Request for C&C of Chain Link Fence Removal

[Packhorse-4]

This is a picture of one of the cheetahs at the St. Louis Zoo. I like the original, but I thought it would be fun to try and remove the fence. I have used the healing brush and the clone stamp for much smaller areas and this was definitely a bit more difficult. I had trouble around the legs because of the fur and you can see the areas around the front right leg were I didn’t get close enough.

Am I on the right path with this technique or should I try something different? Are there any different recommendations for removing the fence or working with the fine detail of the fir?

My First Attempt:

http://JG-Photos.smugmug.com/photos/135331605-L.jpg


The Original...

http://JG-Photos.smugmug.com/photos/124718623-L.jpg

[Beau Hudspeth]

Fence? What fence? What ever you did look great!

All you need now is some PP work do get better colors!

[Beau Hudspeth]

This is kina cool ;)

154199

[Packhorse-4]

Thanks for your comments Beau. I also appreciate the example you posted to boost the colors. I also thought it was a nice touch to add the blur on the right side of the photo. Thanks for the ideas.

[Detrimental]

Great job! So how much time did it take you? :P

[Packhorse-4]

Actually, it took less time than I thought it would. I knocked it out in about 15 minutes. But I was not sure if my technique was right. I can see some areas that did not blend well along the front legs. I was looking for some insight into different techniques.

FWIW, here is what I did:

I copied the cheetah to a new layer and feathered the copy at 3 pixels. I was careful not to have any of the chain link fence in the copy, but I wasn’t too concerned around the edges where I couldn’t see fence.

I turned off the layer with the copy and put in a new layer in-between to work on the fence.

Then I cloned over the chain link fence from large areas on the right side so the foliage would be consistent.

After I was finished cloning out the fence, I turned on the layer with my copy of the cheetah. This helped me to define the outline of the cheetah. If I was too aggressive in my cloning and covered part of the cheetah, the copy would cover my mistakes in the areas where the foliage was covering the legs or body.

The only other thing I did was darken the group of leaves covering the face because after I added the darker foliage the lighter leaves looked out of place. This was just a hue and saturation adjustment.