A good photo is often ruined by an unwanted object or person in it. Fortunately, you don’t need to discard the entire photo as you can easily remove objects or people from it on both mobile and PC. You can use native tools (if available), third-party apps, and web-based tools to remove extra objects, defects, text, and stickers from images. Let’s see how to do that on various platforms.
Also read:10 of the Best Photo-Editing Apps You Can Get for Free
How to Remove Unwanted Objects From Photos on Android
On Android, you can either use built-in options like Magic Eraser (Google Pixel) and Samsung Object Eraser or third-party apps to remove extra objects from your pictures.
1. Using Magic Eraser
Magic Eraser is a Google Photos feature available exclusively on Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones. As the name suggests, it “magically” erases unwanted objects from your photos. All you need to do is hit the Magic Eraser button, select the unwanted object, and boom! More importantly, Magic Eraser often suggests distractions that can be removed from your photo.
- Launch the Google Photos app on your Google Pixel 6 or 6 Pro phone and open the photo from which you want to remove an object.
- Tap on the Edit toolbar button.
- Switch to the Tools tab.
- Tap on “Magic eraser.” Then, tap on the unwanted object and see it disappear. Alternatively, draw a circle around the object using your finger to highlight it. The object will go away when you lift your finger. Remove other unwanted objects similarly.
- Finally, tap on Done and hit the “Save copy” button to download the edited version. The original version of the photo will still be available on your phone.
2. Using Object Eraser on Samsung Galaxy Phones
If you own a Samsung Galaxy phone, you can use its Object Eraser tool in the Gallery app to remove unwanted objects from photos. The tool doesn’t appear by default on some phones, so you must activate it first before you can start using it.
(If you see the Object Eraser tool under the Edit option, go to step 3 directly.)
- Launch the Samsung Gallery app and open a photo that you want to edit.
- Tap on the Edit (pencil) icon at the bottom and hit the “More” (three dots) icon. Go to Labs and enable Object Eraser. This is a one-time step.
- With the Object Eraser activated, open the photo and hit the Edit icon followed by the three-dot icon. Select “Object Eraser” from the menu.
4. Tap on the unwanted object or draw a circle around it to highlight it. Then, tap the Erase button.
5. Tap the Done button followed by Save.
Also read:The Best Mobile Apps to Create a Video from Photos
3. Using a Third-Party App
Google Play Store offers many free and paid apps that let you remove extra objects or people from your photos. For this tutorial, we will use the Remove Unwanted Object app as shown below.
- Install the Remove Unwanted Object app on your phone.
- Open the app and tap on the Gallery option to upload a photo from your phone. Select the photo to edit.
- Tap on the Brush option at the bottom and highlight the unwanted object. You can also use the Lasso tool to select the object.
- Then, tap on the Process button. Repeat the process for other extra elements until you are satisfied with the final result.
- Tap on the Save button in the top toolbar to download the picture.
Here are a few other Android apps to remove unwanted objects from photos:
How to Remove Unwanted Objects From Photos on iOS
None of the native iOS apps offer a solution to remove extra items from a picture. You can use a free third-party app like Photo Eraser to remove objects as shown below:
- Install and open the Photo Eraser app on your iPhone.
- Select the photo to edit.
- Start drawing on the object that you intend to remove. It will be highlighted.
- Hit the Play button at the bottom to remove the object and fill it with a background that blends in with the picture.
- Tap on the Share icon at the top to open the Share menu and hit the “Save Image” button.
Also read:How to Blur Images on a Mac
How to Remove Unwanted Objects From Photos Using Online Tools
Free online tools – cleanup.pictures, for example – also let you remove extra objects from your pictures.
- Open CleanUp.pictures in a browser.
- Click on the “Click here or drag an image file” button to upload a photo from your computer.
- Draw on the object that you want to remove to highlight it. Wait for a few seconds to let the web app do its magic.
- If you are satisfied with the result, click on the Download button at the top to save the image.
Other online tools that do a similar job are:
How to Remove Unwanted Objects From Photos Using GIMP on a Computer
GIMP is a free image manipulation tool similar to Photoshop. You can use its Clone tool to remove unwanted objects from photos on Windows and macOS. This tool copies or “clones” the image elements from a selected area and pastes them onto a new area. To get rid of an unwanted object, you have to clone the background from a suitable area onto the object.
- Download and install GIMP on your computer.
- Launch GIMP and click on “File -> Open.”
- Select the desired photo.
- Press the C key on your keyboard to activate the Clone tool or click on the Clone tool in the grid of tools in the sidebar.
- With the Clone tool selected, press the Ctrl key and click the mouse button to select the clone source. This is the background that you want to replicate on the unwanted object. Try to keep it close to the object so that it’s similar to it.
- Next, start drawing on the unwanted object. You will see that the selected source starts appearing at the location of the unwanted item. Draw carefully until you achieve the desired result.
- Use the Heal tool to smoothen the area left after removing the object.
- When the desired result is achieved, go to “File -> Export as.”
- Name the edited file and select the download location. Hit the Export button to save the edited image on your computer.
Edit Your Photos
Similar to removing unwanted objects from photos, you can perform other photo-editing tasks without Photoshop. For instance, you can make images transparent, draw arrows on images, and add watermarks.
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