An Unsavory Character

Dear Debbie,

I have a photo that was taken on a trip to a baseball game in Philadelphia. We just wanted a picture of the family, but this individual behind us made a very rude hand gesture! How can I get him out of the enclosed photo?

Sincerely,
Flabbergasted
Walnut, California

***

Dear Flabbergasted,

Wow! What a jerk! He may have thought he was goofing up your picture for good, but Photoshop won't let that kind of behavior stand. I rubbed him right out.

Here's how I did it:

First thing's first: I lassoed the left leg of the gray pants, flipped it horizontal, and covered the offending hand. Then I masked it off so it stayed behind her head.

Since he's not adding anything to the picture, I cloned him out completely by lassoing chunks of the fence and lining them up on top of him.

After a whole bunch of layers, he was almost all gone.

Next I merged all those pieces of fence into one, and masked until the cloned area stayed behind the important subject.

The bit of cap over the man in red's hand was the peskiest thing to cover up. I had to lasso pieces of it, flip them, transform them to the right angle, and then mask off the offending parts.

Finally, I added a little blur, then masked it off so the guy standing in the background and the lady with the beer would be a little less conspicuous.

Here's what I started with:

And here's the finished product:

Or maybe a crop:

Hope that helps,
Debbie

 

Comments

[Allen]

Excellent example of why everyone should learn how to use photoshop. I am searching tutorials all over the web so I can be better with it, and this definitely gives me new ideas on how to perfect pictures. Thanks!