Step One. | The first step starts in the camera. You’ll need to photograph at least two shots of the same scene (but you can use up to 10 if you’d like). Here’s a photo of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah.
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Step Two. | I realized it was going to be really difficult for me to get a photo when someone wasn’t walking near or under the arch. I knew that I had a feature that could fix this available to me in Elements, so I decided to take another photo. As you can see, I wasn’t able to capture a photo with no tourists, but at least I had another one where they had moved.
Tip: Shoot with a Tripod
I was on a tripod when I shot this, and doing this makes your life dramatically easier when you use Elements to clean up the scene. However, I know it’s not always possible, so if you’re hand-holding the camera, try to make sure you don’t move locations or shoot from another angle. Basically, stand really still and wait for tourists to move or, more likely, relocate and start over. Also, check out the tip after Step Three.
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Step Three. | Go ahead and open the photos you’ve taken (remember, you’ll need at least two but can use up to 10. In this example, I’m only using two) in the Elements Editor. Then select them down in the Project Bin by clicking on the first one and Shift-clicking on the last one. Now, go under the File menu, under New, and choose Photomerge ® Scene Cleaner. This will take you into Photomerge.
Advanced Tip: Try the Advanced Options
Here’s a follow-up to the previous tip. In fact, just file this tip away, because you may or may not need it. If you didn’t shoot on a tripod, and you’re not getting good results from Photomerge, then click on the Advanced Options section at the bottom of the Photomerge palette. Use the Alignment tool to place three markers in the Source window and three in the Final window, on similar places in the photos. Then click Align Photos, and Elements will do its best to align the photos based on those markers. This helps the Scene Cleaner give more predictable results. Again, give Step Three through Step 10 a try first and see how things work out. If everything looks good, then you don’t need the Advanced Options.
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Step Four. | The Source window on the left will automatically be populated with the first photo you chose. You’ll need to create a Final photo though, so drag the other photo from the Project Bin into the Final window on the right.
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Step Five. | Now look over at the Source window and find the clean areas from this photo that you’d like copied over to the Final photo. Here, I’d like to copy the clean area under the center of the arch, as well as the tourist-free area near the far-left edge of the photo.
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Step Six. | If you’re thinking, “But what about those two tourists in the Source window to the immediate left of the arch?” Don’t sweat it. Remember, that left window is the source image and not the final. As long as we stay away from those two tourists, they won’t get copied over to our final image.
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Step Seven. | All right, let’s get rid of some tourists. First, use the Pencil tool and paint on the Source image (on the left) under the middle of the arch to get rid of that tourist. It doesn’t have to be perfect, so just paint a small area right in the center. When you release your mouse button, you’ll see the Scene Cleaner automatically remove the tourist from the center of the arch in the Final image on the right. You can use the Zoom tool (the one that looks like a magnifying glass in the Toolbox on the left) to zoom in to the area if you need to.
Tip: Getting Rid of the Pencil Marks
If you move your mouse over the Final image, you’ll see the blue pencil marks on it, too. If you want to see your Final image without the blue pencil marks over it, just move your mouse away from it and they’ll disappear. If you want to see the Source image without the blue marks, then turn off the Show Strokes checkbox in the Photomerge palette on the right.
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Step Eight. | We still have one more tourist to remove. You could use the Pencil tool and scribble over the clean area of rock on the Source image (on the far-left side, near the edge) to try to match it up with the other tourist in the Final image, but that takes a bit of guesswork. Elements lets you paint in the Final image, too. So, using the Pencil Tool, paint over the remaining tourist on the far-left side of the Final image (as shown here).
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Step Nine. | A couple of things happened in my example here: The tourist on the far left was indeed removed, but in doing so, Elements grabbed a little too much from the Source image, and pulled one of the tourists from there into the Final image. No sweat. Elements does two things to help: (1) it leaves your Pencil tool marks on the photo (you can see them in the next step), in case you don’t get the results you were looking for, and 2) it has an Eraser tool, so you can finesse your changes.
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Step 10. | So grab the Eraser tool (it’s right under the Pencil tool on the right) and click to erase away some of the blue pencil marks in the Final image on the right. Not much, just the top area to force the Scene Cleaner to look more closely at the parts of the Source image it’s pulling from. When you release the mouse button, you should see the unwanted tourist disappear from the Final image. If you’ve taken more than two photos, you can click on another one in the Project Bin to set it as the Source image on the left. Then continue to paint with the Pencil tool just like we did in Step Seven and Step Eight. When you’re done cleaning up the image, click the Done button to return to the Editor.
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After
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