Photoshop picture manipulation problem PLEASE HELP ASAP!

[ms_hammer]

I have been trying to replace a road in the background of a few of my portraits with a sampling of vegetation from the images. I have version 7 photo shop. I have been using the clone tool on a duplicate layer with a soft brush and its just way too pattern like and soft to look good! I've also tried using a hard brush and that seems too much! I'm no professional when it comes to photo shop. I have to have these portraits completely edited by the end of Oct. If there is anyone who can give me some pointers on this I would most grateful!!

[Stryker]

Could you post a sample image for us to see what it is that you are trying to do? Are you replacing the road with vegetation that is in the same image, or are you getting them from another image and trying to blend it in? A sample would probably get you some more responses and maybe some better post processing suggestions too.

[ms_hammer]

I will be posting a copy of one of these portraits as soon as I get home. I just wanted to clarify what I am trying to do... I want to replace a road going through my portrait with a sample of the vegetation in the same picture to make it look as natural as it can be. Thank you again for your swift consideration on this matter! As I said there will be a copy of this portrait to follow shortly!

[shutternut]

I haven't seen the photos, so when I do I can help further, but with the clone tool it is very easy to overdo it - especially if you are sampling smaller areas, or similar areas repeatedly. If you haven't already, try sampling smaller images, and change the location of your sample every few clicks to avoid creating a repeating pattern. It also matters how in focus your background is. It's harder to clone a background that's just as sharp as your foreground because the edges of the cloning will be pretty obvious.

If you still can't quite get it to look like less of a pattern as you seem to be having trouble with, you can also cheat a little and use a lens blur filter to cover it with a little bit of bokeh (considering it is only your background you are cloning). You do have to be careful with this filter as well though because you want the transition from blurry to clear to not have a harsh edge. It should be a smooth transition.

[dakwegmo]

For filling in larger areas, I've found that it often works best to select an area of the shot that would make a suitable replacement for the area you're trying to get rid of. Paste that on to a new layer, and mask or erase the pieces you need to remove to make it work. Then if it looks too repetetive, I'll take some random samples from elsewhere in the shot to clone out the obviously duplicated spots.

[ms_hammer]

Here is one of the pictures in which I need to replace the road with the available vegetation in the image. I am open to any suggestions that you think might work. Thanks again!Eddie0009 smallcopy.JPG

[dakwegmo]

Ack! There's some serious fixing needed in that image. If I were given the photos to fix I would probably select all of the leaves in the foreground, copy them and paste them on a new layer. Move the layer over the road, then mask out the areas that overlap your subject.

Here's a quick and dirty idea of what it would look like.

[ms_hammer]

Well, I tryed that idea and its much better than what I was coming up with but it still doesn't seem to blend in quite as nice as I had hoped... Any other ideas to get it to look more natural??

[PowerPix]

Originally Posted by dakwegmo

Ack! There's some serious fixing needed in that image. If I were given the photos to fix I would probably select all of the leaves in the foreground, copy them and paste them on a new layer. Move the layer over the road, then mask out the areas that overlap your subject.

Here's a quick and dirty idea of what it would look like.

It would work if the leaves were downsized. The replacement is farther into the photo and therefore needs to be proportionate to the distance from the viewer. Also, with a little cloning to change the redundancy of the leaves in the replacement section would work to differentiate it from the original copy location. This technique would work, though.

[dakwegmo]

Originally Posted by PowerPix

It would work if the leaves were downsized. The replacement is farther into the photo and therefore needs to be proportionate to the distance from the viewer. Also, with a little cloning to change the redundancy of the leaves in the replacement section would work to differentiate it from the original copy location. This technique would work, though.

Like I said, it was quick and dirty. It probably took me two minutes. I was just trying to illustrate the concept.