Retouching Photos

Sometimes photos can be spoiled by having distracting objects in them, such as pieces of litter, animals or other people. The photo might have other blemishes too, caused by dirt or water on the camera lens for example.

It is possible to remove small objects from photos by replacing them with a similar-looking part of the photo.

Using the Clone tool

clone-tool.png

  1. Open a photo in the GIMP Image Editor

  2. Zoom in to the affected area of the photo
    • The Zoom tool can be selected by clicking the magnifying glass icon on the GIMP tool palette

  3. Select the Clone tool (highlighted on the screenshot)

  4. Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and left-click once on an area of the photo which looks similar to the surroundings of the object you want to remove

    • For example, if you want to remove a bird from the sky in a photo, click on an area of sky of a similar color to the sky around the bird
  5. Release the Ctrl key and move your mouse pointer over to the object you want to remove

  6. Hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse pointer around over the object. It will be replaced by the area of the photo which you selected earlier
  7. Continue moving the mouse until the object has disappeared

See the GIMP Documentation for more information on the Clone tool.

Example

The photo on the left is the original photo. The photo on the right has been retouched - the two birds have been removed.

before-after.png

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More Information

Photos/RetouchPhotos (last edited 2008-06-27 12:27:27 by cpc1-with4-0-0-cust272)