Remove unwanted objects from your photos

The retouching tools in Photoshop on the web offer quick ways to correct flaws, remove imperfections and enhance the overall quality of your photos.

In this video, I'll show you a variety of retouching options, then some really handy ways to apply them to your everyday workflow.

If you'd like to follow along with me, be sure to have the Retouch and Remove Objects file open in the application.

Or if you prefer, you can apply these techniques directly to any image of your own.

I'm here in Photoshop on the web, and I've opened the sample image.

Before I start, I'm going to add a new empty layer so that I can keep the retouching separate from the photo.

This makes it very easy to undo and improve any of the retouching even after I've closed the file.

I'll go over to the top of the Layers panel, and I'll click on the Add new layer icon.

Next, I'll double click on that layer name, and I'll rename it Retouching.

In the Toolbar on the left in the Retouch area.

I'll select the Spot Healing Brush.

You may notice when I open the panel that it's selected by default, this tool is ideal for small imperfections in an image like acne, dust and scratches.

Because I want to retouch the layer below, I'll make sure Sample all layers is toggled on.

Any retouching I do is going to reference the layers below, but only apply changes to my new top layer.

To remove some of these smaller white spots in the wall by the jacket.

I'll just click on them, and the Spot Healing Brush covers them up blending the results with the surrounding area.

Photoshop also matches the texture, tone and color of the surrounding image to create a smooth and natural looking repair.

When you're using this tool to remove small spots like this, it's best to make the brush tip a little larger than the spot so it includes a bit of the area around it.

If I need to resize the brush, I can do that with a keyboard shortcut.

Tapping the right bracket key will make the brush cursor larger and tapping the left bracket key will make it smaller.

The Spot Healing Brush also works on areas other than simple spots.

Let's try using it to remove this white string between the jacket, and the curtain.

I'll start by the edge by the jacket and I'll click and drag over that string and then over the edge of the green curtain.

When I release, the string is gone.

Let's move on now to the next retouch tool, the Healing Brush.

This tool is similar to the Spot Healing Brush.

But instead of the tool choosing what detail to use to cover up the spots, I get to decide what detail to copy, and the healing brush will blend that with the color and brightness in the area that I'm retouching.

Once again, I'll select all layers from the Sample drop down, I need to tell the tool where to copy the detail from and I'll do that by pressing the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on Windows and clicking the area I want to copy the detail from I'll click on this area of the peach colored wall and I'll come over to where the paint is peeling on the pink wall.

And I'll start to brush over that.

Even though I sampled from a lighter color peach Photoshop is doing a great job covering the white patches on the pink wall.

I use the same tool to remove this dry mud.

I'll tap the right bracket key a few times to make my brush tip larger.

And then I'll option click on this area to sample and then I'll come over and start to retouch.

Sometimes with larger areas like this, you have to sample several times to fully cover it up, but it's doing a really good job.

There is a third retouching tool that we'll look at next.

And that's the Clone Stamp Tool.

This is similar to the healing brush, but it copies details exactly and does not blend it with the color and brightness of the target area.

I'll select it here in the Retouch area.

And once again in the Sample drop down, I'll select all layers.

I'll also zoom in a bit more tightly to this shadowy area here in the middle.

You can zoom in on the canvas by using a keyboard shortcut, either Command on Mac or Control on Windows and the + sign or in my case, I'm just pinching and zooming using my trackpad.

I'll use this tool to remove this heavy shadow at the top of the image.

I'll tap the left bracket key a few times to resize the brush so it's a little bit wider than the shadow, then I'll Option click to sample some of the detail in the yellow wall near the shadow.

Now I'll clone that wall texture over the shadow over and over again.

If I get close to an area that I don't want to copy, I'll stop and then I'll Option click to sample from a different area.

Sometimes when you're using this tool, you may notice an obvious repetition of detail.

For example, some of the texture the wall has been copied into this nearby area a few times.

To fix that, I'll Option click to sample again and cover up those areas where the detail has been repeated.

There is one more retouching feature in Photoshop on the web that I'd like to show you.

And that's Content Aware Fill.

The hand on the right in this photo looks a bit like a mistake.

So let's go ahead and remove it.

Content Aware Fill removes unwanted objects from an image and fills in resulting gaps seamlessly.

This feature works based on the content you have selected and works best when you have a lot of detail to analyze.

I'll go ahead and select the Wall layer.

And in the right menu, I'm going to duplicate it, I'll give it a new name, we'll call it Wall Content Aware.

Unlike the other retouch work I've done so far, Content Aware Fill is destructive in that it changes the details of my original layer. by duplicating it, I can make my changes and revert back to the original layer if I need to later on.

With that duplicate layer selected in the Layers panel, in the Select areas of the Toolbar, I'll click on the Lasso Tool.

I'll go ahead and drag a lasso selection around the hand, and I'll keep it pretty close to the edges of the hand, but I also want to include some of the detail of the wall in the background.

Once the selection is complete, the Contextual taskbar appears under the selection with additional choices.

I'll go ahead and click on this icon on the right to activate the Content Aware Fill process.

Photoshop analyzes it, and look at that.

I'll go ahead and click the Deselect icon to dismiss the selection so that I can see it without the marching ants.

Although I've used a variety of retouching techniques in this tutorial, it really depends on what your design goals are and the type of image content you're working with.

The best way to move forward will be for you to do some experimentation with each of these tools yourself.

I encourage you to give it a try.