For Valentine’s Day this year I decided to update “Tugging My Heart Strings” with the modeled photos from last summer. After the photo shoot I did a quick glance through to make sure I got a “hero” and several close up shots, got busy with current projects, and put them in a drawer (okay a folder on my computer) until my calendar dinged, Update Tugging My Heart String photos.
Working on the project this week my heart sank. Could it be? I called dad in to see if a man’s eye could see the issue. “Looks like a great close up… too bad you have those hairs distracting you from seeing the knitting.” ::head desk:: To Google I went looking for a tutorial. Most featured the “surface blur” tool to fix, but it didn’t work for me with the location constraints. When I surface blurred to remove the hairs, the knitting was blurred too. Yes, I probably could have cut out each layer and fixed it that way, but it didn’t occur to me at the time. Since Photoshop includes redundant facilities, I opted to use the patch tool.
Step by step directions (Oh, I’m using Photoshop CS5.5):
Step 1: Open up picture in Photoshop & see the horrors of hairs distracting from knitting!
Step 2: Duplicate layer
Step 3: Select Patch Tool
Step 4: Make sure “source” is selected on the patch tool (this one gets me every time!)
Step 5: Draw an area around the stray hair as tight to the hair as possible. Note: Make sure there is a “clean” spot to the right/ left or diagonal right/ diagonal left. I found it easiest working from the left of the picture to the right of the picture to always be ensured of a clear area.
Step 6: Click, hold, and drag to the clean area. Note: Drag to a spot as close as possible to the hair so that the matching will be realistic – an area with the same colors/ shadows/ highlights/ exposure.
Step 7: Let go of the click, hold & watch the hair disappear!
Step 8: Deselect area.
Step 9: Repeat Step 5 on the next hair – draw an area around the stray hair as tight to the hair as possible. Note: This one is longer, so in order to make the match closer, I broke it up into two sections by only selecting the upper left section of the stray hair and then repeating steps 5-8 on the lower right section of the stray hair.
Step 10: Repeat Step 6 – click, hold, and drag to the clean area.
Step 11: Repeat Step 7 – let go of the click, hold & watch the hair disappear!
Step 12: Repeat Step 5 (on the lower right section of hair) – draw an area around the stray hair as tight to the hair as possible.
Step 13: Repeat Step 6 – click, hold, and drag to the clean area.
Step 14: Repeat Step 7 – let go of the click, hold & watch the hair disappear!
Step 15: Repeat Step 8 – deselect area. The entire long stray hair is now gone by breaking the hair in half and repeating Steps 5-7 twice (once on each section).
Step 16: Repeat Steps 5-8 on each hair or portions of hair until all are gone.
Step 17: Finish with a quick clean up. Using the Quick Selection Tool, select any areas of slight color/ shadow/ highlight/ exposure discoloration and click edit and fill. In the pop up box select fill with content aware.
Before and After!
Thanks for checking out this tutorial! Get your updated “Tugging My Heart Strings” pattern on Ravelry, Patternfish, Etsy, and Craftsy! I’ve updated the how-to video as well – it’s now on the Knit Eco Chic channel here.