Remove Tool

[marvpelkey]

Latest PS version.

I was editing an image of a waterfall, and the water had a mild natural yellowish-greenish cast to it (which I wished to leave).

Due to the restrictive position I was in, I inadvertently caught a small out of focus branch along one side, within the water area. This branch was markedly greener than the background water.

I decided to remove it using the Remove Tool and for this operation I zoomed in to 100%.

However, once accomplished I observed a faint, but noticeable, pinkish cast to the area left by this operation. I undid and re-tried this a number of times with the same result. Initially I thought my eyes/brain were temporarily responding to the sudden removal of a particular colour (or light), so I actually moved about the image, looking for other issues and returned a minute or two later. When I was scrolling around looking for the location of the branch I had removed, it became immediately obvious where it had been, due to this pinkish spot.

It was almost as if the Remove Tool performed a Color Balance to the area the tool introduced to replace the branch. Is this possible and if so is there is a setting for this tool that I can change? If not, how do I ensure no color cast occurs?

[Peano]

It was almost as if the Remove Tool performed a Color Balance to the area the tool introduced to replace the branch. Is this possible and if so is there is a setting for this tool that I can change? If not, how do I ensure no color cast occurs?

First thing I would try: After running the Remove Tool (on a blank layer!), if there's a color cast in the replacement pixels, I would try color-correcting just that layer to make it match the surround image.

Could you post a 100% crop of the area you're trying to repair?

[mcbroomf]

I would try color-correcting just that layer to make it match the surround image.

This is exactly what I would do (and have done a handful of times).  I also find it's common that a saturation adjustment is needed (reduce)

[Chris Kern]

One of the quirks I've noticed with all the post-processing tools I've used which are based on machine-learning ("artificial intelligence") is that occasionally they will inject image artifacts that seem oddly out-of-place.

As far as I can determine, this phenomenon is caused by the convergence of (1) how the tool analyzes the elements that make up the portion of the image to be modified and (2) which elements the tool selects from the universe of images that was used by the software during its learning phase (its "training set") to reconstruct the area of the image that is being modified.

In other words, both what the tool "sees" in your image and what it "remembers" from its training appear to influence the tool's behavior during a particular edit.  When these two attributes coincide with your expectations, the result can be quite impressive.  When they don't, you sometimes get strange and unpredictable results.

[KenS]

I sometimes become impatient waiting for the Remove Tool to finish processing and have gone back in those cases to using the good old Spot Healing Brush tool.  It works well for me, especially as my image files approach or exceed 2GB.

[marvpelkey]

Sorry for the delay in responding to the most recent comments, I was out of town for a bit. Anyway, as has been requested, I am attaching a couple images, a crop of the area before and after (if I get this right). In the past, with the spot healing brush, the tool occasionally inserts items/colors from other areas within the image, but this new tool is different. If not for the color cast, the removal would be sufficient. And I have no wish to color correct every instance of this, as sometimes there are a lot of intrusions along the edges that I need to remove. I don't know if I have a setting wrong or not as this occurs quite often.