Editing Powerlines our of a high detail image?

[azslande]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations. I have worked on this photo for hours in photoshop CS5.1 without any good results. I always get a blotchy scene left behind that has clearly been altered. I have edited powerlines our of other photographs without much problem. But this one is beyond my skills. Unfortunatly this was shot only in JPEG as I almost always shoot RAW unless I am at a family event.


Colorful Sunrise Over The Susquehanna by Robert E Dawson Jr Photography, on Flickr

[LouR]

1)create a new layer
2)select a small area around a section of wires using a feather of about 3px.
3)go to Edit/fill/content aware and see if it covers them evenly. If not:
4)set the clone tool to a 0 hardness.
5) making sure you have selected a portion of the sky directly above or below the wires, begin cloning. If that doesn't work..
6)again, with a feathered edge, select a portion of the wires.
7) using the arrow keys, move the lasso straight down or up immediately next to the area to be fixed.
8) Ctrl C, Ctrl V and with the move tool and arrows, move that section over the wires.
No matter what you try, it will have to be piece meal as those are very fine lines. Trying to do anything once and all the way across is going to look like a cheap fix.

[mrchile]

No matter what you try, it will have to be piece meal as those are very fine lines. Trying to do anything once and all the way across is going to look like a cheap fix.

I agree with Lou on this. The background behind the lines is so varied and irregular, you have a long tedious job ahead of you.
Unless you choose the option of leaving the power-lines in there.

[BobF]

The Healing Brush will likely be a better choice than the Clone Stamp in this instance. It will do a better job of blending the backgrounds.

Work at full magnification or even sub-pixel level magnification (> 100%) so that the areas you're sampling from and healing to are as small as possible.

[drh681]

another way to go is selecting a short area with a feathered edge oval and applying the dust and scratches filter from the noise menu.
select the area, filter> noise> dust and scratches. set the radius so it blurs the lines and set the threshold the same or a bit more.
apply, then move the selection along the line, and type control+f to apply the filter again.

[Skipper]

For what it's worth, I like the power lines. I can see both. Just a preference thing.

[Brett_D]

I'd be surprised if a small soft healing brush wouldn't do the trick. Just make sure you do it in a separate layer.