How to touch up sand and sea

[coldpenguin]

Using CS2, I am trying to touch up a photo for use as a reasonably large panarama.
I needed/wanted to clone out some people, as I wanted to move them, this didn't go too badly in the main, but I was left with a mark on the right hand side of the clone. I tried to smudge it, and I tried to heal it, but it looks awful now.
Any ideas on how I can fix this?
This clipping is going to be around 15cm high unfortunately (a crop and resize to get it on the forum)

 

[arad85]

Got the pre-edit version at a reasonable resolution. It also looks like you've got a vertical blur brush going through the water....

 

[magicaxeman]

Did you save it as a .PSD at any point? if so re load that and then go back through the history to the point you made the mistake and work from there.

If not its a start from scratch job.

 

[coldpenguin]

I did, and I was just about to send through a link for a copy of the file, unfortunately, I mis-used the patch tool, saved without realising.
Long story short, the background has moved up around 2 inches, and I have to start again anyway.
At least I have the other parts that I cut-out still intact.

What would be the advised method for cloning out people? I used to copy/paste then heal around the edges, which works well on a lot of backgrounds, but just doesn't seem to work on this sea or sand.

 

[arad85]

Post an untouched photo up and I'll see what CS5s content aware fill does with it

 

[coldpenguin]

I have sent a PM with some full-res images in it.

I think I have managed to get a lot further on this attempt, only the levels/balance needs doing.
It would be interesting to know how far automation could take it though.
There are two images,
1)

This is the original,

2)
This is how far I have gotten now with blending using a mask layer and cloning. A much neater solution than previously I think.

The image I am looking at creating in the end will be a 50x23 cm crop from the top left corner (I will be replacing the sky), with the couple moved up and made smaller to fit.

 

[arad85]

Any good? Just a content fill delete followed by clone tool, just not at 100%. Kept changing the source relative to the destination. About 15 mins work, so could be bettered significantly.

 

[coldpenguin]

Wow, thanks. That looks great. I'll have to give it another go, and look up the tutorials on the content fill.

 

[arad85]

Wow, thanks. That looks great. I'll have to give it another go, and look up the tutorials on the content fill.

Content fill is only available in CS5/PSE9 unfortunately. It got me about 50% there, but cloning with a feathered brush, changing the source point often and not using 100% opacity is what got me all the way there. The only problem is that it tends to blur the detail.

One other point: the sky you've put in looks great, but the colour of the water would reflect that (as you can see in the original, the water is mirroring the colour of the sky). You might want to deepen the blue a bit in just the water by copying it to a new layer, enhancing the colour of the water to match that of the sky and then blend it in with a less than 100% opacity.

 

[arad85]

PS. In your original edit, the background (bushes/top of the beach) is blurred, but the clouds - which are further away - are pin sharp. You might want to apply some blur to the sky to make it look more natural.