So here’s the scenario. You have a photograph that you really like, but is has some distractions in it like a person or shadow or manhole cover, that if removed would improve the photograph. So how do you do that? In this article, I’ll show you how I do that using Capture One Pro 20 (CO20).
To remove or hide objects or areas of a photograph in CO20, you’ll use the Heal and Clone layers. This hiding or removing is done by creating a Heal or Clone layer and then telling CO20 where the take the pixels from (source point) and then painting over the area you want hidden or removed.
What I’ve found is that most of the time I use the Heal layer rather than the Clone layer. The Heal layer adjusts the copied pixels to fit better in the painted area and so looks more natural. In this example, I want the focus on the person on the right of the photograph and I feel that the manhole cover, the person on the left and some shadows are distracting. Here’s the before and after.
In this video, I’ll show you how I remove a person and other distractions from this photograph and I will show how the Clone layer compares to the Heal layer and why I most often use the Heal layer. This video is a little longer than I intended, but I wanted to show you a number of different examples of what you could remove and how to you have to finesse the selection area to get good results.
Be sure to check out this new version. You’ll find a 30-day free trial to Capture One Pro 20 here.
