How to Remove Anything from a Photo in Photoshop

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How to Remove Anything from a Photo in Photoshop

We have all taken photos that were close to perfect except for some object in the background. If given the chance it is always better to remove that object in person, it will take much less time than doing it in Photoshop and will look more natural. Sometimes however that is not an option; either you didn't see it or were not able to move it.

That is where Photoshop comes in! In this episode we show you how to remove objects from your photos to make your subject stand out more.

Selections Are the Key to Removing Objects

Often times the objects you want to remove are behind other objects. In this episode we remove a trashcan and a street sign, both of which are behind a lamp post and a stone seat. In order to remove the objects from the background we have to make a selection that keeps the lamp post and stone seat from being affected.

To make this selection we use the Pen Tool. It is one of the more complicated tools to use in Photoshop but it is well worth learning because of how powerful it is.

If you want to learn more about compositing and using the Pen Tool be sure to check out our

Your Friend, the Clone Stamp Tool

After your selection is made it is time to use any tools available to build the background. If you are lucky there will be plenty of area to sample from that looks like the area you need to cover.

Start out using the Clone Stamp Tool, it will duplicate a sampled area and can do most of the job for you providing you have an area to sample.

Sometimes you will have to remove and object and that means creating something "behind" that object from scratch. This is where the brush tool comes in.

When All Else Fails, Use the Brush Tool

The brush tool is incredibly powerful and shouldn't be overlooked when creating a new background. it may not have as much detail as the Clone Stamp Tool but you are not limited to sampling areas.

With the brush tool you can "paint" anything you can think of, including the background over top of an object you want to remove. This may sound really hard but using color samples from the surrounding image and a little creativity you would be amazed at what you can do.

In this example we completely remove a trash can from the image and paint the building and the sidewalk in behind it.


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Closed Caption:

today I'm going to show you how to
remove anything from a photo in
photoshop
hey guys and welcome to phlearn my name
is aaron nace and you can find me on the
floor . com where we make learning
photoshop & photography fun
we got a cool episode for you today its
total photoshop and what we're gonna do
we're gonna take something like huge
part of this image actually we're going
to completely remove it from the
background now you might be saying why
would you want to do that
well oftentimes you guys are gonna be
taking images and everything is great
like your subject looks great the
lighting is great everything is gonna be
someone in the background picking their
nose or like a kid with his pants pulled
down or we're just gonna be something in
the background that ruins your photo in
this case is a giant trash can right
beside our subject so what we're going
to do i'm gonna show you guys some
awesome techniques on removing these
objects for your background even when
they take up a large portion of your
image it's an awesome episode we're
getting into it right now
so here's our image for today this is
taken by Desmond young and it was
actually submitted into one of our
contest it's an awesome image
we've got a subject here she looks great
perfect expression on her face the
lighting is really nice i like the
background I don't buy the truck
we've got a giant trash can right next
to our subject and it's totally taking
away from our subjects like well I'd
like it if that trashcan wasn't there
but sometimes you can't move a trash can
or sometimes you notice these things
after the photos have already been taken
so that's what we're going to do in
Photoshop i'm going to show you guys
today
how to remove this so what we're
basically doing today i want to show you
guys
we're going to take all of this trashcan
we're going to completely remove this
trash can
all this is going to go away and while
we're at it i'm going to remove this
light post as well this over here and
then this little silver plaque i think
was part of the light posters
they're just connecting behind the other
post so all those things are going to go
away now to do this we're gonna have to
use some of our selection tools we're
going to have to use like clone seven
tools i will show you guys some really
cool things you can do as well with the
brush tool
so the first thing we need to do when
we're going to get rid of this trash can
let's just zoom in we can see the trash
can
it's it's kind of like it's behind some
things right with behind this concrete
block it's behind
the lamppost so why did you create a
nice selection that will actually not
interfere with this area in this area so
selections are huge part of removing
things from the background and in this
case because i know we're gonna have to
create some straight edges here we're
going to come down over here and then
I've got some curved edges here as well
and i need is to be super accurate
i'm going to use the pen tool I'm gonna
hit p for the pen tool
we're going to go ahead and start let's
go ahead and create a new layer here now
if you guys have any questions about
using the pen tool or any this looks too
difficult
check out our pro tutorial the
beginner's guide to composite goes
through all the stuff in a lot of detail
and you're going to learn a whole lot
about this type of compositing as well
as a lot more
all right let's go ahead and start here
i'm going to start by clicking in right
here and notice when i click and I'm
trying to stay right on the boundary of
the of the piece of concrete here
I'm not going to go up like this I'm
going to come right down there
there we go and that's just going to
make sure that whatever I do it's going
to be there we go
it's going to be selected right on the
edge and we're not going to see any of
the trashcan left there
all right we're going to come down here
and i'm going to even try to take care
of the shadow as well
there we go so that'd be nice for the
shadow
let's zoom in here and this time i can
just kind of like click there
I'm not going to get super detailed you
can spend a lot of time here for a curve
like this all you have to do is click
and drag and you can follow that curve
really easily
there we go and we'll just click and
drag up this way to follow the curve
down there and follow the curve up there
now you can use other selection tools
i'm using the pen tool right now because
it's one of my favorite tools for making
this type of selections because it's
extremely accurate and you can change
these selections
after you make them but if you guys
don't like the pencil you can check out
all the tools like the magnetic lasso
tool sometimes does a good job with the
sort of thing
or you can just try using even like a
polygonal lasso tool i wouldn't
recommend
there we go i wouldn't recommend free
forming this for free handing this
because we do have a lot of straight
lines and when you have straight lines
like this it's going to make it a lot
more difficult
alright so this is why I really really
recommend
the pen tool alright so let's click up
here and all the way up to the top or
click there and move that around
we also have other episodes here on the
floor , on using the pen tool so if you
want to check those out feel free to do
so and we'll leave something that you
did you add the description right down
below this on youtube so you can check
those out as well
ok so we're going to make that azz
selection so now that I've made this
area selection
what I can do like let's say we have
this i'm going to go just right clicking
here as they make selection and we're
going to find a feather that radius by
about . one pixels so now that i have
that selection
I can do anything that I want in this
election so if I grab my bread
paintbrush
you can see why it was important to
create that selection now because
anything that i put inside here is not
going to mess with this piece of
concrete and it's not going to mess with
that lamp post
so those things and we need to stay
intact and then we have the selection we
can go ahead and do anything we want
inside of that selection and now we're
going to use that to get rid of our
trash can
ok let's go ahead and undo that and i'm
on a new layer here we're going to start
off using the clone stamp tool so we've
got our selection
s for the clone stamp tool and we're
going to be using the clone stamp tool
quite a bit in this episode because it's
a really great tool for removing things
from the background
ok make sure you're on a new layer here
and I want to make sure we're sampling
current and below so it's sampling
anything that's on this layer or
anything below
all right and now it's time to get rid
of everything so I'm gonna hold s for
the clone it s for the content tool
alt or option two sample . and then I'm
gonna go over here and we're going to
just start painting now we recently
released an episode on using the clone
stamp tool it's an awesome episode you
can click on the screen now to check out
that episode and learn if you guys
aren't too familiar with using the clone
stamp tool
it's a really great episode on exactly
everything you need to know about the
concept tool
alright so what we're doing is basically
clone stamping over from here right over
on top of our trash can
now here in this area i'm gonna hold alt
or option for example this point and I'm
gonna go over here and i want to hold
the shift key which is going to give us
a little preview of where i'm actually
gonna paint and that's think the nice
thing about that preview is that I can
kind of like see visually how that
connects I know exactly where it's
actually going to be making my here we
go
it I know where it's going to be making
that line so i can see it very easily on
that preview
now you can use the clone stamp tool
here or I'm just you know right now I'm
gonna grab the brush tool because what
we've got here is just you know just a
bit of white right
it's just you know I I'm totally fine
just using a brush tool and painting
that away and we're going to be using
the brush tool even more in just a
little bit
all right especially if you just want to
work on getting all your base down with
the brush tool and then come over top of
this hit s for the clone stamp tool like
we're going to sample that and kind of
paint this in there a little bit more
there we go just make sure it looks like
it has a nice amount of detail
ok very cool so we've already taken care
of the bottom part of the trash can
which is actually the easiest part to do
and how we need to go ahead and take
care of this
so the easy part about this was we had
all this information over here
that looked pretty similar to what you
might expect we would look over here but
in this case I don't have blank sidewalk
like there's a truck here and there is
his car there and I don't have anything
else in my photo
so we need to kind of figure out how am
I going to actually get rid of this
trash can
so we're gonna start on what we do have
I know I've got some sidewalk so from
here to here
I want some sidewalk right so let's
create a new layer
i'm still using the same selection so
the selection will keep stay there is
until you d select so you can you a
million different layers you can still
use the same selection
so with this election i'm going to again
clone stamp tool we're going to hold alt
or option two sample right here and then
i'm going to hold down the shift key
which is going to allow me a little bit
of a preview
there we are and i'm just going to start
painting this in from the left side
there we go and then right over here i'm
going to run into a place where it hits
the pole
so what do i do there well i'm just
going to sample over here again we might
have a little bit of repetition going on
but I can totally fix that later not a
big deal
alright so we're going to start painting
there again there we are
ok cool looking good now i can just
start clone stamping from the bottom and
we would just go up a little bit or from
the right to the left
there we go ok now what does the rest of
this look like well to get kind of like
a blank canvas or sometimes when im just
looking at this and I don't know all the
little details that I needed to get rid
of what I'll do is I'll just grab the
brush tool I'm going to grab my brush
tool and on a new layer i'm just going
to grab this color that's here in the
background
okay so we're gonna grab this color and
i'm just going to guess that you know
this about you know whatever the
concrete there is going to just extend
all the way over
I'm gonna grab that color and then with
my brush tool I'm just gonna paint all
the way over there we go just say like
okay that's the side of the building now
and then this looks like right over here
is the ground so I'm gonna hold alt or
option to sample this color and I'm
going to paint that in for the ground
ok now we're going to sample this color
here and we're going to paint this in so
i'm using a relatively small brush here
let's grab that color and I can paint
this in so what I'm doing is I'm just
painting like there's literally nothing
else that's going on I've got the brush
tool
I'm sampling colors and I'm painting the
men i've got a relatively hard edged
brush right now and I know it doesn't
look super realistic so what I'm going
to do is I'm going to choose a softer
brush I'm going to put my flow down
about forty percent and then I'm gonna
start just blending these together so
sample these colors and then just kind
of blend them together
sample that and just paint a little bit
over and then we're going to start just
blending these and blending these and
blending these
there we go and we're going to get
something that looks a little bit more
organic
there we go and we just need a
relatively soft edge so we're going to
sample and we're going to just going to
paint that in there
all right now I know when you're using
the brush tool you're not going to get
it's not going to look exact right let's
take command H so I could hide that and
see what we've got here
it's not going to look exact and we're
not going to have any texture
I'm not worried about the texture right
now I'm going to add that in just a
minute
all right there we go let's go ahead and
create a new layer I hit command H to
hide my selection but it's still active
my selection is still active so I i can
continue to paint and i'm going to do so
i'm just going to continue to
and right over here cover up our trash
can
completely all right and I can create
details and things like that from the
building
later i'm not too worried about that
right now I mean I'm just trying to get
rid of like the base
all right we'll grab our brush - I'm
going to sample this color here
there we go and there we go
we're going to just get rid of that all
the way up
cool and that looks pretty good now
we're going to create a new layer and we
have to take care of the top part of
this trash can now
ok so alt or option to sample this right
over here and then i'm going to hold
down the shift key again we're just
going to paint this in that sample right
over here so we're not including the top
part of the window so now all right
there we go
and we're just going to paint that all
the way across here
don't own all right
and we can even paint it all the way
over there and cover up this part of our
trash can
all right now we've got this corner of
the windows right there
so I'm going to start i'm going to just
paint this in right over here as like
that corner of the window there
all right
very nice so what we're doing we're just
making stuff up here and this is
unfortunately a lot of the time this is
what you have to do like as a as a
retoucher or anything time you have to
get rid of something in the background
weathers
you know you don't have the information
what else is there to do besides just
make it up
oftentimes there's nothing you can do so
a brush tool is going to be your best
friend in these situations make a soft
edge brush and just you know do that and
create a little reflection or something
there
I don't know everyone that looks good
now let's create another layer and I
like this slightly darker color so I'm
gonna have this come on
like right underneath the bottom now for
background was completely in focus and
you know we had often and detail and
stuff like that back here
this would be a lot more difficult so i
recommend doing this when your
background is in focus
there we go but again we are dealing
right now with the area that's it's
pretty difficult because there is no we
had no information for this background
live quite literally going off of you
know what we just painted on their I
mean all that was just with a brush tool
so pretty good
let's go ahead and zoom in we still have
our nice clean edges that's what's going
to really help sell this effect
let's create another layer I'm just
going to grab the clone stamp tool and
we're going to clone stamp this away now
let's sample here hold alt or option
here we go
all right there we go
and we're getting rid of that little
area as well
ok so we're looking pretty good let's go
ahead and all right let's see what else
we need to do i'm just going to sample
here and we're just going to clean up
our ground a little bit
alright so we're looking we're looking
great actually
all right a little bit more with our
brush tool sample there and paint all
the way to the edge of this guy
we do need a little bit more detail here
on the ground but i'm pretty happy with
this
so far all right i'm going to choose a
soft edge brush nice and small and then
we're going to just kind of like build
in a little bit of highlight here
because i saw there was a highlight
right over here on the edge right so I'm
just going to paint that in right over
here
all right and then we'll just paint it
in like you know
cool all right there we go in just a
little bit of detail really helped us
sell it out we're going to actually grab
some texture in just a little bit and
we're going to add that to add that to
the image as well
all right painted dark and then we'll
we'll just put like a slightly smaller
line here
all right there we go
looking good ok so this was all with the
same selection i'm going to hit command
H again and you can see this election
comes back so now we can hit command D 2
D select and we can see all that was
basically with the clone stamp tool as
well as the brush full
we're going to take care of this area on
the right so let's go ahead and do that
and then after that i'm gonna show you
how to add texture in here as well so
grabbing a pen tool again I'm just going
to sample this lamppost we're going to
come right down here
there we go go ahead and make a
selection right there
we're going to right click go to make a
selection hit OK there and we're going
to do the same thing so with a brush
tool I'm going to sample this color here
every are and we're just painting right
over top that in command H is a really
nice way to hide your selection but keep
it active so you can actually see what
you're doing
so you're not like painting in the dark
there all right
and i know this technique might seem
like pretty crude but this is it's a
technique that's used by professional
researchers around the world and good
because sometimes there's just there's
nothing right like what do you what do
you do when there's nothing in the
background and need to get rid of
something like clone stamp is not an
option
the all those tools in Photoshop become
completely useless anymore
if you don't have anything to sample
from so that's when you have to kind of
like open up your imagination and just
say like oh yeah well i gotta brush to
login just you know paint this in there
and if it's in the background was pretty
likely that we'll just look normal and
you'd be amazed
I can I've seen a lot of images and a
lot of my own my own images just I just
went in there with a brush we'll just
paint it
if you ever need to add text or anything
like that i'm going to show you guys how
to do that in just one second
alright very cool and let's add a little
highlight right there too
alright this looks great so let's go
ahead and deselect so we've got all this
stuff removed from our background now
let's go ahead and add some texture so
we're going to create a new layer when
it again we're going to go to the clone
stamp tool and I'm going to clone stamp
this texture right over top of here
there we go that looks great
now of course this is not gonna look
exactly like this
so what we're going to do I'm going to
change this from normal down to soft
light
it's just going to give it you can see
it already gives it a little bit of
texture
next we're going to add a blur so like a
gaussian blur is just going to like you
know kind of blur it up a little bit so
we don't see exactly so clear what it is
and then we're just going to take down
our opacity what this does is it just
gives a little bit of like you know I
you could say like grunge or grime or
something like that it makes it look
like
yeah maybe there's a texture on that
wall back there I don't know there we go
looks pretty good so little tricks like
that are going to really help out when
you you know when you just need to paint
something grabbed a texture something
like that and pop it over there like you
know put a little crack in the wall or
something like that that's going to
really help out whenever it comes to
making something like this
all right let's zoom out and see what
we've got that actually looks pretty
good
I'm going to also let's just go ahead
and remove this shadow
so again we're going to grab our pen
tool let's make this selection here
there we are
punk
all right and we're going to come right
around there
right click go to make selection
it ok all right and then here on a new
layer we're going to use our clone stamp
tool and I'm just going to call in stem
right down to the bottom
really all I only needed this selection
to be active for this area right near
the lamppost the rest of this I can
pretty much free form because it's there
is nothing right
you know there's nothing ordering this
shadow
all right so we're gonna hit command DD
just like that I'll describe the clone
stamp tool and just gonna stand this way
because there's nothing bordering the
shadow
I can just I don't have to be as precise
i can be as sloppy as I want to be all
right
and if you do ever clone stamp and
things are just kinda not blending -
well grab your brush tool and just kind
of sample some colors and help them out
help them to blend together a little bit
better
you'd be amazed what you can do with the
brush tool in some selections huge huge
huge
all right there we are so let's go ahead
and group all of those together so let's
look at our before
here's our before and our after again
before and the after guys thanks so much
for watching phlearn i hope this episode
helped out remember make those
selections to define what you actually
want to cut out and then use things like
the clone stamp tool for as much as
possible and if you need to go in with
the brush tool and then sample submit
surrounding areas and paint them it's
going to help out a ton
thanks again guys be sure to subscribe
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have any ideas for future episodes we'd
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thanks so much guys and we'll learn
later