Buy. Download. Create. Get Photoshop CS3 now at the Adobe Store.
Photoshop for Students. Get super savings at the Adobe Academic Store.
Removing Antennas And Power Lines With The Spot Healing Brush
Ah, Paris. Just look at this famous view of the Eiffel Tower painted brilliantly by so many Masters of years past. But wait... what's that pointy thing toward the right?! Ugh, it's an antenna.
Has that ever happened to you? You snap the perfect photo only to find it riddled with antennas or power lines? I'll go all in and bet the answer is yes. Luckily, there's a tool in both Photoshop and Elements that's surprisingly adept at eliminating unwanted bits against the sky, though it may never occur to you to actually use it.
Today I'm going to show you how to use the Spot Healing Brush to repair the sky and while we're at it, we'll zap some power lines from beneath some unsuspecting birds. It's much easier than you thought, though it does take some time and patience.
Step 1: Pop open a photo in Elements and immediately double-click the background layer to make it editable.
Step 2: From the main toolbar on the left, go grab the Spot Healing Brush.
Step 3: This tool uses a regular brush cursor, so just begin to paint out the ugly antenna, as shown below.
See how it disappears? This is because the Spot Healing Brush is sampling adjacent pixels and blending them to remove the spot, or line in our case.
TIP: Now I'll warn you, it doesn't always work perfectly. Sometimes you'll get blurry areas, as shown below. When that happens, try adjusting your brush size by pressing the left bracket, [, to cycle down in brush size or the right bracket, ], to cycle up. Just press Command + Z (PC: Ctrl + Z) to undo any brushstroke and begin again.
Step 4: When you get to an area of varying hue like the horizon below, experiment between clicking and/or dragging the brush in different directions. In this case, dragging from right to left worked best.
Step 5: When you encounter an area with texture, such as this piece of metal around the stone chimney...
Hop on up to the Options toolbar and click the Create Texture radio button and then resume painting.
Step 6: Last but not least, I zapped the really tiny antennas by reducing my brush size and dragging straight downward, as shown below.
Here's the much improved finished product (the Masters would be proud, don't you think?):
Admittedly, the Spot Healing Brush wasn't a tool I would have first considered for zapping antennas and power lines, but it sure can do the trick!
Power Lines
Let us now take this technique a step further and use it in conjunction with the Clone Stamp Tool to rip the lines out from under these birds I snatched from iStockphoto.com.
Step 1: Use the Spot Healing Brush as we did on the Eiffel Tower shot above.
After spending about 10 minutes alternating between just clicking and clicking and dragging, this is what we have:
Step 2: To finish up the bits around the birds, grab the Clone Stamp Tool from the toolbar to copy areas of the sky onto the blurry areas.
Step 3: Hold the Option key (PC: Alt) and click once to choose a sample point. This is the area you'll be copying from when you paint.
Step 4: Mouse over to the area you need to cover and begin to paint. You'll see the sample point as you move the brush.
After a few moments, we have some nice floating birds.
The key to success with the Clone Stamp Tool is to choose sample points often, and as usual when using a brush cursor, remember to experiment with brush size by using the left and right bracket keys to cycle down or up. Until next time, happy line zapping!
Read more Photoshop tutorials from Lesa Snider King.
Photoshop CS3 Upgrade Options And Bundles From The Adobe Store
Photoshop CS3 Extended is ideal for film, video, and multimedia pros and for graphic and web designers using 3D and motion. Get the full version for US $999, or upgrade for US $349. The standard version of Photoshop CS3 is available for US $649, or as an upgrade for US $199. See all upgrade options at the Adobe Store. See our CS3 Resource Center for free Photoshop CS3 tutorials.
Photoshop Extended is also available as part of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, which combines all-new CS3 versions of Photoshop, Flash Pro, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat 8 Pro. Upgrade options for customers in Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Asia can be found at the Adobe International Store.
SiteGrinder Photoshop Plugin - Create Websites Instantly
There often seems to be a strict division of labor within the world of web design and development. Creative professionals tend to stick to the Photoshop domain, while those well-versed in scripting are left to the task of implementing their work. Indeed, the two realms are quite different from each other, to which any of us even vaguely familiar with either can easily attest.
Essentially, Photoshop is a no-holds-barred design studio, offering the artist a seemingly endless array of creative options. On the other hand, HTML, CSS, Java and the like follow strict rules of engagement, requiring the developer to take any number of esoteric concerns into consideration in order to ensure that designs are properly displayed on the web.
Turn Photoshop Into A Complete Web Design Tool
SiteGrinder seeks to bridge this gap between design and development. Basically, this program turns Photoshop into an easy-to-use and fully functional web design tool. With SiteGrinder, designers will now have the freedom to totally let their creativity loose and then, without skipping a beat, transfer their designs to the web. Bringing esthetic concerns together with more practical considerations, this program is an amazingly powerful tool that would make a fantastic addition to any web designer's bag of tricks.
Generate Your Web Pages Directly From Photoshop
By generating web pages directly from Photoshop, you'll be able to spend much more time on the creative end of the spectrum, since you'll know right off the bat how well particular designs will translate to the web. No more going back to the Photoshop drawing board after getting a phone call from your development team, telling you that what you had envisioned doesn't have a chance of being displayed on the web. You can immediately visually and interactively test your designs, which permits you to then make changes to either esthetics or functions while it's still relatively early on in the design process.
Pricing and Availability
Mac OS X and Windows versions of the SiteGrinder unlockable demo are available now via download. SiteGrinder can be ordered from Media Lab's online store.
Photoshop CS3 Book - CS3 Essential Skills - By Mark Galer And Philip Andrews
Brimming with beautiful pictures, Photoshop CS3 Essential Skills guides you through a project-based, progressive curriculum so that you can build all the essential skills to enhance photographs creatively and professionally with Photoshop CS3. If you are an aspiring professional, enthusiastic amateur photographer, or a student learning photography, digital imaging, art and design, or design graphics, you'll be amazed at the stunning results you can achieve. A DVD is included free.
The Essential Skills Photography Series from Focal Press uniquely offers a structured learning experience for photographers of all ages, with both the underlying theory and loads of invaluable 'how to' and real-life practice projects - all from the most talented photography practitioners/educators in the world.
Read 2 free sample chapters:
Adjusting Exposure in Adobe Camera Raw CS3
Photoshop CS3 Tutorial High Dynamic Range
Special book offer - save 24%
Photoshop CS3: Essential Skills (Amazon.com - $28.08 - save 24%)
Photoshop CS2 Book - Photoshop CS2: Essential Skills - By Mark Galer And Philip Andrews
An inspirational and user-friendly guide to creative image editing, Photoshop CS2: Essential Skills provides direction for photographers and designers alike who have ventured into the realm of the 'digital darkroom.' The book offers a progressive curriculum to guide you through Photoshop with a series of clear, step-by-step projects designed to place knowledge into a practical context.
Whether you simply want to retouch an image, create a glamour makeover or create a highly sophisticated montage - this book will give you the essential skills to complete the work to a professional standard.
Read 2 free sample chapters:
How To Sharpen An Image In Photoshop — Advanced Sharpening Techniques
Working With Shadows In Photoshop - Advanced Shadow Techniques
Special book offer - save 37%
Photoshop CS2: Essential Skills (Amazon.com - $20.76 - save 37%)
Exclusive 20% Discount On Select Total Training Products & Bundles
To redeem our exclusive discount coupon, use promotion code save20pss in your shopping cart. You could save hundreds of dollars. Use this special link to see the full offer.
Total Training for Adobe Photoshop
Learn Adobe Photoshop with 21 hours of interactive Adobe Photoshop tutorials. This is training for real-world situations and includes additional tips and techniques used by the pros.
View Sample Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash Pro Video Tutorials
Free Adobe Photoshop CS3 video tutorials
Free Adobe Photoshop CS2 video tutorials
Free Adobe Dreamweaver video tutorials
Free Adobe Flash Pro video tutorials
