Suggestions to remove this lamp post

Hi mxwizard,

I'm inclined to say that one single retouching tool won’t do the job; you need to use a combination of such tools. Moreover, you may have to make a selection of the offending spot before applying a given tool. This will confine the repair to the area within the selection but you will still be able to go outside (as in the case of the Healing Brush and the Clone Stamp Tool) to find the area you want to sample from.

You may want to use the Spot Healing Brush to fix small areas and save the Healing Brush for larger areas. The use of these two tools requires Elements to search the surrounding areas and then blend them into the area you are trying to fix. This is a drawback for the Spot Healing Brush. The larger the area you drag this brush over, the larger the area Elements has to search for blending material. Sometimes this can lead to contrasting material close to the area being repaired to be picked up by Elements and mixed with the repair. On the other hand, when you use the Healing Brush, you are the one selecting (sampling) the area which will get blended into the repair. This gives you more control over the process.

You can give Elements some help when using the Spot Healing Brush by choosing a brush size that barely covers the spot being repaired. You can also make a selection of the offending spot before using this tool; this will limit the area Elements will search for material to use in the repair.

You said you have Elements 12. Starting with Elements 9, Adobe gave a booster to the Spot Healing Brush -- the Content-Aware setting. Try this setting first; then, if it doesn’t do a good job, undo your repair, and try the Proximity Match setting instead.

Another possibility would be to use the technique below. However, because of all the lines, angles, and different colors, it may be more work.

1. Make a selection with the Rectangular Marquee tool of an area close to the lamp post to get a repair sample.
2. Go to Select>Feather and enter 1-3 pixels for the Feather Radius.
3. Press down Ctrl-Alt. Then, click and drag your selection over to the area with the lamp post.

NOTE:

Most of the time a feather of about 1-3 pixels will do. Sometimes you will have to raise the feather radius to about 5 px. It all depends on the nature of the image and of the repair.

If, after you copy your selection over to the lamp post, you see harsh edges, try redoing the process using a higher Feather Radius. Or you can do a quick touch-up with the Clone Stamp, Spot Healing, or the Healing Brush tool.

When you hold down these two keys and drag your selection over to the area to be repaired, Elements creates a copy of your selection. If needed, as you drag your selection, you can make it remain in line by adding the Shift key -- Ctrl-Alt-Shift.