*** From the Archives ***

This article is from December 13, 2010, and is no longer current.

Photoshop How-To: When You Can't Cut It Out, Cover It Up

This tutorial is courtesy of the Russell Brown Show.
When masking gets tough, sometimes just covering up the problem is the only solution. Photographer Scott Copeland presented me with a wedding photo that was perfect — except for the beer bottle and speaker interrupting the mood. The healing brush worked on the beer bottle, but the speaker was a much bigger challenge. The healing brushes couldn’t handle it, I couldn’t mask it out, and even Photoshop CS5’s amazing new content-aware fill feature didn’t solve the problem.

But I eventually figured out the answer, and in this tutorial, I’ll show you how I came up with this final image:

Click this link to view the tutorial video on a MAC or PC.
Click this link to view the tutorial video on an iPhone or iPad.
 

RUSSELL BROWN is the Senior Creative Director at Adobe Systems, and an Emmy Award-winning instructor. He shares his delight in testing the creative limits of his tools, and his in-depth design knowledge and zany presentation style has won him a regular following among beginning, intermediate, and advanced users alike.
  • Anonymous says:

    Always a pleasure to watch and listen or watch listen and LEARN from you Maestro Brown, thank you for your considerable talent and sense of humour too. Erik

  • Anonymous says:

    Bloody brilliant! Not only did you cleverly solve this problem (and it was certainly an ugly one), but it also did a nice job of showing how to take advantage of the “Blend If”.

  • Anonymous says:

    The movie is not working. Tried both IE and FF on a PC. :-(

  • Terri Stone says:

    I know that many people have been able to view the video, so that’s good news. Try copying and pasting the following URL into your browser’s address field:

    https://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/NewZealandWedding_SM.mov

    Terri Stone
    Editor in Chief, CreativePro.com

  • Anonymous says:

    I hadn’t noticed the colour options in the layer properties before. Really good stuff. Thanks!

  • Anonymous says:

    This tutorial was very helpful and I learned some new stuff. Russell Brown is somewhat of an interesting character however. Kept me into it tho..Keep up the good work.

  • Terri Stone says:

    Quirky is Russell’s middle name!

    Terri Stone
    Editor in Chief, CreativePro.com

  • Anonymous says:

    Brilliant! Thanks for all the good stuff you share with us.

  • Anonymous says:

    That is amazing! Way over my head, but much appreciated, ;) m

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