Need Help Removing People in Background!

I shot my sister's senior pictures last weekend and am in the process of editing before sending them to my parents for review and selection. I would love to keep this picture because the expression is great and I didn't manage to capture it in any other shot over the course of four days. Unfortunately, the two beachgoers in the background are killing me! I tried cloning them out to no avail. I've posted the full res image here:

http://www.mediafire.c​om …ckkey=m0a4rbx1m​mf&thumb=4

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Stefanie

this is my meager attempt....


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sidx001 wrote in post #5292341
this is my meager attempt....

What did you do? Anyway to upload a high res version?

Here is my try at it. It's a little bit soft on the right side but it might work.

In Photoshop it is simply the Clone tool! Good luck there are 1000s of tutorials on the net. Google it!

My version.

I have no account to upload the larger file. Mediafile will not let me open a free account.
Any suggestions?

Edit Mediafile finally let me open an account. Here is the link to my version of your image.

http://www.mediafire.c​om …ckkey=gzcdir0yh​r1&thumb=4


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krusnof wrote in post #5293329
In Photoshop it is simply the Clone tool! Good luck there are 1000s of tutorials on the net. Google it!

I tried cloning... I had issues with the portion of the man that was behind her hair, and ended up with a nasty pattern. It clearly looked edited. After an hour I gave up.

I was bored, so I went overboard just for the fun of it.

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Use the patch tool to get rid of the guys upper bodies (select the patch tool, click/hold and draw around the two guys' bodies then drag the selection to the sand area to the right of your friend). You may need to use the clone stamp to clean up the bottom of the selection near the cross bar.

Use the clone stamp to get rid of their legs. When cloning it's usually best to make several small repairs instead of one or two big repairs.

Removing the guys will probably also take out part of her leftmost hair strands between the green cross bars. I would clone out the outer strands to avoid a "hacked" look.

Hi:

There are several ways to remove the background. You can use Photoshop CS3 via Filter/Extract. You can also use Vertus's Fluid Mask, as well as OnOne Mask Pro. Either of these can completely remove the background and you will be left with just your sister and whatever color background you want.

Have fun.

suzyb wrote in post #5294088
I was bored, so I went overboard just for the fun of it.

Wow, you went all out. What all did you do? I'm new to portraiture and feel like I'm having to slowly re-learn how to pp photos. It's not at all like pp landscapes or nature shots.

Roach711 wrote in post #5294094
Use the patch tool to get rid of the guys upper bodies (select the patch tool, click/hold and draw around the two guys' bodies then drag the selection to the sand area to the right of your friend). You may need to use the clone stamp to clean up the bottom of the selection near the cross bar.

Use the clone stamp to get rid of their legs. When cloning it's usually best to make several small repairs instead of one or two big repairs.

Removing the guys will probably also take out part of her leftmost hair strands between the green cross bars. I would clone out the outer strands to avoid a "hacked" look.

Thanks for the detailed description. I'll give it a try and see what I come up with!

yanz wrote in post #5293130
Here is my try at it. It's a little bit soft on the right side but it might work.

Here is the link to the full size image http://images22.fotki.​com …129/3411285/IMG​_0331a.jpg
Let me know what you think.

Good luck,
Yan

Looks darn good to me, that's what I think. Thank you very much for your help!

sniperkittie wrote in post #5293358
My version.

I have no account to upload the larger file. Mediafile will not let me open a free account.
Any suggestions?

Edit Mediafile finally let me open an account. Here is the link to my version of your image.

http://www.mediafire.c​om …ckkey=gzcdir0yh​r1&thumb=4

Wow. That looks wonderful. What tools did you use? I'm guessing it took more work than just cloning.

And thank you very much for your help!

intrinsicvalue wrote in post #5294216
Wow. That looks wonderful. What tools did you use? I'm guessing it took more work than just cloning.

And thank you very much for your help!

The removal was done using a clone tool. Brush settings were slightly transparent and had a feather edge. Cloned from the right side and a few other areas depending on what I need. This removed the hair strands also. Those were hand painted back in on a new layer with a brush set to 1 or 2 pixels and mostly transparent and feathered a lot. Colors were selected from the existing hair. The layer was then blended using overlay and opacity adjusted to match the existing hair. You could also clone the hair strands in using the clone tool and very small brush on a new layer.