you can be more efficient at this by analyzing your layers first and figuring out which layer needs the least work. Which one is the cleanest version of the picture? And if so, put that in the bottom of your layers panel and then slowly turn on the layers above to figure out which ones would you need to use to Mass? Because otherwise, if you just start with whatever picture happens to be the top one and it happens to be maybe this one here, Well, if you look, there's quite a few areas covered with people, and if that ends up just happening to be the bottom layer, it's gonna take more time for me toe. Clean it up. So I'm gonna come in here and look at one layer at a time, will turn off all the layers, go for the top layer first and say, How clean does that look? Not too bad. Go to the next one down a lot more in that one next one down. A lot more there, too. Same with their and I'm just going down to each one to see which ones cleanest. And I think it was the top most layer. So then I'm...

gonna move that layer to the bottom of my layers stack by just dragging its name to the bottom. And I just stare at this area to remember which area needs changes. And I'm gonna then turn on each of these layers one of the time to see which one clears that area the most. Not so good there. Not so good there. Not so good. There might not be one. That's a lot better if you look here is the bottom layer that's clearing out quite a bit of it. So potentially a second layer from the top. Yeah, I think it's It's a second layer from the top is the clearest in the one area that needed work. So I'm gonna move that layer so it is just above the bottom. Most layer. I'm slowly building my image from the bottom up, and in this layer, what I want to do is hide everything that's in the layer to begin with. So that means I want a black mask to get a black mask. I hold on the option key. I haven't held down right now. That's Ultima windows, and I add my layer mask up. But before I dio, I was probably shooting hand held and if so, yes, you see the building move as I turned these layers on and off So before I end up masking that, let me turn these layers back on select them all in the one step I skipped which I shouldn't have is toe auto align my layers. Same step we did on the previous images. Then let's get back down to it. This layer. All right, I'm gonna hold on the option key all time windows when I click the layer mask icon that's gonna hide the entire contents of this layer. Then grab my paintbrush tool paint with white because White allows things to show up and I'll come down in here in paint for those people need to get go away. I see a guy showing up over here on the right which says I painted too far. I'm gonna paint with black to hide him, and you can just type the letter X Letter X does. The same thing is clicking this little double arrow which switches these two colors. So if I hit the letter acts, you see out just switched them. So I just make sure I have black and white there. So it any time I can hit X to switch between the two. So I typed X, which is now gonna paint with black, and I'll take him out of there. You see, if I can I see another arm coming back. So I'll hit X to switch. Try to get his minimal x X. It's like we're on the layer. There was a person in that spot on both layers. Let's see if it's gonna help to bring this area in just with one guy. Waas choose undo. See about her. Yeah, that's helpful. Maybe the other edge of him. Okay, but if I kept going, she shows up it x All right, We need to find another image where it's clean there. So I'm gonna go through all of my images here and see if there's one that has clean information there. I could just stay zoomed up like am. Now I'll be watching this particular area and that area right here, so it's turned on the next layer and see if it helps us at all. It helps us on the area where the doorway is so I'm gonna take that layer. I want a black mask, so I'm gonna option click on the layer mask icon that will hide everything. So I only want to use a small area and then I'll grab my paintbrush and is painted right in with white there. I'm not sure if it helped over here, so there's a way to disable a mask. If you disable the mask, then the entire contents of layer will show up again. It will be as if you filled the mask with white to disable a mask, hold down the shift key on your keyboard and click anywhere within the mask in your layers panel. Watch my layers panel. When I shift, click on this mask. You see a red X appear within it. That means it's temporarily disabled, and therefore you can see the entire contents of the layer. If you shift click on the mask again, it will re enable it. And so I can see that there are people in this position on the right side so wouldn't be helpful to make more of that later visible. I still need to clean up a little bit of residue right here and potentially just below that. So I'll turn on the next layer and see if it has a clean area there. And it does not turn that back off and go for the next layer, Not the next layer up there. We have a clean area. So I'm gonna work on that layer. I'm gonna add a black mask because I want to hide the majority of that layer. So I hold on the option key, click on the layer mask icon. And now I'm gonna paint with White because White allows things to show up. And I'm just gonna bring that in down to here, get rid of that guy's arm by hitting X, which is which is the color and painting with Get rid of that. All right, Now we have one person left there, over here in the very corner, her edge of the picture. And I'm going to take the two layers that we haven't used yet. In turn, Amman wanted a time to see if that person happens to go away. If we had a clean version, not there, and go to the next one down. Not there, either. That picture just didn't extend far enough over. I'm then going to look at the layers were already using, and I'm gonna turn off their masks to see if I made that entire layer visible with their be a clean area over there on the right. I do that by holding on shift key and clicking on the mask that temporarily disables it. So just stare at that person in that that could be useful. Other than I think their hand in part of their arm, um, would overlap so he wouldn't be able to completely get rid of them. I'll go toe under the next mask and do the same thing. Shift clicking and know that image does not extend far enough to the right. The next one down there we go. That cleans it up. So it's this mask down here that I want to work on. I click on that layer, make sure it's mask is active, and I'm going to paint with White, and I'm just gonna paint right there. Now we got rid of that person, and now the only question is, is my framing too tight? Because I have this checkerboard area over here on the edges. Then because we have the checkerboard that tells me one of the pictures extended out that far. Otherwise it wouldn't have just had empty space for no reason. And so if I don't want to crop in that tight, I could figure out which layer filled in that space. I think we're fine at the bottom. I'd be fined cropping any further up, saying with on the left side. But on the right side, it's pretty darn close to this building. So I might see if I want to add some to do that, I'm gonna go to the two layers we haven't used yet to see if they fill in that gap on the right side of my photograph or not. This one does not. The next one down does not either. So neither of those will help. I'll then go to the ones that already have masks, and I'm gonna disable the masked to see if it will fill in the area on the right. So I go to the top one shift click, get a little bit extra there, go to the next one down that has a mask that doesn't help in one more down there. That adds a lot. So if I didn't want to have to crop in quite a Sfar, I could paint on this mask to paint in that mask. I need to paint with white, and I'm gonna come in here and just kind of looks like the sun changed a little bit like it might have come out from under behind a cloud or something. Um, between those shots And I'm just going to in this case, I'm going to use a brush that's a little harder edge. So I don't make it fade out too far and appear unfortunate. Brings one person into the shot, but at least I wouldn't have to Crop is tightly. That guy's tiny, though. And so then, to finish off the image, I'm gonna go to the side menu of my layers panel. I'm gonna choose delete hidden layers because I'm not gonna use the two layers that are currently hidden. Those will cost them to go away. I'll click on the top most layer then, and I'm gonna retouch out that guy that's over there. So I'm gonna create a brand new empty layer by clicking the icon next to the trash and I'm just going to use a tool called the spot healing brush to paint right where that guy was let go. And if it doesn't work, that's because there's a setting to my options bar at the top of my screen and sample all layers needs to be turned on. Otherwise it can't see the information in the other layers to copy from it. So now I can try it again. Get that guy to go away. So now we have created scene with no tourist in it, and the final step I would need to do is crop out the, uh, empty space that surrounds the image. And I might not have painted all the way to the top of the photograph in one of my masks. I still see that empty spot. I can see the mask it's in, and to see the white paint here on the edge. That doesn't go all the way up. So I just finish with my brush tool and go back to the layer that has my retouching in. See if I can use that exact same retouching tool. Just kind of fill in that emptiness. All right, so you get this sense for how we could use layer Mass for removing tourists. If we had enough pictures of those tourists moving around, then we could combine them to create a cleaner shot.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Lessons 1 - 6 - Handbook 1: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop

Lessons 7 - 12 - Handbook 2: How to Use Camera Raw

Lessons 13 - 18 - Handbook 3: Making Selections

Lessons 19 - 24 - Handbook 4: Using Layers

Lessons 25 - 30 - Handbook 5: Using Layer Masks

Lessons 31 - 38 - Handbook 6: Using Adjustment Layers

Lessons 39 - 44 - Handbook 7: Color Theory

Lessons 45 - 51 - Handbook 8: Retouching Essentials

Lessons 52 - 59 - Handbook 9: Tools Panel

Lessons 60 - 64 - Handbook 10: Layer Blending Modes

Lessons 65 - 70 - Handbook 11: How to Use Filters

Lessons 71 - 74 - Handbook 12: Advanced Masks

Lessons 75 - 81 - Handbook 13: Using Smart Objects

Lessons 82 - 86 - Handbook 14: Photography for Photoshop

Lessons 87 - 93 - Handbook 15: Advanced Photo Retouching

Lessons 94 - 98 - Handbook 16: Warp, Blend, Liquify

Lessons 99 - 105 - Handbook 17: Advanced Layers

Lessons 106 - 112 - Handbook 18: Actions

Lessons 113 - 117 - Handbook 19: Troubleshooting Issues

Practice Images 1: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop

Practice Images 2: How to Use Camera Raw

Practice Images 3: Making Selections

Practice Images 4: Using Layers

Practice Images 5: Using Layer Masks

Practice Images 6: Using Adjustment Layers

Practice Images 7: Color Theory

Practice Images 8: Retouching Essentials

Practice Images 9: Tools Panel

Practice Images 10: Layer Blending Modes

Practice Images 11: How to Use Filters

Practice Images 12: Advanced Masks

Practice Images 13: Using Smart Objects

Practice Images 14: Photography for Photoshop

Practice Images 15: Advanced Photo Retouching

Practice Images 16: Warp, Blend, Liquify

Practice Images 17: Advanced Layers

Practice Images 18: Actions

Practice Images 19: Troubleshooting Issues

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Ben Willmore

As a photographer, Ben Willmore has shot in all 50 states and explored over 80 countries. He has been pushing Photoshop and Lightroom Classic to their limits since the beginning.

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Adobe Photoshop Beginner Fundamentals Photo Editing

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Noel Ice

I am an avid reader of photoshop books, and an avid watcher of photoshop tutorials. I have attended (internet) several hundred of presentations. In the course of this endeavor, I have found my own favorite photoshop websites and instructors. Creative Live is probably the bargain out there as well as among the top three internet course sites. I have to say with great enthusiasm that the best Photoshop instructor is Ben Willmore. There are many great ones, but truly, he is the best I have come across, and, as indicated above, I have watched literally 100s of tutorials on Photoshop. I have seen all of Ben's courses, I think, and among them, this one is the best by far, and that is saying a lot, because that makes this course the best course on Photoshop to be found anywhere. I am going back and watching it twice. Not only is it comprehensive, but Ben is so familiar with his subject that he is able to explain it like no other. This is crème de la crème of Photoshop classes. I have been wanting to write this review for some time because I have been so thoroughly impressed with everything about this class!

ford smith

Highly recommended if you want to take your Photoshop skills to the next level. Ben Willmore is clear, concise, and professional. He also has a good speaking voice that is not distracting but also keeps you engaged. Lastly, I would recommend that as you become more advanced, increasing the speed of the video (one of the options given on the menu)...especially if you've gone through the course once before and maybe want to watch it again. The double speed is very efficient as you become more advanced in Photoshop. Thanks for the help Ben!

a Creativelive Student

Wow. I cannot communicate the value of this course!! The true value in this course is how the instructor identifies workflows you'll need before you'll ever realize it, repeats important information without it becoming annoying, and explains the "why" behind the techniques so well that even if you forget the exact method, you can figure it out via the principles learned. Excellent value, excellent material, excellent instructor!!!

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Using Layer Masks to Remove People

Using Layer Masks to Remove People

Lesson Info

28. Using Layer Masks to Remove People

Lessons

Introduction To Adobe Photoshop

Bridge vs. Lightroom

Tour of Photoshop Interface

Overview of Bridge Workspace

Overview of Lightroom Workspace

Lightroom Preferences - Saving Documents

How To Use Camera Raw in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Overview of Basic Adjustment Sliders

Developing Raw Images

Editing with the Effects and HLS Tabs

How to Save Images

Using the Transform Tool

Making Selections in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Selection Tools

Combining Selection Tools

Using Automated Selection Tools

Quick Mask Mode

Select Menu Essentials

Using Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Align Active Layers

Creating a New Layer

Creating a Clipping Mask

Using Effects on Layers

Using Adjustment Layers

Using the Shape Tool

Create a Layer Mask Using the Selection Tool

Masking Multiple Images Together

Using Layer Masks to Remove People

Using Layer Masks to Replace Sky

Adding Texture to Images

Layering to Create Realistic Depth

Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Optimizing Grayscale with Levels

Adjusting Levels with a Histogram

Understanding Curves

Editing an Image Using Curves

Editing with Shadows/Highlights Adjustment

Dodge and Burn Using Quick Mask Mode

Editing with Blending Modes

Color Theory

Curves for Color

Hue and Saturation Adjustments

Isolating Colors Using Hue/Saturation Adjustment

Match Colors Using Numbers

Adjusting Skin Tones

Retouching Essentials In Adobe Camera Raw

Retouching with the Spot Healing Brush

Retouching with the Clone Stamp

Retouching with the Healing Brush

Retouching Using Multiple Retouching Tools

Extending an Edge with Content Aware

Clone Between Documents

Crop Tool

Frame Tool

Eye Dropper and Color Sampler Tools

Paint Brush Tools

History Brush Tool

Eraser and Gradient Tools

Brush Flow and Opacity Settings

Blur and Shape Tools

Dissolve Mode

Multiply Mode

Screen Mode

Hard Light Mode

Hue, Saturation, and Color Modes

Smart Filters

High Pass Filter

Blur Filter

Filter Gallery

Adaptive Wide Angle Filter

Combing Filters and Features

Select and Mask

Manually Select and Mask

Creating a Clean Background