Help with retouching and removing object from background

[amari]

I use PSE7 and am having trouble removing the person in the background in this picture between my son and his girlfriend. I find this very distracting, but have not found a way to remove this and make it appear realistic. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if you do attempt it, could you provide the steps you took so that I can learn.
Thanks in advance for your help.



Here's a link to the original:

http://aemari.smugmug.com/Friends/Spring-Break-2010/11795981_BaZZp#833256956_828iG-O-LB

 

[Ronny Harris]

You can plant some shrubs. Take the rectangular tool, grab some of the trees and shrubs from the right, jump them to a new layer, move over the man, add a Hide All mask, and paint them back in. I flipped the shrubs horizontally. I also clipped a Curves layer to the shrubs layer and darkened.



Ronny

 

[Samuel Briggs]

I duped the background layer and then extracted just the left side of her hair from the background. Then added a blank layer above the original background to do my cloning on. By extracting I was able to clone in those areas near and behind her hair without worrying about losing any of hair.

I do have the full size retouch if you decide you want it.



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Sam

Previous profile: http://www.dpreview.com/members/?User=hjizididheid

 

[klassylady25]

Great shot!

 

[amari]

Ronny and Sam

Thanks for your efforts, both look great. Sam I would like the full size retouch, how do I go about getting this from you?

Thanks for including your steps, but I guess I am not well versed in PSE as I thought, since I am having trouble following your steps. If you are so inclined and willing to help me further, can you further explain or include screen shots? I know this is asking a lot, no problems if it too much to ask for.

 

[amari]

Klassylady25, that is fantastic! I am amazed at how easy all of you are making this seem. I really need to more studying! Thanks for the comment on the photo.

 

[Samuel Briggs]

Here is the download link for the full size:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3397192/B%26GLarge.jpg

I'm using Photoshop CS5 for my retouching. I've never used Elements so I'm not entirely sure what capabilities it has. I'm including a screenshot of my Layers palette.

If Elements doesn't allow you to do your cloning on a separate blank layer, you can duplicate the background layer and clone on it



.

Ronny and Sam

Thanks for your efforts, both look great. Sam I would like the full size retouch, how do I go about getting this from you?

Thanks for including your steps, but I guess I am not well versed in PSE as I thought, since I am having trouble following your steps. If you are so inclined and willing to help me further, can you further explain or include screen shots? I know this is asking a lot, no problems if it too much to ask for.

--
Sam

Previous profile: http://www.dpreview.com/members/?User=hjizididheid

 

[Babine]

I too set a new blank layer over-top of the original and, with the clone tool and sampling in various areas, cloned out the male in the BG. As there is an overall magenta color cast, I corrected for that i.e. http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=24 and sharpened the image.





--
Cheers.

Gary

If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that Acme crap, why
didn't he just buy dinner?

http://www.pbase.com/pictek

 

[amari]

Thanks, Babine. You're right about the color cast, I never really noticed that until you pointed it out.
Thanks to everyone who took their time to help me with this.

 

[Michael Edward Rudge]

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http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x223/eirianfa2002/?albumview=slideshow&mediafilter=images

http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x223/eirianfa2002/Komandoo%202008/?albumview=grid

 

[Daviskw]

I went a little deeper into the shoulder than Sam

Butch

 

[Toermalijn]

What about content aware fill?

Nice test for this new feature...

 

[faith2]

--
seek wisdom and understanding