Remove a large object from a retouched photo.

Use Lightroom and Photoshop together to edit the look of a photo before removing a large object.

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Get started

In this tutorial, we will use Lightroom and Photoshop together to meet a common editing goal: removing an unwanted element from a retouched photo.

Edit in Lightroom

Start in Lightroom, a central hub for managing your photos. Select your photo, open the Edit panel, and drag the Temperature slider to the left to cool down the overall look of the image.

Try using the Healing Brush

Lightroom works best for removing small objects. Try using the Healing Brush to remove a small rock. That works well–but if you try to use this tool to remove the photographer and his camera, the edit isn’t as successful.

Open your project in Photoshop

Photoshop’s content removal tools will work better here. In Lightroom, choose File > Edit in Photoshop. When the app launches, you will see our photo with the edits we’ve already made. Note that a JPEG in Lightroom will open as a TIFF in Photoshop.

Remove a large object

So now let's see if we can remove the photographer and his camera and his reflection. Remove the photographer using the powerful Content-Aware Fill. First, roughly select the area you want to remove using the Lasso tool. Next, choose Edit > Content-Aware Fill to open the Content-Aware workspace. Click OK to close the workspace. Then, choose Select > Deselect to remove the selection.

Return to Lightroom

Move the final result back to Lightroom by choosing File > Save. Close the image, quit Photoshop, and return to Lightroom. Select the Photo Grid icon. Our image is now part of a stack. Select the number two to view both versions—one with the edits from Lightroom only and the finished project we created in Photoshop.