When you're capturing outdoor scenic photos, it's common for passersby to enter your frame, potentially affecting the composition unintentionally. If unwanted individuals appear in your photos and you want to remove them seamlessly, you can do so using Photoshop. In Photoshop, there are numerous tools available for removing people. In these shots, people move around while the background remains static. However, this method requires capturing a large number of photos initially. Image stacking is commonly employed in astrophotography, macro photography, and other fields to achieve higher-quality images. Additionally, this technique demands high computer performance. When removing someone in Photoshop, using post-processing tools is a common method. There are various post-processing tools in Photoshop, each relatively easy to operate once you select the appropriate one.
Key tools and strategies for removing people
1. It's important to note that the Patch Tool is not a one-stop solution. In such situations, you can switch to the Clone Stamp Tool in the toolbar, and by holding down the "Alt/Option" key, select colors from the surrounding area.
2. The Clone Stamp Tool is another excellent choice. It's like an expanded version of the Patch Tool. If you're interested in learning more about the specific techniques for using the Clone Stamp Tool, feel free to check out our related tutorial.
3. The Spot Healing Brush and Healing Brush Tool can also remove unwanted content. These tools are typically better suited for fixing small imperfections like blemishes on a face or removing wires.
4. You can directly utilize the Remove Tool to erase someone in Photoshop. It's quite straightforward to use. Simply adjust the brush size appropriately, then brush over the person, completely covering them. One tip is to leave the "Remove after each stroke" checkbox at the top unchecked. For more complex scenes, you may need to use the Remove Tool multiple times to refine imperfections.
With the TourBox, you can perform various intricate operations with fewer movements, significantly streamlining your workflow in Photoshop.
With the advancement of AI technology, Photoshop has also embraced AI and introduced some content-aware features to assist in editing.
AI-powered methods to remove objects
1. Content-Aware Fill is an advanced and powerful feature in Adobe Photoshop. Navigate to "Edit" > "Content-Aware Fill" in the top menu bar. You don't need to adjust any other options; simply click OK. For more complex image scenarios, the recognition might not be as precise.
2. Generative Fill excels in handling complex scene algorithms and produces outstanding results, even though it takes a bit longer to process. However, due to computational constraints, this feature isn't unlimited in its usage. Adobe offers different Generative credits to users based on their subscription plans.
If you're interested in learning more tips and tricks for using Content-Aware Fill and Generative Fill, please check out our related article. The methods we've shared above can handle most scenarios. In actual photo editing, achieving your goal with just one tool can be challenging. In such cases, you can use a combination of tools.
Practical workflows: step-by-step examples
Picture a beautiful shot of a beach at sunset or a snowy mountain...but there's a backhoe spoiling the glory. Or maybe you snapped a photo of your loved one in a special place, only to find unloved ones marring the shot. Don't worry; you can remove unwanted objects and people from your photos thanks to some powerful tools in Adobe Photoshop.
For years, you've been able to remove a subject from a background image with Photoshop, but it’s now easier than ever with new AI features and tools, specifically the Remove Tool. It removes a person or thing from a photo and generates a plausible background to fill in where the object used to be. While older tools, like Photoshop's Content-Aware Fill and Healing Brush, can remove objects from images and have been doing so for a few years, they don't work as automatically or neatly as the AI-powered Remove Tool added in the June 2023 update.
The Remove Tool is in the Band-Aid section of the left-hand toolbar. Once you enable the Remove Tool, brush over the object you want to remove. I recommend brushing around the object's edges first and then filling in the entire center-and make sure you do it in one continuous motion. Note that you need to brush outside the object’s edge, too, not just inside it, as when selecting it. Brush the object’s shadow as well if it has one. You may not get perfect results the first time, as shown below. In that case, you can try using the Remove Tool again after brushing slightly differently. Another option is to select the object and use Edit > Content-Aware Fill, but the automatic options in that tool delivered much worse results for me. It does, however, let you choose the replacement area, so you may have better results with it than I did.
Adobe's documentation says the Remove Tool works with complex backgrounds. As you can see from the results, it created an unconvincing image by poorly filling in the double yellow road lines where the now-removed car had been blocking them from view, and the parked cars that previously weren't fully visible don't look real at all. The Remove Tool is new, so it will likely improve with time and updates, and it’s already better than earlier similar tools. The example above is pretty complex, and I chose it to give the Remove Tool a challenge and to show you potential pitfalls.
Get More Out of PhotoshopTo learn the ins and outs of the top image editing software, as well as hear about its newest features, read our full Adobe Photoshop review. I've been testing PC and mobile software for more than 20 years, focusing on photo and video editing, operating systems, and web browsers. Prior to my current role, I covered software and apps for ExtremeTech and headed up PCMag’s enterprise software team. I’ve attended trade shows for Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products. I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time.
I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft misstep and win, up to the latest Windows 11. I’m an avid bird photographer and traveler-I’ve been to 40 countries, many with great birds!
Bummer. You captured the perfect shot right when someone walked into the background of your frame. Can it be fixed? In this post, photographer Kelley Hoagland will show you how to edit out someone in a photo using Photoshop. This post contains affiliate links. It may be helpful to note that I usually complete the bulk of my photography edits in Lightroom. That’s where I crop, adjust exposure, color grade, and do light touch ups. However, when a more complex edit is needed, I open the image in photoshop. This can be easily accomplished by clicking ⌘ + e (or ctrl + e) on my Macbook keyboard. Whenever editing a photo in Adobe Photoshop, I immediately click ⌘ + j (or ctrl + j) to duplicate the image to the top layer. I never edit directly on the original image in order to avoid damaging it. Whether I state it or not, duplicating the original image is always my first step!
From there we are free to cut out, paint, and paste on top of the image. Let’s first talk about how to edit out someone in a photo in Photoshop using the Spot Healing Tool. This is a great option if the person is taking up a very small part of the background and isn’t really overlapping with your subject. It’s similar to the Erase Tool in Lightroom, but I find it tends to be more precise. Let’s go through this example image from the beach. In Lightroom, click ⌘ + e to open your image in Photoshop. Click and drag the Spot Healing Tool over the entire surface of the people you would like to remove from the image. To make the Spot Healing Tool brush larger or smaller, use the bracket keys on your keyboard (“[ and ]”). When you release your mouse, Photoshop will decide how to remove what you’ve drawn over. It’s usually very accurate when removing small objects/people. To save the image back to Lightroom for continued editing or exporting, click ⌘ + s.
When the extra person in the background of an image is closer to the camera and therefore larger, I like to use the Lasso Tool. Rather than painting over the person, with the lasso tool, you draw a circle around the person you would like to edit out. Let’s go through another example from the beach. My little friend is a total mood in this image. My youngest daughter happened to be playing in the background. While I could certainly leave her in the image, I think removing her helps keep the focus on this little man enjoying his snack. In Lightroom, click ⌘ + e to open your image in Photoshop. This is the icon for the Lasso Tool. Draw around the person you would like to edit out of the background. Use the lasso tool to draw around the person who is in the background of the photo. Right click inside of the selected area and click “Fill”. Make sure “Content Aware” is selected in the drop down menu. Then click “OK”. Photoshop will not cover up the person. To save the image back to Lightroom for continued editing or exporting, click ⌘ + s.
Granted, I realize that the above two examples are pretty easy edits. The people in the background don’t overlap with my subject and are on fairly clean backgrounds. What do you do if the person you are trying to delete overlaps your subject? What if the background is more complex? In that case, I would recommend doing a combination of creating a layer that is just your subject and using the Clone Stamp Tool to erase the extraneous person from the layer below. If you have little kids, you know you have to move quickly to get a good photo. I had just gotten everyone into position when some people rounded the corner of the walkway I had them posed on. I snapped several photos quickly, trying to angle myself to block the strangers behind my daughters. But of course this image with a person in the background was the image where they had the best smiles. Doesn’t it always happen that way?
Select the Select Tool. With the Select Tool clicked, look for “Select Subject” on the top toolbar. With the “Select Tool” icon clicked, look for the “Select Subject” button at the top of the screen. Clicking “Select Subject” will select along the outline of your subject. With your subject selected, click ⌘ + c to “copy”. Then click ⌘ + v to “paste”. This will create a new top layer that is only your subject. Layer 2 is only my subject. We can now edit on Layer 1 and my subjects will not be affected. Now select “Layer 1” to edit in. This way “Layer 2”, which contains the subjects, will be unaltered. With Layer 2 selected, click the Clone Stamp Tool. The Clone Stamp Tool paints pixels from another part of the image. To select where you would like to borrow or copy part of the image for painting, click “option” on the keyboard and then click the area you would like to copy. Then move the tool to the area you would like to paint over. Watch me complete this action in the video clip below. I choose part of the wall above to copy and paint over the man. Because I’m working on Layer 1, the “paint” does not cover my subjects on the top layer, Layer 2. I hope you found this post about how to edit someone out of a photo in Photoshop helpful! These are the main three approaches I use to remove distractions from the background. Depending on the situation, sometimes I’ll use a combination of all of the listed tools. Let me know about your progress!
Looking for more photography editing tips? Let’s examine 2 ways to remove a person from a photo. In this case, I always get the shot and then have the model leave the scene and shoot a clean background plate. In this case, I used a photo from Adobe Stock, and I searched for more photos from the same shoot. I was able to get a different shot, but one that revealed a different part of the background. Then we will look at the 2nd scenario, you are the retoucher/designer and you only have the single image to work with. Here is the starting photo. We will remove the person. Your person will be selected. We can go 2 ways from here. Either fix the rest of this photo (which we will do in a few steps) or use an additional photo to patch it. Step 4. Drag the new photo into the same document as our main photo. To combine, drag the photo into the tab at the top of the screen, of the other photo. Wait for the document to open and then move to the center of the image and then release. Here I have painted it the top layer over the top half of the photo. Notice it looks perfect. The only thing is the shadow on the cross walk. Technique #2. Here we will remove a person from a photo without using a second photo to patch the image. Your person will be selected. This is the result. Click and drag to paint with the sampled area. Use the clone stamp to copy bits in the photo to plug in the holes and hide the areas that look weird. Press Alt/Option to sample. Sometimes you will come to a problem like this. Clone on the new layer. Don’t worry if you go over. We will fix that. Press the X key to swap foreground and background colors. What if we want to sample from a different area and the angle is different. We want to copy the left yellow rectangle over the highlighted yellow rectangle. For the thumbnail, I combined the top half of the image from the first technique and the cross walk from the second technique. I really hope that you found this video and written steps useful and that this helps you remove people from photos a couple of different ways.
Use Range Masks in Lightroom and Camera Raw to selectively adjust your photos. Here's how to remove people and objects from your photos using Photoshop's new Remove Tool, powered by AI. The Remove Tool uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to remove people, objects or distractions from your photos simply by painting over them. Best of all, the Remove Tool requires no selections or confusing dialog boxes. The Remove Tool is also the perfect companion to Photoshop's new Generative Fill because it makes it easy to clean up problems in the AI-generated content. We’ll start by learning the basics of how to use the new Remove Tool in Photoshop to remove people or objects from your photos. Then we’ll look at a couple of options for the Remove Tool. Along the way, we’ll compare the Remove Tool with Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush to see how much better the Remove Tool really is. I’ll be using several images throughout this tutorial. Here’s my first image from Adobe Stock. Click and hold on the Spot Healing Brush (or whichever tool in the group you used last). The Remove Tool is a brush, not a selection tool. You simply paint over the object or person you want to remove. Resize your brush using the left and right bracket keys ( [ and ] ) on your keyboard. Then paint over the person or object you want to remove from the photo. Tip! By default, the Remove Tool will try to remove the person or object as soon as you release your mouse button. We’ll learn how to change this behavior in a moment. Release your mouse button once the area is completely covered by the brush. The result here is not perfect, but overall the Remove Tool did an amazing job. Since the Remove Tool is most similar to Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush, here’s a side-by-side comparison of the results using both tools. On the left, the Spot Healing Brush oddly chose to fill some of the area with part of the man’s arm. Compare that with the Remove Tool result on the right and the winner is obvious.
Along with removing objects, the Remove Tool can also fix its own mistakes. Tip! There's a bit more cleanup that we could do here, but we’ll see more examples as we go along. In the previous example, the Remove Tool made it easy to remove the person from the photo. But there’s a problem. In my Layers panel, we see that the edit was made to the original image on the Background layer, which means that the person I removed is gone forever (from the photo, anyway). Fortunately the Remove Tool can also work on a separate layer so we can remove objects non-destructively. Then select the Remove Tool from the same group as the other healing tools in the toolbar. Since the Remove Tool was the last tool I used from the group, I can simply click on its icon to select it. Then turn on Sample all layers in the Options Bar. Then paint over the area you want to remove.
With my image, I have two people to remove. But since they’re next to each other with no gap in between, I can easily cover them both with a single brush stroke. When you have finished painting, release your mouse button. Here’s another comparison between the Remove Tool and the Spot Healing Brush after painting over the same area. The Spot Healing Brush result is on the left and the Remove Tool is on the right. With the previous photo, the Remove Tool made a permanent change by removing the person from the original image. Tip! For example, the Remove Tool added a weird triangle-shaped artifact on the beach. Tip! Earlier I mentioned that you can paint over the same area multiple times with the Remove Tool until you are happy with the result. Here’s my result after spending a few minutes painting with the Remove Tool to clean up more areas along the beach and in the water. We’ll see another example of how the Remove Tool can repair detail in a moment.
By default, the Remove Tool removes the person or object you paint over as soon as you release your mouse button. If the area is small enough, it’s not a problem. But what if you need to remove a larger area, one that’s not so easy to cover with a single stroke? In that case, uncheck Remove after each stroke. The Remove Tool will then wait to remove the area until you tell it to do so. With this third image, I want to remove the person on the left. I could try painting over her with a single continuous stroke. But instead I’m going to paint along the edges with a smaller brush and then use a larger brush to quickly fill in the rest. When I’m done, I’ll release my mouse button. Then I’ll quickly fill in the rest of the area. Fourth image, four flamingos. Coincidence? I’ll paint with the Remove Tool over the first two birds on the left and the last one on the right. And just like that, the birds I painted over disappear, replaced with new content that blends seamlessly with the background. Finally, Photoshop’s new AI-powered Remove Tool is not just a remove tool. To show you what I mean, I’ll switch over to my fifth and final image. But notice how the edges in the wall are not lining up properly. Then after painting across all three, I’ll click the checkmark in the Options Bar and they disappear. Normally I would switch to the Clone Stamp Tool at this point and repair the edges manually. But instead, I’m going to let the Remove Tool’s AI repair and align the edges itself. First I’ll turn on Remove after each stroke in the Options Bar so that the Remove Tool will do its magic after each brush stroke. From my experience, the trick to repairing edges with the Remove Tool is lots of short strokes and patience. Don’t try to repair the entire edge all at once, and here’s why. But instead of repairing the edge, the Remove Tool removed it. This time, I’ll paint across a smaller section of the edge. And when I release my mouse button, the Remove Tool’s AI instantly snaps that section into alignment. And again the Remove Tool snaps it into place. Almost there but not quite. Some brush strokes made things worse, not better. And here’s my result. After spending a few more minutes with the Remove Tool, I was able to repair and align all of the broken edges in the wall. But the Remove Tool was not able to fix the more complex edges on the ground where the woman was standing. And there we have it! Photoshop’s AI-powered Remove Tool removes people and objects from photos faster and easier than anything we’ve seen before. Photoshop’s traditional healing and retouching tools, like the Spot Healing Brush, still have their uses.
Remove Tool - Photoshop for Beginners | Lesson 7
Practical tips and troubleshooting
Remember to work non-destructively by duplicating layers at the start, as described in many tutorials. This gives you flexibility to revert or compare results easily. If automatic AI-based results aren’t perfect, combine tools: use Remove Tool on one layer, then clone or patch from another layer to refine edges. For complex backgrounds, painting with multiple short strokes and refining with smaller brushes often yields the most convincing results. If you want to compare results, place different edits on separate layers and toggle visibility to choose the best blend.
In practice, removing a person is straightforward once you grasp the principles. You can envision several common scenarios: a single small distraction, a larger subject overlapping with your main subject, or a complex background requiring multiple passes. The methods above give you a toolkit to handle each case, whether you rely on Spot Healing, Clone Stamp, Content-Aware Fill, Generative Fill, or the AI-powered Remove Tool. The key is to practice and combine approaches as needed, keeping the original image protected and working with layers.