Brett,
I would try using the rectangular marquee to select an area which encompasses just above the top of the padded divider on the top, down to the level of the lowest girls head, the left margin being straight down the middle of the partially head-hidden chair and the left edge and on the right go to the end of the table. Copy/paste this to a new layer above. Flip the selection horizontally, reduce the opacity of this layer so you can see the main layer below somewhat. Get the Move tool and with the cursor inside the selection, drag it to provide the left part of the chair hidden by heads. There will be a lot of extra material on this selection but you could use the eraser on the selection to remove what you don’t need, or create a mask for that layer, painting over and making invisible the parts you don’t need. You may need to adjust the lighing of the revised selection layer to match photo. Hopefully this will get you started. There are always many ways to do something in this program.
Brett, this one looks pretty easy to fix. What I would suggest is that you just darken the two clowns using the Burn tool (looks like a hand making the OK sign). Set it to Range: Midtones and Exposure about 30% and using a soft-edged brush, just keep painting over the faces until they disappear into the background. I tried it on the small version of your photo from the website and it worked great. There are some other methods available, but this one is about the simplest.
Chuck
Brett, one further suggestion on use of the Burn tool: probably better to work on a Duplicate Layer than on the Background (original) layer. Go to Layer<Duplicate Layer and hit OK, then do the burning on this new layer. You can then toggle the new layer visibility off and on with the eyeball icon on the Layers palette so you can see the before and after of your work.
Chuck
Brett, that was too easy <LOL>.
1. Create a new blank layer
2. Select the clone tool (make sure you check mark ALL LAYERS in the tool bar).
3. Now, note the two chairs to the rear of your guests on the right side, which are nearly perfectly in alignment, but the leftmost of the pair is where your ‘friends’ heads are located. What I simply did was use the clone tool and SAMPLE the very top center of the right-most chair.
4. Now, begin cloning ("copying") at the top center of the left chair, and continue proceeding over the two heads you wish to ‘disappear’. Be sure to clone additional vinyl-padding, towards the rear, to fill in the portion that is missing in the original image.
5. Don’t worry about ‘over cloning’ on top of the group of friends. If you do, simply change over to the eraser tool, zoom in and carefully remove spill-over.
Lots of ways to clone out folks. This was one easy method. To do this technique convincingly, one really needs to learn the concept and art of ‘masking’. "Masking is Everything!".
With a little practice and patience, you’ll be a pro at this in no time. Trust me!
Best regards,
Walt
Brett,
Actually, those jokers in the back did you a favor. They gave you an opportunity to learn some new skills.
"He, He…try to ruin my picture will you…I have my weapons to get rid of you once and for all!"
Chuck’s suggestion to burn them seems a little cruel but what the heck, they stuck their heads into the wrong photo.
Mark…..to paraphrase a line from "Ghostbusters"….Those guys are TOAST……..!
Chuck
Now you see, if it were me I would not have to use the clone or the burn etc…..I would have first knocked the idiots out of their seats and taken the picture over again 😉
Brett,
Something else you can do to improve the photo is to correct for the overexposure from the flash. Set you blending mode to multiply with opacity at about 50%. The menus for these are in the layers palette if you don’t know what I’m taking about.
Lucky these guys didn’t run into Jodi that night! No, maybe too bad she wasn’t there to take the photo for you.
Better yet, now that you HAVE the idiots captured digitially, "think of the possibilities!" <heh heh heh>
Walt
To everyone- Thanks for all your help. You have given me many ideas and techniques. I will be trying these out today and over the next few days. Thanks again.
To Jodi- I understand your sentiment re: getting them to move. Unfortunately, this particular photo was taken by the waiter just before we left the restaurant and we made the mistake of not taking a look at the photo until we got home. Another rookie mistake! Oh well.
Thanks again.
Ah, but this is what memories are made of, Brett!
