# Remove unwanted objects from picture



## wblink (Mar 13, 2009)

Hi,

How can I do (subjectline) in LR?


----------



## dj_paige (Mar 13, 2009)

I don't think you can do this in Lightroom.

This requires Photoshop Elements or Photoshop.


----------



## Mark Sirota (Mar 13, 2009)

Sometimes you can, depending on the photo.  Care to show us?


----------



## Linwood Ferguson (Mar 13, 2009)

wblink said:


> Hi,
> 
> How can I do (subjectline) in LR?


 
The spot removal tool will let you do some of this, for example you can get rid of almost anything in a plain blue sky.  The problem is that it is limited to round (at least as far as I know).


----------



## AnitaD (Mar 13, 2009)

Yes, that's right. The Spot Removal tool in Lightroom is a bit like the clone tool in Photoshop. You can read how to use it at Heal spots and blemishes.


----------



## wblink (Mar 14, 2009)

Mark Sirota said:


> Sometimes you can, depending on the photo. Care to show us?


 
Well, here it should (!!!) be:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wblink/3354'7142'/?edited=1







I seem do to something wrong, because I cannot insert the image, only the link, sorry. (Anyone that can tell me what I am doing wrong?)

I want to remove te lamppost in front of the tree in the middle.


----------



## Brad Snyder (Mar 14, 2009)

You should be able to do that with Lr, but it will require precise and pains-taking effort with the clone heal brush set to a very small diameter and applied many, many times along the length of the pole.

Edit: Willem, the problem with the in-line image inclusion is that address you used is a Flickr web page, and not the storage location of the actual image file. To find that actual address, in Flickr, above your image, click on the 'All Sizes' button, and then choose the resolution you want to use (small to medium is usually fine) and then below the image, look for the photo's URL, usually in Box #2. (It will usually have something resembling (farm?.static.flickr....) in the address


----------



## wblink (Mar 14, 2009)

Brad Snyder said:


> You should be able to do that with Lr, but it will require precise and pains-taking effort with the clone heal brush set to a very small diameter and applied many, many times along the length of the pole.
> 
> Edit: Willem, the problem with the in-line image inclusion is that address you used is a Flickr web page, and not the storage location of the actual image file. To find that actual address, in Flickr, above your image, click on the 'All Sizes' button, and then choose the resolution you want to use (small to medium is usually fine) and then below the image, look for the photo's URL, usually in Box #2. (It will usually have something resembling (farm?.static.flickr....) in the address


 
1) I have understood this is something LR does NOT do very well, so I will have to go to PSE or NX2 fo that.

2) I hope below is the picture I ment. I followed your instructions: thanks!








Ahhh: Nice!

What I want (obviously) is to remove the lamppost in front of the tree.
Then I will go on (the sky needs some serious attention).

It is a dear picture to me: I used to live in the house that shows up-right in the corner as a shade. It is really a very comfottable house. The main is a farm (small to your USA ideas, I know), that were our next neighbours. Behind al this you can see a green wall: that is the dike we live behind for the river WAAL.

This picture is part of many that I am making as a remember for my son.


----------



## Mark Sirota (Mar 14, 2009)

This wouldn't be too bad in Lightroom, especially at this scale, but it's a bit easier in PS or PS Elements.


----------



## wblink (Mar 15, 2009)

Mark Sirota;3928' said:
			
		

> This wouldn't be too bad in Lightroom, especially at this scale, but it's a bit easier in PS or PS Elements.


 
Would you care to point out (briefly, because I won't be using it) how to do it in LR?

This is my first "bummer" in LR. First thing I will do is how his can be done in NX2, though I remember vagualy I did this thing before in PSE.

Thanks fr your fedback.


----------



## Linwood Ferguson (Mar 15, 2009)

The spot removal tool (looks like a circle with an arrow) will allow you to pick a circular spot, and when you do it picks a spot of similar makeup. Effectively this clones the second spot over top of the first. You can change its size and opacity (how strong the impact is), and whether it is in clone or heal mode. For this you want clone.

You would pick a spot on the pole, a bit larger than the width of the pole so the edge of the circle extends over each edge of the pole. A second circle will pop up in the wrong place and it will look bad -- ignore the appearance at the moment. Grab the second circle (not the first) and drag it off the pole and onto the surrounding background which you think best blends in; as you do so you should see the first circle change. Move the second around until you get what you think is a good blend.  The second needs to be completely off the pole so no image of pole is cloned.

Here's the problem -- a circle doesn't match the shape of the pole. So to work your way up the pole you either have to use really big circles (say 2-3x the width of the pole, which will look kind of ragged), or a bazillion little ones. Both are possible, and depending on the background (the shot that I saw did not have the resolution to tell) you might find this mind-blowingly tedious, or tolerable.

If the backgroun don each side is fairly homogenous, this is easy -- say a sky -- big circles, they blend in. If it's something like a brick wall where regular patterns show every flaw, just give up.

This works much better in photoshop where you can clone areas in different shapes, so you can take rectangular sections of the pole and lawer feathered areas of similar background into them.

But it is possible -- I've fixed a lot of little things in LR without every using photoshop -- I probably go into photoshop now only 5% of the time.


----------



## johnbeardy (Mar 15, 2009)

Use the dust spot removal tool. You'll need to pretend you're removing a row of spots.

But you have Elements, and should listen to the advice to use it instead.


----------



## Linwood Ferguson (Mar 15, 2009)

*Example*

I was doing this for another purpose and thought it might be illustrative.  This is a case where it is very easy to do in Lightroom, due to the smooth background.  It took two spots to remove the ends of two sticks that I thought were too close to the bird's head.

Before:






After:


----------



## wblink (Mar 16, 2009)

Ferguson said:


> I was doing this for another purpose and thought it might be illustrative. This is a case where it is very easy to do in Lightroom, due to the smooth background. It took two spots to remove the ends of two sticks that I thought were too close to the bird's head.


 

Thanks, but the background (Tree) istoo complex for that. I will have to follow John's advice to use PSE. Will look in NX2 ofcourse: will be back here.


----------



## Linwood Ferguson (Mar 16, 2009)

wblink;394'4 said:
			
		

> Thanks, but the background (Tree) istoo complex for that. I will have to follow John's advice to use PSE. Will look in NX2 ofcourse: will be back here.


 
Correct, that was my (perhaps poorly put) point -- Lightroom with its one-shape-clone works well on some kinds of backgrounds, and on others really poorly.

It's why they give a discount on Photoshop when you buy lightroom.   :evil:

Seriously, I'm not complaining, I think it's a pretty great balance.  I doubt my photoshop usage will ever go to zero, though Lightroom has taken 95% of it away.  Those last few are kind of like a medical specialist, say a brain surgeon -- you rarely need them, but when you do, it is SO nice to have a good one.  :mrgreen:


----------



## wblink (Mar 17, 2009)

Ferguson;394'5 said:
			
		

> Correct, that was my (perhaps poorly put) point -- Lightroom with its one-shape-clone works well on some kinds of backgrounds, and on others really poorly.
> 
> It's why they give a discount on Photoshop when you buy lightroom. :evil:
> 
> Seriously, I'm not complaining, I think it's a pretty great balance. I doubt my photoshop usage will ever go to zero, though Lightroom has taken 95% of it away. Those last few are kind of like a medical specialist, say a brain surgeon -- you rarely need them, but when you do, it is SO nice to have a good one. :mrgreen:


 
I tried and worked it out with PSE. Only me (I think) can see that it has been manupilated. Is Photoshop better at things like this than PSE?


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Mar 18, 2009)

PSE should be able to do the job.... but the skills to do it without it looking like it's been manipulated come with practise.


----------



## wblink (Mar 19, 2009)

Thanks to you all.

It works in PSE and in NX2, The resullts are similar.
Like Victoria said: practice: if I take little spots at a time it goes fairly well. No one can see the adjustments, but I can for sure.

Well, another nice picture made for my son's album, thanks guys!


----------

