How to “erase” unwanted subjects in your photos

In this tutorial I will show you how to “erase” or clone out the people from this Japanese Garden photo.

japanese garden

The first part of the tutorial I created a new layer and sketch what I think should go behind the people I wanted to erase. Its always a good idea to sketch the background out when there is a good amount of details.

The second part I use the marquee tool to select the upper part of the door and pasted down, than use a soft eraser to blend it in. You can use this to help you align the doors by moving the copied layer around until it fits.

Next I used a solid color for the small area on the bottom next to the door. When the area is small it’s ok to use a solid color but don’t over do it or it will look fake.

Finally I use the clone stamp to finish the rest of the image, when you first activate the clone stamp you will need to “sample” an area on your photo by holding the Alt key and clicking on a area that you want to clone, than you start painting over the area that needs to be covered.