Best way to Photoshop out this tripod

Question

This is just part of a photo but what would be the best way to remove the tripod in photoshop. I've tried part of it with the spot healing brush and am using a clone tool for the rest but it is taking some time. I'm new at this so I'm wondering if more experienced people would attack it differently. Thank you.

Answer 1

A combination of the Clone Stamp and the Patch tool are your quickest options to get rid of the tripod in under 5 minutes.

Start with cloning the carpet. Ensure you match patterns.

Then, using the clone stamp, cut lines through the tripod so that you have a clean section to move with the Patch tool.

Align the Patch tool selections with areas that match.

Just repeat the process and then clean up any areas with the Clone Stamp .

Answer 2

You ask how "more experienced people would attack it differently". More experienced photographers would approach taking, not just editing, the photo differently. Before they even raise up the camera, they would already be evaluating the scene to determine what they want to photograph, how they might like to compose it, and what elements they want to include or exclude from the scene.

• Ideally, you would have taken the original picture without the tripod in it.

• You could have taken multiple variations of the picture from different camera positions to try to exclude unwanted elements. Sometimes just moving over a few inches is enough to hide distracting elements, like the tripod. You'd also have more source material to combine elements from multiple images. For instance, if every photo has a different person blinking, you could create a composite with everyone's eyes open.

• You may be able to crop out the tripod, and still have a decent image.

• You can consider just throwing the picture away. Unless it is of great sentimental value to you, it may not be worth the time to edit when you could be taking dozens more pictures.

  If you want to improve your photography throw away more pictures and strive to replace them with better ones. If you want to improve your editing, go ahead and try to recover marginal photographs.

• You can try content-aware infill to let the computer remove the tripod for you. Results can be unpredictable.

• If none of the above works, you pretty much have to do what you're doing – healing and cloning. (The patch tool is just a variation of the other tools.) It is time consuming, but you'll get faster with experience. In this particular example, it looks like there are only two problem areas. Where the tripod meets the blue balloon, and where the window sill and muntin bar meet.