How would you go about fixing this picture?

<p>I was out taking pictures of my friend last weekend, and there is this one picture which I like very much, but the tree branches growing out of her head are slightly distracting to say the least. I know I should have paid more attention when I was taking the picture, but that's too late now. What technique would you use to remove them? If you could give me a step by step guide, that would be very much appreciated. I use Lightroom and Photoshop, but my skills with the latter one are very limited. My main concern would be the left side of her head, where the hair makes changing the background more challenging.</p><div></div>

<p>Crop them out.... k.i.s.s.</p>

<p>This represents about 1 minute, a little cloning at the top of the head, but mostly select and delete with the lasso tool and using "context aware" mode (PS 5.5 and up).<br /> It's clearly very "quick and dirty" in the cloned area and could be done a lot better with a little time spent on it, but it illustrates the principle.</p><div></div>

<p>First, cut down the tree. A thought I constantly have when facing a telephone pole in the way of a great photo. :-)</p>

<p>Thanks. But how would you select and erase the background without doing much harm to the hair? I am including a 100% crop of the most problematic area.</p><div></div>

<p>The answer is to pixel edit at very high magnification and using clone tool.</p>

<p>Hi Oliver, I'd go with a tight crop at 2:1 aspect ratio. Fixing the tree will be a pretty tedious exercise in advanced masking selection what will take a lot of practice and trial and error to make convincing, and probably not worth the effort for this picture. see below:</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17532732-lg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="400" /></p>

<p>Forgot to add the YouTube tutorial link on hair selection and masking:<br>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?q=masking+hair+selection">https://www.youtube.com/results?q=masking+hair+selection</a></p>

<p>Hmmm, I actually like the crop, but the picture is only 12 megapixels to begin with, so I want to avoid that if possible. This is what I was able to come up with so far. Still not very nice if you pixel peep, but acceptable if you don't specifically look for the cloning:</p><div></div>

<p>And here is a 100% crop of the problem area after the cloning. What do you think?</p><div></div>

<p>I'd say that's pretty damn good. :-) </p>

<p>I think cropping improves the pic altogether - why not make it square? Your cloning is fine too. Otherwise just repeat the shot another time - assuming you see her again, of course.</p>

<p>My first reaction to the photo was partially an objection to the tree in the background, but also the awkward placement of her arm/hands made more prominent by its framing. It competed for attention.</p>

<p>A tight vertical crop (to me) made a more pleasing composition; I can look at her facial expression without my eye bouncing around at distractions. It's a matter of taste of course, and with the subject intact the pixel loss through cropping shouldn't matter much unless it was made into a very large print.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Actually, the shoot was for a commercial for the bracelets, so I am glad you think the hands are competing for attention:-)</p>

<p>Ahh... that puts things in a very different context. </p>

<p>In that case, I think the vertical crop does work better because its respective weighting of the bracelet and the subject complements - to my eye. :-) </p>

<p>Oliver, you don't need any advice from us. Masking for hair is one of the most time consuming PS skills, whole lynda.com courses are devoted to it. You have done a fine job at it. I would have suggested that you look at the various channels tabbed beside layers to see if one of them had better contrast between the hair and the background than the others. I would use this for the beginning of a mask. But your results are quite good already.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses. The youtube videos in the link helped a lot, and actually it didn't take too much time to get this result (probably 15 minutes or so).<br>

Before, I mostly used Photoshop for global adjustments, but ever since Lightroom 3 came out I have barely used PS, so my skills are rather basic. I'm not a professional either, I only "work" for friends, and only when I feel like it. I don't charge, so I accept no complaints either, but constructive critique is appreciated, so thank you all. That's the way I enjoy photography, I think I would have a lot of pressure if I charged for it, and I don't like the idea of having pressure while I do what I like.<br>

The vertical pictures did come out better in general, but here I specifically wanted to leave some space for the eyes to wander about. Whether it worked or not is a different thing.</p>

<p>Impressive editing!<br>

Next time, spend more than 5 seconds contemplating the composition. ;) Investing 10 more seconds might have saved 10 (100?) minutes of computer fiddling.</p>