On this very extensive video tutorial Aaron Nace from Phlearn demonstrates how to retouch environments using several tools in Photoshop.
The simple part is removing some distracting elements in the image and removing them with the healing and spot healing brush – very easy and simple. The next step is a bit more complicated. Nace basically copies a frosted window to a regular one – this involves several steps including copying the window changing the copy layer perspective and adding a mask – but the end result looks really nice and realistic.
Removing a more complex pattern like the heater requires the use of the pen tool to paint the wall in an even color and than make another layer mask and only choose the wall (by masking out thew chair and other parts with the pen tool – see videos on working with the pen tool here).
Removing the pen and paper from the table is maybe the most complex part of this tutorial which requires many of the tools that we have used for the past retouches until now (it is just a lot of manual work – but you can get very impressive results using these tools correctly). Nace also add a little bit of noise which exist in this image to begin with to match the fixed part to the rest of the image,
The final quick step is brightening the image. This is done by adding a curves adjustment layer and working with only the shadows – simple & powerful.
Although this article deals with retouching inanimate objects, some of these techniques can be applied to retouching many other types of images – you can check out some other articles and videos on retouching in Photoshop and Lightroom – here.
You can find many more Photoshop video tutorials on LensVid’s Photoshop section (and you can find a lot more Phlearn videos on our special Phlearn subsection).