Helpppp with removing power lines

Darcy Grizzle

Well-Known Member
I tried, but you can still see them. Can you guys give me info or point me to a video on how to remove the power lines? I did it in lightroom but I am sure photoshop masking may help me.
DSC_7238-Pano.jpg
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
I can't see them Darcy. The Websize is just too small perhaps.

But I have a couple of ways to deal with power lines. The first is just to use Autofill. I don't know if it's in Lightroom, but I would guess it is. It's definitely in Photoshop. In fact I just used that to remove some powerlines in my Foggy Palm tree shot 3 or 4 days ago. It's the easiest way to get rid of power lines.

Otherwise you can use Photoshop and layer masks. What you do is use 2 layers, paint just over the power lines in the top layer. Then in the bottom layer, just move it down 4 or 5 pixels until it disappears.
 

AlanLichty

Moderator
I don't consider myself to be a serious expert at this but have managed to fix up some captures that were problematic due to power lines.

My first suggestion is to not try to use either the Spot removal tool or the clone stamp in PS to do this in one pass. I typically break the removal process down into pieces. In your case above you have power lines that intersect with trees so break up the removal into the sections between the trees first and then do the trees by themselves.

Second - if you are using the Spot removal tool in LR make sure you have checked the box to use Clone and not Heal. Heal is relatively dumb and I find it often makes things worse than when you started - especially when you try to fix a wire that crosses a tree. When you are using Clone you can select the area being cloned which gives you a little more control over where either LR or PS decides to grab from.

Last - there is no such thing as being too patient in the process of removing the wires. All of the YouTube videos show someone performing complete miracles with a single pass of their mouse. I have never had it work that way in my own work.
 

pepper

Well-Known Member
lightroom really isn't the right tool for the job. but it's easy enough to do in photoshop.
use a blank layer and check the sample all layers. this will take data from all layers but you can work non-destructively on the blank layer.
use the clone brush to get rid of small sections of the wire and then use the patch brush to remove the left over in between.
sometimes (depending on the photo) when i'm done i'll change the blending mode to lighten so it only affects power lines that are darker than the background. it works great on lighter skies, not sure how it'll work against the water.
 

Darcy Grizzle

Well-Known Member
I don't consider myself to be a serious expert at this but have managed to fix up some captures that were problematic due to power lines.

My first suggestion is to not try to use either the Spot removal tool or the clone stamp in PS to do this in one pass. I typically break the removal process down into pieces. In your case above you have power lines that intersect with trees so break up the removal into the sections between the trees first and then do the trees by themselves.

Second - if you are using the Spot removal tool in LR make sure you have checked the box to use Clone and not Heal. Heal is relatively dumb and I find it often makes things worse than when you started - especially when you try to fix a wire that crosses a tree. When you are using Clone you can select the area being cloned which gives you a little more control over where either LR or PS decides to grab from.

Last - there is no such thing as being too patient in the process of removing the wires. All of the YouTube videos show someone performing complete miracles with a single pass of their mouse. I have never had it work that way in my own work.
So I did use clone. Yay! I guess I can see them cuz I knew where they were, but to me they still show going across the water in the foreground. I will try this and see what I can do. And yes patience is really needed & I think maybe very small steps right?
 

Darcy Grizzle

Well-Known Member
lightroom really isn't the right tool for the job. but it's easy enough to do in photoshop.
use a blank layer and check the sample all layers. this will take data from all layers but you can work non-destructively on the blank layer.
use the clone brush to get rid of small sections of the wire and then use the patch brush to remove the left over in between.
sometimes (depending on the photo) when i'm done i'll change the blending mode to lighten so it only affects power lines that are darker than the background. it works great on lighter skies, not sure how it'll work against the water.
I will try this too!
 

AlanLichty

Moderator
So I did use clone. Yay! I guess I can see them cuz I knew where they were, but to me they still show going across the water in the foreground. I will try this and see what I can do. And yes patience is really needed & I think maybe very small steps right?
You are correct that they can still be seen. I can spot them easily on my monitor.
 

Darcy Grizzle

Well-Known Member
I can't see them Darcy. The Websize is just too small perhaps.

But I have a couple of ways to deal with power lines. The first is just to use Autofill. I don't know if it's in Lightroom, but I would guess it is. It's definitely in Photoshop. In fact I just used that to remove some powerlines in my Foggy Palm tree shot 3 or 4 days ago. It's the easiest way to get rid of power lines.

Otherwise you can use Photoshop and layer masks. What you do is use 2 layers, paint just over the power lines in the top layer. Then in the bottom layer, just move it down 4 or 5 pixels until it disappears.
yay then I did fairly well :). I so suck at photoshop but I will try this also.
 

AlanLichty

Moderator
The poles went away easy, but those damn lines. Especially in the dead trees. The ones on the left I did pretty good but from the middle to the right ughhhhh.
The wide open stuff is a lot easier but how much you need to remove is really based on your intended use of the image. If you are looking for a big print then there is no such thing as cleaning up too much of it. For a much lower resolution web image it's really the big open spaces that need to be cleaned up and you can often get away with being a lot less careful in the cluster of dead trees/live ones behind. We can't really see all of the lines in the web image that are visible to you at 100% in PS and LR.
 

Darcy Grizzle

Well-Known Member
I only use PS, but the only tools needed are the spot removal tool and the clone tool. The rest is technique.

Jim, I have no idea what Autofill is or how it would do this fix. Teach us.
so then I would spot remove a small spot then clone the water or does it work together in ps like lightroom...Yes Jim teach us about auto fill please.
 
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AlanLichty

Moderator
so then I would spot remove a small spot then clone the water or does it work together in ps like lightroom...
Lightroom's Spot removal tool with Clone selected is almost identical to Photoshop's Clone Stamp tool for our type of image work. PS's Clone Stamp can do other stuff for creative artistic types and LR's version just works with your current image contents. You can move the LR clone source to get a better match and the feathering control lets you control the edges of your cloning efforts. I can do my edits in PS with the clone stamp tool exactly the same way I am doing it in LR now. If you are looking to make a large print you can use these tools to make the lines invisible to the viewer with either program. As Jeffrey pointed out - it's all about technique.

I choose to do this in LR since I am always working with the RAW file and all of my edits are in a sidecar file. I never change the RAW file itself and can reverse any edits I have made even months/years later. YMMV.
 

Darcy Grizzle

Well-Known Member
Lightroom's Spot removal tool with Clone selected is almost identical to Photoshop's Clone Stamp tool for our type of image work. PS's Clone Stamp can do other stuff for creative artistic types and LR's version just works with your current image contents. You can move the LR clone source to get a better match and the feathering control lets you control the edges of your cloning efforts. I can do my edits in PS with the clone stamp tool exactly the same way I am doing it in LR now. If you are looking to make a large print you can use these tools to make the lines invisible to the viewer with either program. As Jeffrey pointed out - it's all about technique.

I choose to do this in LR since I am always working with the RAW file and all of my edits are in a sidecar file. I never change the RAW file itself and can reverse any edits I have made even months/years later. YMMV.
That is what I thought :), cool. So my technique needs some help hahaha. I will reset & try over as I did move the source, and did really good in some of the trees, the water is what I couldn't match but I will go slower. Do you click the image to enlarge to 100% to do it and do in very small batches or do it as shown in this image at regular size? I tried both :(
 

Darcy Grizzle

Well-Known Member
so in a sidecar file can you just go pick which edit you may need to work a little more on? I am going to have to google this or go to my lightroom help.
 

AlanLichty

Moderator
so in a sidecar file can you just go pick which edit you may need to work a little more on? I am going to have to google this or go to my lightroom help.
Not quite - the sidecar edits are basically an ongoing History log for your edits. In PS you can set your preferences to keep 100 or more edits. You can go back to any edit within the stack if you decide you took a wrong turn in processing your image. Once you save the file and come back later that edit history no longer exists - just the results of your last edit. Lightroom saves all edits as a sidecar that has the full edit history as you last left it. If you decide to go back to some specific step and try again you have that option. Like PS however once you go back to some previous edit step and take a new direction the history of your edits back to the step you went back to are cleared.

You can go back to a specific edit step and then create a virtual copy of the image in Lightroom that has all the edits up to that point and new edits on the virtual copy don't impact the edit history in the original sidecar.

The Nothing is Free disclaimer - the more edits that are present in the sidecar the more you will tax your computer. Lightroom has to process/refresh all of those edits on the original untouched RAW file almost constantly as you work on your image so there is a performance penalty.
 
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