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Post by cats4jan on Mar 30, 2016 17:20:46 GMT
I originally took this photo to get those trees in the far background. When I looked at needing to remove both areas of black plastic from the photo, I decided to crop it. I removed part of the satellite dish with cloning, but the plastic removal was done by using two identical layers - erasing on the top layer and then moving the bottom layer to fill the void created by the erasure. I then merged the two layers and cropped the top edge of the bottom photo that was now showing at the top of the merge. Since the grass was patchy anyway, this method worked. The black plastic is because that area in the back of the photo is being prepared for houses. I'm losing my nice empty field.  This two-layer technique for removing things from my photos is my method of choice. I am not patient enough to clone and/or make selections to fix a photo. As I look at it now, I maybe should've deleted the middle section of the original photo and kept the trees in the background. The crop turned this into a boring photo. BTW - that is a Sandhill Crane - an infrequent visitor to our part of Florida. He was right outside my lanai on my neighbor's property. Needless to say, the geese were not happy with their visitor. See the stance of one of the geese. But, they soon decided to just eat and forget about each other. My neighbor feeds the geese - and now they are pretty much living in his yard full time -
and now they've moved into my yard -- yuck.
But it does provide some nice photo ops.
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Squirrel2014
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Post by Squirrel2014 on Mar 30, 2016 21:35:54 GMT
This is really interesting, Janice. I like the way you got rid of the plastic stuff. Yes, I see what you mean about taking the middle section out altogether and therefore keeping the trees and the lovely blue sky. It does look a nicely balance photo to me, though, with the two geese, then the bird bath towards the taller Crane. Do geese lay eggs? That could be some benefit to having them around on your land, perhaps???  Julie |
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Post by Andy on Mar 30, 2016 23:38:11 GMT
I rarely use it myself, but this would seem like a great use of the Recompose tool in PSE.
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Post by cats4jan on Mar 31, 2016 1:06:09 GMT
I've tried to use the recompose tool, but I never could get it to work. ------------------- About the geese - they lay eggs in reeds. I'm not sure where in our community they are laying their eggs. Our "lakes" are water retention ponds, not natural sources with places for nesting. But, they must be laying eggs somewhere- they brought their babies to our house last spring. These are Canadian geese. I have no idea why they are in Florida year long - even in the hottest weather. 
As far as I know, there are no positive things about geese in your yard - except maybe as photo ops. |
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Post by cats4jan on Mar 31, 2016 1:29:10 GMT
Obviously, the geese mellowed about their visitor - Here's a photo I could be more successful with - an easier one to remove the plastic from, yet still retain the tree line. I like the composition of this photo much better than the cropped one. 
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Squirrel2014
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Post by Squirrel2014 on Mar 31, 2016 9:40:41 GMT
I've tried to use the recompose tool, but I never could get it to work. ------------------- About the geese - they lay eggs in reeds. I'm not sure where in our community they are laying their eggs. Our "lakes" are water retention ponds, not natural sources with places for nesting. But, they must be laying eggs somewhere- they brought their babies to our house last spring. These are Canadian geese. I have no idea why they are in Florida year long - even in the hottest weather.
As far as I know, there are no positive things about geese in your yard - except maybe as photo ops. Hi Janice I like your scrap page here  I also like your un-cropped image above. I've just been trying some stuff on v11, although it's on my tablet and I'm about to go out so was very limited try. I couldn't remember how to use the recompose tool so I google'd it - www.google.co.uk/search?q=Photoshop+elements+11+use+recompose+tool&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=jez8VpzFG4aeU57vlIgG then clicked on the first link. Watched what seemed to be a reasonable video showing how to use recompose and also Healing tool, and I think it should be OK to get rid of the middle part of your image. Maybe watch the video (only short) and see if it helps. When I come back home later, I'll install v11 on my PC and see how it would work on your photo. If it does, may I post the result or would you rather I didn't? No probls either way. Catch up later Julie |
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Post by Lillias on Mar 31, 2016 11:07:38 GMT
Love all the information and the photos of the Geese and the Sandhill Crane.
As to your original crop – I hope I'm not being presumptious here because I think the crop is fine but it could look that bit better if you still had the trees in the background. That's just my opinion but I'm a great believer that it's what you think yourself that counts.
You say that you are not patient enough to clone and/or make selections but I would ask you to re-consider in this particular case because you could do it really easily with this photo.
Make a rectangular selection of your trees along the top – Select > Modify > Contract by 5 pixels > Feather by 3 pixels and using your down arrow key move the selection into place covering the area with the black plastic.
Then make another rectangular selection down the left hand side encompassing the parts you want to remove and delete leaving you with your finished photo.
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Post by cats4jan on Mar 31, 2016 20:47:06 GMT
If it does, may I post the result or would you rather I didn't? Julie - I would love to see what you do. I am always open to criticism and comments and, most importantly, help from the creative people on this board. I would ask you to re-consider in this particular case because you could do it really easily with this photo. I agree - that photo really lends itself to your method and it would be an improved version instead of the tight crop. Although this isn't the same photo, it's the same problem - so here it is - using BillieJean's method. Easy easy.  |
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Squirrel2014
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Post by Squirrel2014 on Mar 31, 2016 21:12:08 GMT
This one I did using the Context Aware Move tool, then trying with Blur and Healing Brush. I wasn't so impressed, I have to say  So then, using PSE v11, I decided the method you [?] mentioned about taking the middle out. I used the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the top part of the photo, the changed to Draw tool, held Ctrl (? Cmd) and pulled the Left hand side of the rectangle down so the 'line' was just above the black plastic. Then I used a little of Blur, Healing tool to try to blend the join. After that, the straighten tool coz it was a bit skew-wiff. Also, I used the clone tool at the join in the sky coz it left a feint line. Crop to size because of the edges after the Straighten tool. I felt this result was much better. I'm interested to know what others think ...  |
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Post by Lillias on Mar 31, 2016 21:14:12 GMT
I agree - that photo really lends itself to your method and it would be an improved version instead of the tight crop. Although this isn't the same photo, it's the same problem - so here it is - using BillieJean's method. Easy easy. Great job there Janice. That worked really well. |
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Post by cats4jan on Mar 31, 2016 21:17:41 GMT
Julie - it looks good. It's so simple to just cut away the bad stuff and move it down. That's what I love about scenery photos. They can so easily be manipulated. Thanks for helping me 'see the light' or in this case, not see the dirt. LOL
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Post by cats4jan on Mar 31, 2016 21:25:16 GMT
It's been an interesting Spring in my backyard. I hear a baby has been sighted although I haven't seen it. White Pelicans aren't supposed to breed in Central Florida. Guess they didn't know that.
That's better - used a levels adjustment layer |
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Post by Sepiana on Mar 31, 2016 21:28:34 GMT
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Squirrel2014
Established Forum Member
Where's that cup of tea ... ???
Posts: 685
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by Squirrel2014 on Mar 31, 2016 22:02:46 GMT
Julie - it looks good. It's so simple to just cut away the bad stuff and move it down. That's what I love about scenery photos. They can so easily be manipulated. Thanks for helping me 'see the light' or in this case, not see the dirt. LOL This is how I did that. I have taken a screen shot of the layers and the top layer. Then, with both layers showing, I just used the arrow keys to move the top piece down until I was happy the black plastic was covered. I forgot to mention that I feathered it slightly in Refine Edge, in the hope the join wouldn't be too harsh  |
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Post by cats4jan on Mar 31, 2016 23:43:54 GMT
So simple, yet a fantastic result. Thanks for sharing your technique.
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I also like your un-cropped image above.
