Removing Powerlines?

[stoogest]

Hi all,

Here's a photo I'm working on at the moment.

Obviously the powerlines are a little distracting. Can anyone suggest a PS technique that can help me get rid of the lines?

I've tried cloning with a low flow % but the random shading of the clouds makes it difficult to get a result that isn't 'natural'.

Cheers!
Andrew.

[Seesee]

The clone tool is the only way you can do it....just experiment more with settings, somewhere around 55% on flow and hardness is the usual good setting and use it like a paint brush sweeping the tool from side to side rather than just spot clone techniques, lots of frequent adjustments to flow strength etc is the norm and lots of varied sampling spots will help. Try sampling from various parts of the image often away from the powerline area so that the clone spot doesn't look so obvious.

With this style of image once you have cloned out the lines as best as you can, select the sky area with the lasso tool and run that area through something like "Neat Image" or a slight Gaussian blur to help hide imperfections.

Good cloning methods take time and can be tedious

[arthurking83]

even for me this one is easier than you think and practise does make perfect.

I'm usually quite bad at cloning/healing but cloning usually doesn't work all that well for me, so I use the healing brush
There's a huge difference in how they work, and my only use of PS is for that tool
CaptureNX has a cloning tool that I usually try first up, and if that doesn't work I then resign myself to use the healing brush.

the trick is to use a radius not too big compared to the size of the area you want cloned/healed.

so if the lines are 5 pixels in size make sure the healing brush is about 10-20pixel in radius, and it just takes a bit longer and you have to do it zoomed in at 100% pixel view. which also means lots of scrolling of the image if you're doing it on the full sized image.

[ricktas]

I am going to go against the views here of using the clone tool. The wonderful healing brush tool (looks like a band-aid) is oft over looked, and can be your saviour. You do not need to select a source, just select the healing tool, and work slowly in small sections. It does a much better job of this, faster. Work with the direction of the line, then also work across the area as well, in small strokes, undo any that do weird things and try again. Takes a bit of experimenting to use, but the healing tool can be valuable (it is also a brilliant way to get rid of dust bunnies).

Here is an edit that took me under 2 minutes using the spot healing brush. Not perfect, but spend a bit more time on it than I did and it could be. You have the advantage of the full size file. Zoom into 100% and work methodically, undo when it doesnt look good, and repeat.

[Kym]

Crop/Clone/Healing and a bit of Gaussian blur.

Before (raw -> JPG only)
40580

After

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3595/3492580549_285b40af90_o.jpg

[ving]

the clone tool is your friend and will make short work of those lines. lines like that arent too hard at all

[stoogest]

Nice job Rick/Kym, I'll get stuck into it and see how I go. Sounds like I'm on the right track, I just need to take my time.

Andrew.

[Analog6]

I use the healing brush over the clone tool every time for that sort of thing, but the clone tool can be very useful too.

[DAdeGroot]

And just for a different view. The Patch tool is what I usually use for powerlines in small sections at a time.

[stoogest]

Using the cloning tool I reckon I've ended up with a pretty good outcome. Here 'tis...