gerald McClaren · #1 06-20-2006, 02:23 AM

I have a photo of a family that was taken in a restaurant, however, on the lower left -hand corner there are two partial heads of two people sitting down at a table. The partial heads are a distraction in this picture. The partial heads are in the foreground of the picture.
I would like to delete those heads from the lower part of this picture like they were never there and leave the family picture intact.

Gerald McClaren

Ziaphra · #2 06-20-2006, 02:50 AM

You could clone them out...but it would be easier to advise if you posted the pic.

RokcetScientist · #3 06-20-2006, 06:29 AM

Please post a < 100KB image, Gerald.

Gerald McClaren · #4 06-20-2006, 10:58 AM

This is the photo of the family at the restaurant. The distractions of the heads are on the lower left.

Gerald McClaren

oltenius · #5 06-20-2006, 11:35 AM

Hm! I hope that is your problem... Duplicate the background layer, make a selection on the grandmother face (Lasso tool), copymerged and paste. Set the blending mode of the new layer to Linear Burn. You can play with Image/adjustments/color balance.
Regards

Daviskw · #6 06-20-2006, 01:13 PM

Hi Gerald

To reduce how much I needed to clone I moved the people slightly together. I did this by making selections, moving, then cloning the background where needed.

The picture is cropped to a standard 7 by 5 now.

I cloned what was left of the heads below, then found a pair of hands off the net. Copied and pasted and adjusted the luminosity of the hands. Then sampled skin color and painted on a blank layer to match skin tone. Not the best but I did not spend much time looking for matching hands ..lol. If you have other photos of the subjects, matching hands may be easier. Also cloned the poles out of peoples heads.

Butch

philbach · #7 06-20-2006, 01:17 PM

Well the lower left hand portion of the photo is quite dark. So I just cloned the dark suits down over the top of the faces. I also cloned out the hand holding the boys right arm on the right edge of the photo

I placed a layer on top of the background layer and used the clone tool.

oltenius · #8 06-20-2006, 04:28 PM

Well, I dont understand!!! Why to delete the heads if you can improve the contrast, color, etc.? Cropping something is not a very well method in some cases, I think. But if you want that, I agree...

Daviskw · #9 06-20-2006, 05:10 PM

Hi Oltenius

I would just guess that the heads are out of focus and the people are not part of the family. When you look at the picture your eyes are drawn to them instead of the family. But most of all, the owner wants them gone.

Maybe it is just me but cropping is one of the first decisions in my workflow. Why work on a part of the image that is not needed.

Butch

oltenius · #10 06-20-2006, 05:25 PM

Thanks Daviskw, I understood... My error because I dont read the whole message. Sorry!

cinderella · #11 06-20-2006, 08:55 PM

Good solutions. BUt I find the lamp above the heads a distraction too. Could you blur it and the rest of the background above the heads of the family or clone it out???

Daviskw · #12 06-20-2006, 09:33 PM

Hi Cinderella

It is easy to clone and blur the background I think...with this picture a new background would be easy as well.

Butch

al_m · #13 06-24-2006, 04:03 AM

Hi,

I used my favorite retouching ps plugin to do that:

http://www.digital-photography-software.com/archives/16

It took me one minute to select the faces and wait until all is dome automatically. The plugin saved me life of time.

__
kind regards,
Al