Re: Date Stamp Removal

"Learner" <artypan@iol.ie> wrote in news:4805e7dd$1_1@cnews:

> 
> I am looking for advice on the most efficient way to remove the Date
> Stamp that appears on photos (not on the file).
> 
> I tried this today .
> 
> If the colour under the date stamp was uniform I used the Remove
> object tool.
> 
> If there was a selection of colours under the date stamp I used the
> Clone brush
> 
> 1. I zoomed in on the photo to enlarge the date and make selection
> easy.. 
> 
> 2. I used the magic wand to select the colour.
> 
> 3. I then CUT the selection.
> 
> 4. Used the Object remove tool.
> 
> 5. On a second photo I used the Clone brush. This was tedious and time
> consuming, but worked satisfactorily.
> 
> I would appreciate any advice.
> 
> Thanks 

There is no one-step method of removing the date stamp, because 
obviously the space has to be filled with something.  I use v.9 but when 
I tried v.X I wasn't that happy with the results of object remover.  I 
have an Alien Skin plugin called Image Doctor which is a set of 4 
plugins, one of which is Smart Fill.  It's the best plugin I've seen for 
object removal.  With date stamps I select them with the Magic Wand and 
then run Smart Fill, which generally does an excellent job.  However, 
the plugin set is pricey so only worth it if you do a lot of work where 
object removal is required.  I find the PSP tools work as well or better 
than the other 3 plugins in the set.

Regards,

JoeB

Hello Joe. Does this work better than Photoshop's Spot Healing Brush or 
the Patch Tool? If so in what way? Thanks.

-- 
Have A Nice Day,  :-)
James  Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview


"JoeB" <mymail@myserver.com> wrote in message 
news:Xns9A826AD23EA2AJoeB@207.107.16.194...

Alien Skin plugin called Image Doctor which is a set of 4
> plugins, one of which is Smart Fill.  It's the best plugin I've seen 
> for
> object removal.  >
> Regards,
>
> JoeB
> 

"James" <me@photography.fun> wrote in news:48062b9f$1_1@cnews:

> 
> Hello Joe. Does this work better than Photoshop's Spot Healing Brush or 
> the Patch Tool? If so in what way? Thanks.

I haven't tried the spot healing brush or patch tool in CS3, but here's a 
link to a site where somebody used half a dozen different methods to remove 
a date, one of which was Photoshop's Patch Tool.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/digitalphotography/ss/removedate.htm

or, if it wraps

http://tinyurl.com/2kten4

Of course I don't just use it for removing date stamps from other people's 
images (I don't date stamp my pics) but for removing lots of unwanted 
stuff.  With some objects the results aren't perfect, but starting with 
Smart Fill often makes further cleanup with the Clone tool much easier.

Regards,

JoeB

Learner wrote:
> 
> I am looking for advice on the most efficient way to remove the Date Stamp
> that appears on photos (not on the file).
> 
> I tried this today .
> 
> If the colour under the date stamp was uniform I used the Remove object
> tool.
> 
> If there was a selection of colours under the date stamp I used the Clone
> brush
> 
> 1. I zoomed in on the photo to enlarge the date and make selection easy..
> 
> 2. I used the magic wand to select the colour.
> 
> 3. I then CUT the selection.
> 
> 4. Used the Object remove tool.

This seems like too much work. Simply drag a rectangular
selection around the date and apply the Object Remover tool.

> 5. On a second photo I used the Clone brush. This was tedious and time
> consuming, but worked satisfactorily.

This works well because it is guided by your intelligence.
You understand the content of the image and can pick sensible
replacement content for the date pixels. Automatic algorithms
see only pixels and don't know what the pixels might have meant
in real life. This restricts how well the algorithms can do.
With practice cloning becomes both easier and faster to do.
Unfortunately, the practice requires time :)
 
> I would appreciate any advice.

I think you've explored the main options in PSP. Another one
that has been discussed recently is to use the Push Brush to
drag surrounding content over the date pixels. The effort
involved is somewhat similar to cloning.

If you are looking for fully automated approaches it might be
worth exploring the concept of image inpainting, a technique
for automatically removing small blemishes in images, filling
the damage with surrounding content. This search will turn up
some links http://www.google.com/search?as_q=inpainting
There used to be free software you could download but if it
is still around it might be a bit "reasearchy" and academic
for many people. However, you might want to look around just
in case.

I am looking for advice on the most efficient way to remove the Date Stamp 
that appears on photos (not on the file).

I tried this today .

If the colour under the date stamp was uniform I used the Remove object 
tool.

If there was a selection of colours under the date stamp I used the Clone 
brush

1. I zoomed in on the photo to enlarge the date and make selection easy..

2. I used the magic wand to select the colour.

3. I then CUT the selection.

4. Used the Object remove tool.

5. On a second photo I used the Clone brush. This was tedious and time 
consuming, but worked satisfactorily.

I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks