Photography Challenge #2: Check Yourself

I'm also offering a free Create Challenge Toolkit, which will contain all of the worksheets that go along with this series.

To submit your challenge response simply snap a clear picture of your completed worksheets and post them in the comments section below. Click on the button above to download the worksheets.

Removing Distractions with the Perfect Eraser or a Clone Brush

View fullsize

Original Image with distractions such as ropes, a car and porta johns.

I had recently made a video about how to remove distractions from an image using On1's Perfect Eraser tool.  However, the image I worked on had a simple blue sky background and it wasn't very challenging for the software to clone out some branches.  A youtube view asked to see a video of it cloning in a more challenging spot.  Click here to see the first video and look below to see the new video.  

Removing Distractions with the Perfect Eraser Tool:  Part II

As you can see from the video the Perfect Eraser tool works well, but it is a little slow.  It takes quite a bit of time to process each cloned area and I think you could do as well if not better with the clone tool or the patch tool in Photoshop.  Here is the image I ended up with after using the Perfect Eraser tool.  It did ok in some areas but there are many places that need to be cleaned up.

View fullsize

Results from just using the Perfect Eraser tool.

Next, I tried to clean up the image with a technique I saw from Aaron Nace by using a bokeh brush that he created to clone over objects that really didn't have enough pixels around it to use the clone tool.  I think the trick to using it well is using a low flow rate of around 8-10%.  I'm sure I didn't do as well as Aaron but I think it came out pretty well.

Using a Clone Brush to Remove Distractions:  Part III 

View fullsize

Final Result

Please post comments below to let me know what you thought of this post and how you think the final image came out.  Also please use the sharing tools on this page to share this post on your favorite social media sites.

Thank You,

Gary Detonnancourt

The Background is Just as Important as the Foreground

View fullsize

Weekly Photo Challenge

Every week you may post 2 of your best images for our photo challenge. To Enter please upload the images in the comment section below by clicking on the Landscape icon or if you use an image host like Flickr by pasting the embed link in the comment bar.  Please post each image in a separate comment for voting purposes.  You may earn bragging rights and maybe even some cool prizes.

I will post a new subject on Thursday of each week.  The previous week's contest will end Thursday at 5 pm EST.  The winner will be selected from the number of likes an image has acquired over the week and ties will be settled by the number of comments or by me.

This Weeks Challenge:  For The Birds

Prize:  Free Coupon for my Online Photography Class

Voting:  Please remember to visit often and to like (click the up arrow) then comment on your favorite image (with "My Vote").  Please vote only one time.  Good Luck!

AND THE WINNER IS NANCY MARSHALL FOR YELLOW WARBLER

CONGRATULATIONS NANCY

View fullsize