Image editing is a useful skill for enhancing the quality and appearance of your photos, graphics, and designs. However, sometimes you may encounter unwanted objects that distract from your main subject or ruin the composition. In this article, you will learn how to select and delete unwanted objects in image editing using different tools and techniques.
Accurately selecting unwanted objects is the first step in deleting them. Depending on the shape, size, and location of the object, you may need to use different selection tools. The lasso tool allows you to draw a freehand selection around the object and is useful for irregular or complex shapes, though it requires precision and patience. The magic wand tool selects pixels based on their color and brightness and is helpful for objects with distinct color or contrast from the background, though it may also select unwanted areas or leave gaps. The quick selection tool selects pixels based on their similarity and edges and is good for objects with clear outlines and consistent textures; however, it may also select too much or too little. Lastly, the object selection tool uses AI to detect and select objects automatically, making it useful for well-defined and isolated objects, but it may not work well for overlapping or blurry objects.
For simple selections this article is right. But for more complex stuff like hair I use the refine edge tool and curves to select it. Best thing ever especially when dealing with wavy and curly/coily hair.
When the area you need to fix or remove is small, the Spot Healing tool works at its bets, however for larger size of a fuzzy object, I use some times the Patch tool, but it will depend on the color or luminosity of the object to be removed, that the content aware might retain the colors or shapes, which you dont want to have; for this cases I have to do a manual work using the Clone tool, and then, the Healing tool.
Once you have identified an unwanted object, you can delete it in several ways. The delete key is a popular choice for images with a transparent background or a solid color. The fill tool is suitable for images with a simple or uniform background, while the content-aware fill tool is best for images with a complex or textured background. However, the delete key may not work well for complex backgrounds and the fill tool may not match the original background, while the content-aware fill tool may create unwanted artifacts or repetitions.
One of the most advanced and powerful deletion methods is the content-aware fill feature. This feature uses artificial intelligence to analyze the image and generate a realistic and seamless fill for the selected area. It is available in some image editing software, such as Photoshop, and it has several advantages and disadvantages.
This new editing tool is very powerful, like all photoshop tools it has its advantages and disadvantages. The most important advantages to highlight would be the fact that the time spent working and deleting unwanted elements in an image is cut in half. Also, being able to make all the modifications in a separate layer, allows to be able to erase the changes without damaging the original photo. On the other hand, the only thing I have noticed is that it does not give very good results if the image you are working on has a lot of texture or details that are simply very difficult to duplicate automatically.
The content aware fill in Photoshop is awesome to use for retouching but it works the best when it's a plain background that's not too busy. AI is still new technology and not perfect. I still recommend learning how to retouch using the other features like healing brush, spot healing brush and even the patch tool which is also great for retouching photography.
The content-aware fill feature offers several advantages that make it an efficient and useful deletion method. To start, it saves time and effort by allowing the software to do the work in seconds, rather than manually cloning, patching, or healing the selected area. Additionally, it adapts to the context by considering the color, tone, texture, and perspective of the image to create a fill that matches the background. Lastly, it provides flexibility and control as you can adjust the settings and options of the feature to fine-tune the fill, such as changing the sampling area, output mode, or color adaptation.
I love the content aware fill for extending simple backgrounds. It's great when you just need something like a bit more sky or grass to allow for bleed in print, or simply to give the image a better composition.
The content-aware fill feature has some limitations and drawbacks that may affect its performance and quality. For example, it may not work for images that have too much detail, too little variation, or too many similar objects. It may also create unwanted effects, such as blurring, distortion, mismatching, or duplication. Additionally, it may require additional editing to account for factors like lighting, shadows, reflections, or perspective. Thus, you may need to fix any issues manually or use another deletion method and adjust elements manually or use other editing tools.