Need some Photoshop help.

Rob_B · Jul 28, 2011

I went out this weekend and took some shots of a water lights show, and I think they're not half bad, but there is a building (looks like a boat) in the background that totally destroys the whole thing. I was able to use Content-Aware on some to get it out. But on this one shot in particular I have tried all I know to do. I know just enough about PS to be dangerous, and I was wondering if anybody had some advice/tips/tricks to fix this. Here is a link to the shot: 500px / Photo "Blue spiral" by Robbie Brewer

Kerbouchard · Jul 28, 2011

You have saving disabled on your link, so I can't save it to edit it...well, actually, I could, but I won't.

In any case, the lights are close enough to being exact where you could just do a straight clone. You could also just crop it. Content Aware isn't going to work well on this one. Too much variation, too many things to compare it to, and the fact that it is at the edge of the frame pretty much eliminates content aware as an option(as you figured out).

Rob_B · Jul 28, 2011

I tried using the clone stamp, but I think I'm doing it all wrong. I appreciate the offer to edit it, but truthfully I wouldn't want you to either! I really want/need to learn this myself. I might try cropping that portion of the photo out, and see if it still looks good.

Kerbouchard · Jul 28, 2011

Rob_B said:
I tried using the clone stamp, but I think I'm doing it all wrong. I appreciate the offer to edit it, but truthfully I wouldn't want you to either! I really want/need to learn this myself. I might try cropping that portion of the photo out, and see if it still looks good.

Then I suggest you change your forum settings from, "My photos are OK to Edit" to something more appropriate.

In any case, it wasn't an offer to edit the photo for you. I would have played around with it, tried a few different techniques, let you know what worked and what didn't, and give you an example of what was possible.

Like I said, a crop would definitely be the easiest. Also, based on where the ship is and the trees that are below it, it might not be a bad choice to use the trees to cover it up. Might be a lot easier than replicating the light show.

Chriss · Jul 28, 2011

If it were me, I'd crop both the left and right side of the photo off, so you have just the three blue lights.

Rob_B · Jul 28, 2011

Kerbouchard said:
Rob_B said:

I tried using the clone stamp, but I think I'm doing it all wrong. I appreciate the offer to edit it, but truthfully I wouldn't want you to either! I really want/need to learn this myself. I might try cropping that portion of the photo out, and see if it still looks good.

Click to expand...

Then I suggest you change your forum settings from, "My photos are OK to Edit" to something more appropriate.

In any case, it wasn't an offer to edit the photo for you. I would have played around with it, tried a few different techniques, let you know what worked and what didn't, and give you an example of what was possible to achieve.

No, I don't mean to come off the wrong way, I would be totally fine with you playing around with it. I'm not sure how to enable saving on 500px quite yet. I just didn't want you think I was asking somebody to do it for me, as I would very much like to learn and get better at doing it.

Rob_B · Jul 28, 2011

Panama 146 | Flickr - Photo Sharing! that is a link to it on Flickr, and it should allow saving if anybody would like to tamper with it, and offer some advice.

Edsport · Jul 28, 2011

I had a go at it. Basically i copied one part of the water and pasted where the boat is. Some clone stamp and history brush...

DDGphotos · Jul 28, 2011

LOOKS great to ME! ! !!

Rob_B · Jul 28, 2011

That's actually really great. So you clone stamped a portion of the water, and used that to work out the ship? I never thought about the history brush..never really used it. I'll definitely give that method a shot when I get home!

Judobreaker · Jul 28, 2011

Edsport said:
I had a go at it. Basically i copied one part of the water and pasted where the boat is. Some clone stamp and history brush...

Hmm... Wouldn't it be possible to not cut off the blue one on the left and leave the blue one on the right out completely?
Would look better I think.

Rob_B · Jul 28, 2011

Judobreaker said:
Edsport said:

I had a go at it. Basically i copied one part of the water and pasted where the boat is. Some clone stamp and history brush...

Click to expand...

Hmm... Wouldn't it be possible to not cut off the blue one on the left and leave the blue one on the right out completely?
Would look better I think.

I tried that, and it didn't look bad at all. I was just hoping I could retain the whole photo if possible.

Edsport · Jul 28, 2011

Rob_B said:
That's actually really great. So you clone stamped a portion of the water, and used that to work out the ship? I never thought about the history brush..never really used it. I'll definitely give that method a shot when I get home!

To get the portion of the water to cover up the ship i didn't use the clone stamp, i used the polygonal lasso tool to highlight the part of the water i wanted then copied, deslected and then pasted and moved it to cover the ship, from there it was the clone stamp and history brush...