Deleting people

[Larrybf]

Can anyone suggest the best way to remove an individual from a group photo when that individual is not on the end of the group?

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/121JxNUflWQ74QzGSeaV2BpRinvZyT0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=121JxNUflWQ74QzGSeaV2BpRinvZyT0)

[Tina_B]

It would help to be able to see the photo in question so we can decide what would be the best thing to do.
Tina B

[Larrybf]

how to I post the photo?

[Diana]

Hi Larry,

Many of us use Pixentral to post photos... here are some instructions:

http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30761

Removing someone from a photo is sometimes very difficult because you have to recreate whatever was behind that person. But let us see the photo and then we can determine if it's possible.

Diana

[Larrybf]

photo is posted...thank you!

[BobWarren]

So which person do you want to remove?

[frank abramonte]

Can anyone suggest the best way to remove an individual from a group photo when that individual is not on the end of the group?

If it's the man in the background that would be simple.
Just select a portion of the background clapboards large enough to fill the space the man occupies and do a copy.
Now select the man and do a paste into. Adjust and blend the new background to the old background.
OR, you can use the Clone Stamp to little by little stamp him out.
Don't forget to work on a duplicate layer.
There may be other suggestions coming along from other contributors.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1nDWsEOyculyhbICoj2kpxIuIcs8m0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1nDWsEOyculyhbICoj2kpxIuIcs8m0)

[johnrellis]

You didn't say which person you wanted to airbrush from history, so I picked an easier one:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1kgEVkPcJEQ9n6yr2huhDYD2THiK_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1kgEVkPcJEQ9n6yr2huhDYD2THiK)

Here's how I did it:

1. I duplicated the background layer.

2. I set the opacity of the top laver to about 50% and slid it to the left, so that the person to be erased with prejudice would be completely obscured by the woman to his right. Then I restored the opacity back to 100%.

3. Using soft brushes of various sizes, I erased the left-hand side of the top layer to let the bottom one show through. I started erasing the persona non grata using a very small soft brush to get a somewhat harder edge. For the background, I used a larger diameter soft brush to get a more seamless blending. I had to experiment a fair bit to find where the backgrounds best blended. I erased a little at a time and my left hand hovered over the Ctrl-Z key.

Here's how the layers looked:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1ZfKmgY5yIyQJtkLgcMBR5c1bBtKe1_thumb.png (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ZfKmgY5yIyQJtkLgcMBR5c1bBtKe1)

And here's a closeup of the top layer showing the erasing in detail:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1HBmLzeOXyFAWmHLX999h5hsX9Nj1_thumb.png (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1HBmLzeOXyFAWmHLX999h5hsX9Nj1)

This strategy worked fairly easily because one piece of the background can be slid over another and they still match.

[johnrellis]

Here's a slightly improved version:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1NEXRQtRx2E1a259ZR6pGMlIFKz00_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1NEXRQtRx2E1a259ZR6pGMlIFKz00)

I added a very thin shadow where the woman in black overlaps the woman in blue. To do that, I selected the bottom layer, took a 25-pixel soft brush, set it to black at 50% opacity, and then used the fuzzy edge of the brush to trace around the left edge of the woman in black where she overlaps the woman in blue.

[Larrybf]

I would like to remove the 6th woman from the left and the 6th man from the right. How do I fill the gaps?

[Larrybf]

how did you slide one part of the image over the other?

[johnrellis]

I would like to remove the 6th woman from the left and the 6th man from the right. How do I fill the gaps?
I think you could use the same strategy, applying it twice, once for each person to be vaporized. Here's an eyeballed guess as to were you put the "seams" by erasing:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1cjJSEUEVvh4g5NqoQvdWkRXhekhS_thumb.png (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1cjJSEUEVvh4g5NqoQvdWkRXhekhS)

The man in the background behind the groom might be a little tricky -- you've got to move him and the groom over right next to the 5th person from the left, I think, so the man's shoulder looks like it's being obscured by that 5th woman.

[johnrellis]

how did you slide one part of the image over the other?
Click on the top layer. Select the Move Tool (the arrow-shaped tool in the upper-left corner) and then click and drag on the image to move it left or right.

[NYBOB1]

My try,duplicated background layer,selected side of image from fifth person over.Used move tool while holding ALT,moved selected part of image towards the middle to cover the sixth person.Did same with other side.Used a mask to blend the edges.Then crop.

Bob

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Iz588WitdldbpHOity3EodyD7dpP_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Iz588WitdldbpHOity3EodyD7dpP)

[Larrybf]

Thank you all for your suggestions....tried them and got a great picture.Thanks again!

[Newtome]

Bob, you did an outstanding job.
Elaine