Removing an item from background?

[tvalley01]

Hi there,

I just purchased Photoshop Elements 9 & am trying to remove a plug socket from the background of my photo..

Can anyone help?

I have attached the photo I am trying to edit..

Thank you!!

[DanielLane]

Thats a big one to remove, but you can probably do it with the clone stamp tool. Pretty sure elements has that.

[tvalley01]

Thanks Daniel - only trouble is I have no clue how to use the tool - complete novice with the software im afraid!

[3bayjunkie]

id just take the picture again somewhere else

[mosgood]

Originally Posted by DanielLane

Thats a big one to remove, but you can probably do it with the clone stamp tool. Pretty sure elements has that.

PSE7 has it, so I would think that PSE9 would have it too.

Good luck on removing the plug, tvalley01! Like 3bayjunkie advised, I'd locate the kids to a location without background distractions to redo the shot.

Also PSE has online tutorials you can check out to get info on how to use the different tools.

Good luck!

[SwissJon]

Plain white background, shouldnt take more than 5 mins, even for a novice like you, it should be straight forward.. Sample a bit of the background and clone over the top of the plug a little at a time.. This is actually going to be one of the easiest things you've ever cloned out, because of the background.. Even getting rid of the wire by copying a bit of the skirting a little at a time is likely to be easy.

Suggest you make a copy of the photo and practice on that, then if you cock it up, you can junk it and start again. Take it carefully and use the photo at 100%.

Here's some useful info

PSE Clone Stamp

[Matthias099]

Yeah, that's a big object to remove. Even if you are successful, you most likely will see some traces in the finished picture. Retake the photo if possible with a different background.

[NathanFranke]

not sure about elements, but for the main version:

with clone stamp selected:
1) ctrl + left click to grab source area--this will be painted over the plug so you want to grab something with similar coloring/lighting to the wall around the plug.
2) move mouse over the plug
3) left click to paint over the plug.

A note on technique. If you just use one sample area and paint over everything, it'll look bad. Use multiple source points to paint over the plug, and it'll look less artificial. It takes practice, but eventually you'll be able to do it and make the correction invisible.

[SwissJon]

All these nay sayers.. Did this in lightroom...Could have done it a lot better in PSE, but it's not installed on this PC..only took 5mins.

DSC_0711.jpg

[ceremus]

Also, once you have the affected areas blocked out with clone stamp I would go over them again a bit with the healing tool. It won't be perfect but it should make the removal a little less obvious.