Learn How To Remove Unwanted Elements From An Image In Photoshop

In this article, I'm going to show you how to remove unwanted elements or anything you want it to be removed from an image in Photoshop. You'll learn how to remove distracting elements from a photo, using two different techniques.

So Let's get started to learn these Two different and basic techniques that will help you with object removals in any image, photo.

The First Technique

We're going to work with this image, we have a couple walking on the beach, and we have a photo bomber. And, if we wanted to remove this photo bomber from the image, we could do it very easily.



First, duplicate the layer to work non destructively. You can press Ctrl J, or Command J on the mac, and we can call that layer, "Edit."



Then you can select the lasso tool, and with the lasso tool, we can just simply freehand a selection.

So, we're going to free hand a selection around the photo bomber, and it doesn't have to be very precise, as long as you go around her.

But, having said that, try to keep as much of the original background as you can. So, you can hold Alt, or Option on the Mac, and click and drag to subtract from the selection.



And by the way, if you hold Shift, you add to the selection. And once again, Alt, or Option on the Mac, and click and drag. You subtract from a selection.

With a selection active, you can go into edit, fill, and we're going to select Content-Aware from the drop down, and make sure that you have Color Adaptation checked, and press okay.



Then press Ctrl D, or Command D to deselect. And notice that almost like magic, Photoshop removes that photo bomber.



And the way that the Content-Aware technology works is by analyzing the pixels that are surrounding the selection, and it uses that information to generate the pixels that are going to go inside of that selection.

So, Photoshop does a great job in guessing what would be behind this person. And this technique works best with a simple background, like the one we have in this example.

The Second Technique

So, for the next example, we're going to use this image here of Venice, and zoom in.



And what we want to do is remove this group of people that are sitting there.

So, what I could do is trying to do what I just did, use a Content-Aware Fill. But as you will see, it won't give us the results that we're looking for.

So, let me just make a really quick selection, and go into edit, fill, Content-Aware, and notice that Photoshop didn't do that good of a job this time.



It included elements that I do not want to have in the photo. So press Ctrl Alt Z, or Command Alt Z on the Mac to undo.

And, actually, to work non destructively, and duplicate this layer by pressing Ctrl J, or Command J on the Mac, and we're going to use a different tool.



And the tool that we're going to use is a tool called the Patch Tool, which is nested under the Spot Healing Brush Tool.

Also, make sure that normal and source are selected.

Then click-and-drag and make a selection around the pixels that I want to replace. With the selection active, zoom out and look for an area to sample from.

So, it looks like this area is very similar to the area where they're sitting on, now click and drag over to that side.



And you can see the preview inside of the selection, and you can try to match it as best as you can. When you're happy with the area, you can just release, and then press Ctrl D, or Command D to deselect.

And notice that Photoshop did a much better job.



The reason that I didn't select this side here, is that there's a shadow from this lamp post, so I didn't want to duplicate that.



If The edit wasn't perfect, that's because you didn't drop the selection in the right area.

So, you can try that again, click and drag, and just try to get a better result.

So maybe something like that. Ctrl D, or Command D to deselect, so that looks much better. The bricks align better.



There's issues like this area here, but we could easily fix these issues by just using the patch tool on those specific areas.



Then you can double click on the hand tool to zoom out, and you can see the before, and the after. 



Another tool that I want to show you before we move on into the more complicated example is the Clone Stamp Tool, which simply allows you to paint in duplicate pixels from another area.



So, with that tool selected, zoom in and create a new layer to work non destructively. And, with this layer, make sure that current and below are selected, or all layers. It really doesn't matter in this example, so leave it on current and below.



Then, you can just select areas to copy pixels from.



So if you wanted to remove this lamp post, you can start maybe in the corner , and then use the bracket keys on the keyboard to increase the size of my brush, and you can try to align what you just copied, what you just sampled, this area , and align it to the other window, and then you can paint in those pixels like so.

And I know you're getting a little of the shadow, but that's okay.

Then you can sample from a different area, and line it as best as you can, and paint away the rest of the lamp like so..



You can see how you can start painting things away non destructively using the Clone Stamp Tool. And, this is basically what we did in just a couple minutes.



So those are the basic steps for removing a distracting object from a photo.

Please let me know in the comments below what you learned by reading this article, and don't forget to subscribe to us, and notification buttons.

Thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you in the next tutorial.