Photoshop Tutorial: How to Remove Wires from a Photo

You just grabbed the perfect landscape photo - such a serene vista, totally unspoiled from the modern man. But, oh wait, what's that? Is that a...oh no, it's wires! This just doesn't look right. The whole mood of the photo is destroyed, this is no good. But, fear not. Amateur Nikon is here to help you. Today I'll show you a very easy way to efficiently remove wires from your images. You can use Photoshop or other similar program (if you're looking for a freeware but capable one, Gimp is your best bet).




Open your image and locate the problem area.

For wires over even-color areas (e.g. sky):
- Use the Lasso tool and draw a selection around the wire - you don't have to be accurate; on the contrary, do include some of the sky as well. Look at the photo example below:

- Select the Patch Tool (Path: Source) and drag the selection a bit down/upwards so that an area of clear sky appears.
- Let go of the mouse button. Photoshop magically removes the wires!

For wires oven background texture (e.g. foliage)
- This requires a different technique. We'll use the Clone Tool (in its settings, pick hardness at 0%) to clone adjacent "patches" of foliage without the wires. The best technique is to pick as a source area the area directly below or above the problem area (i.e. the area with the wires), so that the lighting and content is as matching as possible. Select the brush size accordingly and simply "paint"/clone over the wires. The further in the background they are, the easier to create a seamless transition

For wires oven uneven but well-defined areas (e.g. urbanscape; buildings; windows)

- This is a much more difficult situation. Not so much in its approach, but in the time you'll have to spend. Again, the Clone Tool is the way to go, but be prepared to spend a bit more time on your image. For such images, it's better to simply select an other angle during shooting.

The final result of this specific image: