Easier way to remove lines?

Is there an easy way using software to remove a large number of

lines, such as a those in a net, from a photo? I have a shot that

was taken at a baseball game through the net behind home plate. I

would like to remove the net from the photo before printing.

I can use the cloning tool with some success, but that is very time

consuming when the net covers the entire photo. Is there specific

software that can do this? Or is there some way using the popular

packages to easily do this?

Thanks,

Rodney<div></div>

There is no software I know of that will remove only the netting in

your image.

You can clean up the image in Photoshop, but life is much too

short for that. (If I was to do this for a client, it would be cheaper

to reshoot the image.)

I suggest being aware of the netting the next time you shoot.

Worst case scenario, which is not really that bad...use the photo

as is. It does add a degree of realism to the image.

yea not that I know of either. you can use several of the available noise reduction tools but they will blur your image.

even cloning the lines out will be noticable in the end.

The Dust And Scratches filter on a duplicate layer in lighten mode or even a blur on a duplicate layer in lighten mode might yield a reasonable start. It is hard to give a good answer without seeing it at full resolution.

That said, it will still take some extensive cloning and you will need to add noise to the shot at the end of the process to make it appear rather grainy to cover up the extensive manipulation. This is probably 3-5 hours work at full resolution on a fast machine.

It is the details in the people and in the stands that will take most of the time. The grass, the dirt, and the sky are easy.

In the end, unless this is just a truly special image that is unrecreatable it is probably not worth it. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to see a few full resolution crops from the dirt, the grass, the sky, and a few of the people.

enjoy,

Sean

Thanks all, for the responses. I had hoped that there was an easier way, but thought that I would have to put the time in on this one.

This was a one-time shot, since the person singing the anthem is a personal friend. I do have closer shots without the netting, but I wanted to get the players and umpires with her.

Sean, I'll try your suggestion with lighten mode and see how that works.

Thanks!

The "official" way to remove such repeating, periodical patterns is to use the Fourier Transform.

A (free) Photoshop (and other compatible hosts) plugin that uses a very fast implementation of the Fast Fourier Transform, can be found via www.4N6site.com

The plugin is not limited to square images or powers of two as some others are. Examples and a "How to" etc are all at the same site.

Good luck!