Mirror The Background In Photoshop To Remove Unwanted Objects

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mirror-600x571 Mirror The Background In Photoshop To Remove Unwanted Objects Blueprints Guest Bloggers Photoshop Tips Video Tutorials  We’ve all had that moment of scrolling through our images and finding “the one” but then realize there is a ugly, distracting object in the background!  Most of the time we grab our clone tool and quickly clone it out, but that’s not always the case.  I’m going to show you my all time favorite method of how to remove unwanted objects using the mirror effect.

Mirror The Background In Photoshop To Remove Unwanted Objects

In this image the unwanted object is directly behind my subject.  Using the clone tool would take way to long, especially trying to remove it around my subject.

1)   Open the image in photoshop and create a copy of the background layer by pressing CMD-J (Mac) or CTRL-J (PC).

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2)   Go to Edit/Transform/Flip Horizontal.

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Now you will be looking at a copy of your image that has been flipped.

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3)   Rename that layer to Background Copy.  Lower the opacity of the background copy to around 50% opacity and use the Move tool to place your new background over the original background.  By lowering your opacity of the background copy you’ll be able to see where to place your new background.  Then raise the opacity back up to 100%.  Make sure you always raise the opacity back up to 100%!

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5)   Add a mask by clicking on the camera icon in the layers palette (notice I have it circled in red).  Click CMD-I (Mac) or CTRL-I (PC) to invert the mask.  Your mask will turn black and now the image will look like what you started with, but don’t worry.

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6)   Use a white soft brush to paint in the new background over the distracting objects.  If your painting close to your subject raise the hardness of your brush to around 30% and lower the opacity of the brush to around 60%.  Gradually paint around the subject until everything is blended.

brush Mirror The Background In Photoshop To Remove Unwanted Objects Blueprints Guest Bloggers Photoshop Tips Video Tutorials
7)   Now go to Layer/Flatten Image.  Grab your Clone tool and use it to clean the rest of the image up.  In this image I still had part of the bed remaining and a line from the layer I flipped horizontally, so I used the clone tool to quickly clean it up.

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Now that your background is cleaned up, you can go on to edit your image.  Here is the before and after.  I used MCP’s Free Facebook Fix photoshop action to create the before and after template. You can click here to get it for free!

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I edited the image with the MCP Inspire Photoshop Actions – to give it a toned, artistic finish.

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Lastly, I decided last minute to do a real quick video tutorial to show you how quick and easy this method is.  Just bare with me and excuse my country accent 😉

Mirroring Background Video Tutorial

 

Amanda Johnson, the photographer of this image and guest writer of this blog post, is the owner of Amanda Johnson Photography out of Knoxville, TN.  She’s a full time photographer and mentor that specializes in Baby’s First Year, children and family portraits.  To see more of her work, check out her website and like her on Facebook Page.

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No Comments

  1. Emily Michelle on February 22, 2010 at 9:33 am

    Great advice. Thank you!

  2. Emily Dobson Photography on February 22, 2010 at 10:03 am

    What a super helpful post! Thank you for sharing these ideas. I’m excited to try some of them out.

  3. Michelle Black on February 22, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    Its been a pleasure to share this with all of you! Thanks for reading 🙂

  4. amanda on February 22, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    she is so right about bringing calendar, contracts, etc. will definitely start doing this!

  5. JulieLim on February 22, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    wow wow wow, thank you for this post!!!

  6. Brad on February 22, 2010 at 7:47 pm

    Thanks, Michelle, for the great tips!!!

  7. Breanne on February 22, 2010 at 11:54 pm

    Really loved this post… so helpful! Great tips! I’d love more ideas for a customer evaluation!

  8. Lynn Likens on January 31, 2011 at 9:40 am

    Great tips. Just wonder, what kind of questions do you include on your preliminary evaluation worksheet?

  9. Rebecca on February 21, 2014 at 7:20 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, this is something I really need at times and you make it all easier! Thanks again and I love your photoshop actions.

  10. Esther Dorotik on February 25, 2014 at 9:25 pm

    Wonderful tutorial!!

  11. Cara on November 16, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    Thank you so much for this! The shot I needed to edit was a little complicated but now looks soooo much better and much more worthy of the client’s Christmas card without a car in the background :). Thanks again!

  12. Sarah on November 20, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    I cannot read you post on my mobile device because the pop-up to subscribe. The window available for me to read the post is about an inch big… Making it very hard to see the post. Would you please remove this pop-up with forces readers to login? There is not an “X” available to close the pop-up either; perhaps adding this might be a solution too. Thanks.

  13. Koren Schmedith on April 25, 2017 at 2:13 am

    Amazing tutorial. Thank you for describing the uses of tools. The work is done very nicely. It was also very informative. Good Job!

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