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How to remove unwanted objects

WHAT YOU’LL NEED Photoshop Elements 3/4
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN How to clone away clutter
IT ONLY TAKES 1 hour 15 mins

The truth is, this is an over populated planet, especially for the humble landscape photographer! In many shots, there will be a few unwanted figures or objects here and there. In some cases, such as here, removing all the unwanted paraphernalia can seem like a daunting task, but surprisingly, once you’ve harnessed the power of the Clone Stamp Tool, and used a little judicious copying and pasting, all it takes to clean up even the most cluttered shot is a little patience.

The Clone Stamp Tool copies one part of an image to another area, so by choosing a similar image area, you can obliterate objects seamlessly. To use the tool, you first have to set a cloning source point, which tells Photoshop Elements exactly which area you want to clone from. You do this simply by holding down the Alt key and clicking with the tool. For instance, if you have an object on water, by setting the source point over a clear area of water, you can quite literally paint image information over the object, as you’ll see in the walkthrough.

It’s vitally important when cloning to locate an area that's very similar to the area around the object you’re cloning out, to closely match up the colour, tone and texture. Sometimes, when cloning is not the ideal solution, we can use a little copying and pasting to rebuild certain features in the scene, as you’ll see here.

So, don’t live with mess in your images, clean up with Elements!

1 Start Patching up. First, use the Lasso Tool to make a selection around the existing shingle area. Right-click within the selection and choose Layer Via Copy from the sub menu. Choose the Move Tool and drag the pasted shingle over the paved area.	2 Adjust and position. Go to Image>Transform>Distort. Drag the lower left handle on the Bounding Box downwards a little, and drag the top left one up a bit to adjust the perspective of the pasted shingle area. Hit the Enter key to complete the transformation.	3 Clone some shingle. Go to Layer>Flatten Image. Now choose the Clone Stamp Tool. In the Options Bar make sure Opacity is 100%. Choose a 65 pixel diameter soft brush from the Brush Picker and place it just below the joint between the two areas of shingle, hold down Alt and click.
4 Attention to detail. Now carefully click with the tool over any visible joins in the shingle. Remember to regularly Alt-click in other areas nearby to set another clone source point. Continue to clone over any repeated areas, setting the source point on another area of shingle.	5 Copy and extend. Use the Lasso Tool to draw a selection around this newly extended shingle area, rightclick within the selection and choose Layer Via Copy. With the Move Tool, drag this copied shingle over the remaining area of pavement. Flatten via Layer>Flatten Image.	6 Clone out the birds. You can easily clone out small objects such as the birds in the image. With the Clone Stamp Tool, Alt-click on an area of water near the bird and then simply click over the bird to clone it out. Choose another source point regularly to avoid any repetitive patterns and any changes will be very hard to spot.
7 The Selection Brush. Add a new layer. When cloning out complicated shapes between other shapes, it is often useful to create an active selection first to restrict the cloning to particular areas. Choose the Selection Brush Tool. In the Options Bar, choose Mask for the mode, and set Hardness to 100%.	8 Paint a mask. Paint the mask over the parts of the jetty that the boat sits behind and that you don’t want to clone out. When the mask is complete, return to the Clone Stamp Tool. You’ll now have an active selection. Ensure that Sample All Layers is checked in the Options Bar before you clone out the boat.	9 Clone away. Set the clone source point (Alt-click) in an area of clear water near to boat, and begin to clone over the boat itself. Because of the selection, you don’t have to worry about cloning out the jetty itself as it’s not included in the active selection.
10 More masking. You can repeat this masking and selection generation process for the other awkward areas in the image. You can then take your cloning source point from anywhere in the water nearby, just choose an area which is similar in tone, colour and pattern.	11 Select and copy. Click on the Background Layer. To extend the jetty next to the white boat, choose the Lasso Tool and draw a selection around the section of jetty. Right-click the selection and choose Layer Via Copy. Move this section into position with the Move Tool.	12 Distort to fit. Go to Image>Transform>Distort. Drag the handles around the Bounding Box to distort the section of jetty so that it joins up with the existing part. Hit Enter to commit the change. Go to Layer>Merge Down. Now clone out hard edges around the pasted section.
13 More rebuilding. As above, select a section of jetty from the far right of the image and again, paste this via the Layer Via Copy method. Move this section into position over the unwanted white boat, and use the Image>Transform>Distort command to fit it.	14 Darken mode. To clone out the reflections from the white boat, use the Clone Stamp Tool again, but choose Darken as the mode in the Options Bar. In this mode, after you’ve set the cloning source point from nearby water, the tool will clone only over the white reflections.	15 Cloning foliage. Choose Normal mode for the Clone Stamp Tool again, and zoom into the distance where the boats are in front of the trees. Set your source point as close to the boats as possible. Clone the trees over the boats, with a different clone source point each time.
16 Final step Watch the detail. Finally, take your time to examine the image carefully for any small specks and objects that need to be cloned away. Once you’re happy that all the unwanted objects have been removed, flatten the image via Layer>Flatten image, then save.	Tip Using the Selection Brush The Selection Brush is a great way to create complicated selections. Similar to Quick Mask mode in Photoshop, with the Selection Brush you can paint a mask on to an image, which will be converted to an active selection as soon as you choose another tool. By choosing the Subtract From Selection icon in the Options Bar, you can paint a mask that will protect the area beneath it. As a result of this, you can restrict your cloning to particular areas.	Tip No repeats When you're using the Clone Stamp tool you need to be careful not to create any repeated patterns. You can avoid this by frequently choosing another cloning source point from a different area. It's also best to click with the tool, rather than trying to paint with it by dragging. Setting the Cloning Source Point is a simple matter of holding down the Alt key and clicking.