|

How To Remove ANYTHING From a Photo in Photoshop

Text size
Appearance

Your choices stick across every tutorial on this device.

Generative Fill in Photoshop 2026 makes all this even easier! Watch the updated tutorial.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to remove anything from a photo in Photoshop.

This complete guide has everything you need to know about removing distracting objects from your photos.

If you’re new to Photoshop, I’ll show you how to get started with the magical Content-Aware Fill.

And if you’re a Photoshop pro? I’ll reveal advanced tips and techniques you can use with the Clone Stamp Tool.

Bottom line:

You’ll love this Photoshop tutorial if you want to remove unwanted elements from your photos.

And here are the techniques that you’ll learn about in this post.

Remove a Photobomber Using Content-Aware Fill

One of the best and easiest ways to remove anything from your photos in Photoshop is Content-Aware Fill.

The Content-Aware Fill is one tool that seems almost magical when you first use it. It allows you to fill in selections with content instead of a color.

In this video example, I show you how to remove a photobomber from a photo by simply selecting around her.

Then press Shift Backspace (Mac: Shift Delete) to bring up the Fill dialog box. Select Content-Aware as the fill to use the surrounding pixels to generate the fill.

As you see, the photobomber instantly disappears, and the photo looks perfect. This command works best on backgrounds with limited detail.

Remove People from Background With the Patch Tool

If the Content-Aware Fill does not work, you can try the Patch Tool to remove anything from a photo in Photoshop.

The Patch Tool is part of the Healing Brush set of tools. These are the tools that you will use for all your retouching needs. The Patch Tool primarily repairs larger areas of an image or eliminates any distractions or blemishes.

The Patch Tool’s advantage over Content-Aware Fill and other retouching tools is that it samples from a selection-defined area. So you can decide what areas to use as a reference for texture and lighting.

In this Photoshop tutorial, we will use it to remove tourists from a vacation photo.

Remove a Car From a Background Using the Clone Stamp Tool (Advanced)

If you want ultimate control, consider using the Clone Stamp Tool, which copies pixels from one area onto another.

The Clone Stamp Tool is the easiest tool to understand but the most powerful in many ways. This tool simply copies pixels from one area to another. But the real power comes from the Clone Source Panel, which lets you control how the pixels are painted onto your document.

The Clone Source lets you scale, flip, rotate, and offset the source, so you have total control over how you paint those pixels.

Link Mentioned in This Photoshop Tutorial

Pro Training

Selections and Masking Mastery

Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.

View the Course

Final Image

Drag the slider to see before and after

After: How To Remove ANYTHING From a Photo in Photoshop
Before: How To Remove ANYTHING From a Photo in Photoshop
Jesús Ramirez

About the author

Jesús Ramirez

Jesús Ramirez is a graphic designer and the founder of the Photoshop Training Channel, which he started in 2012 and has grown past two million YouTube subscribers. He has taught at Adobe MAX, Adobe Summit, and Photoshop World, teaches courses for CreativeLive and Pluralsight, and was one of five artists chosen for Adobe Stock's Make a Masterpiece campaign. His Photoshop templates shipped inside Photoshop CC 2018.

More about Jesús Ramirez

Similar Posts

24 Comments

  1. Hi Excellent tutorial a lot I’m familiar with but have always have had trouble, you have shown me how to do it properly. I don’t care how long it takes but it must be right. You are one of 4 really good teachers I am aware of , Deke Mclelland, Julieanne Kost, and Arron Nace. You, Jesus explain things in detail and give an explanation how Photoshop works

  2. Hi, I need to know what version of Photoshop you are using in this tutorial because it is different from my version. Thanks in advance.

  3. This is a great, succinct tutorial. I was wondering if you could provide links to the images, so we could practice? I teach a high school class, and I was hoping to use your video in class.

  4. I think my wife is cheating on me. Anyway, a nice tutorial! I used it to edit her out of the wedding photos.

  5. Best photoshop tutorial I have ever seen.
    You should share the links of the images in the description of each video so others can practice it.

  6. Great tutorial. It doesn’t help me with my problem though. I have an image and I need to remove a circle from it to expose the clear background (packaging design) to create a transparent window.

    Any help will be great in doing so.

  7. Hi Jesus, and thank you for your excellent tutorial videos that are undoubtedly the best way that I’ve ever seen. Thanks for your time and everything.
    I have a request. I’ll appreciate if you can upload the training files somewhere. Or if you’ve already done it could you please lead me to find them?
    Thanks in advance.

  8. can you tell me where you got those images?
    I need that Venice image!!!
    Could You plz tel me the ID of that image?

Comments are closed.