removing branches

[gregA]

hi all can anyone tell me how easy it would be to remove the offending branches from this photo. l have photoshop elements 3 but havn'treally got round to using it for editing would it be a simple task.
cheers
gregA

[glsammy]

Like this?



You use the clone tool. Keep taking fresh points or else you'll see repetitive marks showing.
I also use the same tool to fill in the parts of the shot that were burnt out. It's possible to do much more, but one step at a time.

If you mean the background branches, like this:



Not sure exactly what filters your program has. This was done by masking out the bird and the in focus branches and then inverting the selection. Then under the filters I used lens blur to reduce the out of focus detail.
You could go on and on with other settings, it really is endless.

[Meta menardi]

It can be done, as is suggested. I would add one thing, save the pic as a TIFF or some other lossless (lots of SSS's there) before you do this and make sure that you do the same as you work. Saving JPG files again and again wil cause serious loss of quality in the image.

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

It can be done, as is suggested. I would add one thing, save the pic as a TIFF or some other lossless (lots of SSS's there) before you do this and make sure that you do the same as you work. Saving JPG files again and again wil cause serious loss of quality in the image.

All I do is once I've loaded the JPEG image and I'm ready to save the new version, I use "Save As" This preserves the original JPEG.

[GTH]

Originally Posted by glsammy

All I do is once I've loaded the JPEG image and I'm ready to save the new version, I use "Save As" This preserves the original JPEG.

That`s exactly what i do to create a JPEG,( Save as ) in PS, however my original is raw and remains that way to retain the original raw file.

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by GTH

That`s exactly what i do to create a JPEG,( Save as ) in PS, however my original is raw and remains that way to retain the original raw file.

That's what I'd do if I shot in raw!

[gregA]

thanks for your help i
guess i,ll have to start practicing
gregA

[Geoff F]

Greg, as Graham demonstrated, this can be done but it isn't exactly easy if you aren't proficient in this sort of editing.

So enlarge the view and work slowly. Change the clone source as required. And work on a copy because you may well make a mess of your first attempts.

It can be done with a cordless mouse but I always prefer a drawing tablet for this sort of thing; but that is additional expense.

[gregA]

thanks geoff
i have a graphics tablet somewhere just need to find it (i thinks in the attic somewhere) and start practising on some old images first i suppose.
thanks again every one for your help
gregA