Removing Power Lines with Photoshop

In this week’s free Deke’s Techniques episode, Deke steals an idea from Photoshop Man Extraordinaire Bryan O’Neil Hughes for removing unwanted power lines from a photo.

Thing is, Bryan didn’t think that showing this trick to a roomful of fairly sophisticated design types was going to make quite the impact it does. But sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Like sleeping for a few days every summer in this rustic cabin, or using the Spot Healing Brush set to Content-Aware in Photoshop.

The result is our temporary summer-home-slash-pirate-lair becoming slightly more rustic by having its power lines removed (and my guess is half the camp would go dark, as well) by simply shift-clicking across the lines with the Spot Healing Brush. Then, when that doesn’t work, the full-fledged Healing Brush itself. (Don’t worry, all our devices are plugged in in the laundry room.)

Rustic cabin with distracting power lines

In an attempt to discover just how easily this works, I used the technique to remove some power lines from our winter home (i.e. our home-home) with what I like to call “our mountains” obscured by clouds in the background. I might have also taken out the remnant of a neighbors chimney or two, just to ensure that—-insofar as this photo is concerned—-those are exclusively my mountains.

Power lines removed in Photoshop

If you’re a member of Lynda.com, Deke’s got an exclusive movie this week in which he shows you how to turn that utility pole into a more appropriate tree trunk (might as well make everyone in camp rough it for a few days). If you’re not a member, you can get a free 10-day trial at lynda.com/deke to check it out. Should be plenty of time to get hooked on Deke’s Techniques, as long as no one erases your power lines in real life.

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