How to remove a person or object from a photo in Photos on Mac

[ad_1]

The Photos app in macOS has long allowed you to not only view your photos, but also edit them. As part of this development, Apple has improved the touch-up tool with the release of macOS Big Sur.

♥ ON TOPIC: How to change / replace the sky in a photo using the Luminar app on Windows or Mac.

Can I do this in the Photos app on Mac?

Even the best photographers feel the need to edit their work for optimal results. While there are many ways to control the camera and subject, sometimes there are things that the person simply cannot influence at the moment the picture is taken.

These problems can manifest themselves in different ways depending on the type of photograph. A portrait photographer may want to remove blemishes from a subject’s face, while a landscape or street photographer may want to remove ugly details from buildings or people (bomber) who accidentally enter the frame. Whatever the reason, the problem is always the same: there is something in the photo that needs to be hidden or removed. In cases where it is not possible to simply crop the frame and remove the unwanted element located on the side, active processing of the image itself will be required.

Most people in such a situation immediately think of the need to use Photoshop or another similar professional image editing tool. These are the only products that can be very expensive or difficult to learn. And Mac users can use the Photos app to make simple changes.

See also How to set up iMessage on Mac

The Touch Up tool in Photos is a standard part of this image editing application. We inform the utility about the part of the image that needs to be deleted, and the program already takes some of the pixels from another place in the image, automatically copies it and inserts the patch in the right place. Of course, the retouching tool is very handy, but it is based on placing blocks of pixels next to each other, which can be reused. In earlier implementations, the tool was not smart enough to be easily used. During retouching, artifacts in the form of pixels located next to the original ones were also copied. In the end, one problem was eliminated, but another arose.

With the release of macOS Big Sur, Apple has updated the Touch Up tool to use “additional machine learning” for this task. While the phrase itself is a great marketing tool, it actually works better in practice. Retouching is now smarter when it comes to finding and using adjacent pixels to apply a patch.

Now this tool has never been easier.

♥ ON TOPIC: How to recognize people you know in photos in Photos on Mac.

How to remove a person or object from a photo in Photos on Mac

1. Select a photo and press the button. “Edit” in the upper right corner.

2. On the tab “Correction” click the arrow in the sidebar next to the field “Retouch”to display a slider and a brush button.

3. Click the brush button next to the slider. Use the slider to the right or left to adjust the size of the brush circle.

4. Click or click and drag the brush circle over the element you want to remove.

5. When you are finished editing the image, click the “Done” button in the upper right corner of the application.

This procedure is usually suitable for most retouching tasks, and the Photos application is usually good at determining which pixels to copy. However, there are some situations where you might want to manually select the pixel source for a patch. For example, in the case of too complex images, the automatic system may fail, which will lead to the creation of a poor-quality patch.

♥ ON TOPIC: Action Center in macOS. How to invoke, configure and optimize.

How do I manually select the source for the photo retouching tool for macOS?

1. Select a photo and click “Edit”. Click the Adjustments tab, then click the arrow in the sidebar next to the Touch Up button.

2. Click the brush button next to the slider. Use the slider to the right or left to adjust the size of the brush circle.

3. Hold down the Option (Alt) key and click on the area of the image that you want to use as the starting point.

4. Release the Option (Alt) key and use a brush to paint over the area you want to fix.

5. To stop using the selected location in the photo, Control-click the image and select Clear Selected Retouching Origin…

♥ ON TOPIC: How to customize Control Center in macOS Big Sur.

Unfortunately, not all Mac users will be able to take advantage of the updated tool. Improved tool requires a 15-inch MacBook Pro or 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or later, Retina 5K iMac 2014 or later, Retina 4K iMac 2017 or later, iMac Pro, Mac Pro, according to Apple support docs. 2013 or newer.