Thanks abc1234. I am aware that the original photo of the bird is not a “keeper” which I kind of made mention of in my original post about all of the things wrong with the photo. But I was looking for something to play around with and since this fence is a real part of my life, like it or not, I thought it would be something to question. I agree. It is no way an ideal situation. I was just hoping someone knew of a program that might be able to recognize a fence, click on it, and the fence would all disappear. In my dreams I guess. Guess I’m not that lucky. Lol.

I did catch that comment and that is fine. We all wish for such a program. I had a similar problem. I have bird feeders on my deck and would shoot through the sliding door. I covered it with a blank banner with a hole for lens. However, I did not like the background, angle and the glass which hurt the image quality. My solution was go shoot from a second floor bedroom. I took off the screen and opened the window. The angle and background were very much better. Perhaps you can think for alternatives too.

Okay, get ready to laugh but if you think back maybe you can remember being at this place. This is my very first attempt at what I am sure the vast majority of you think of as a simple change. First of all, this original photo had lots that was not in its favor to begin with. My dogs were barking and I looked out of the window and saw this bird as the object of their concern. I grabbed my camera knowing that I was at a disadvantage with a window and a fence in the way and a lens that was way too short of a length to get a decent photo without massive cropping. So this is what it is.

My question is about fence removal. This fence has been my nemesis since we moved here almost 5 years ago. In all of the pictures of my dogs it is behind them. In anything distant it is in front of it. I found the simple tool in photo shop and set out to remove the fence. For a first try I am pretty happy with what it did on the wood and even part of the bird. But my biggest problem is the face of the bird. This is just for me so I'm not looking for perfection. But I would have liked to have had the bird's face look a bit better.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. And feel free to play with either of the photos as you like. Thanks for any help and for your patience with a newbie. I don't even mind if you laughed. Laughter is good. And trust me, I am laughing with you.

Cheating quite a bit here...

To remove a chain link fence or just almost anything that is linear there is a simple albeit time consuming...

Content aware with a twist.

- Create an empty layer (I named it matrix)
- Select a hard brush that fits over the object to be replaced. Make sure you paint black (it does not really matter but this makes everything visible.
- Once you have created the (matrix) content by painting, uncheck it.
- Click on the lower layer
- Alt-click to create a selection from the (matrix)
- Use 'Content aware fill' (under file > edit)
- Make sure you select 'create a new layer'
- Click ok

You are almost done.

To adjust the imperfections
- Create a new empty layer
- Select the healing brush (soft edge). Make sure you select Sample All Layers
- Start a new non destructive edit of the image.

Notes: On my sample I did not play with the correction layer. I also did not select the whole fence (I do not have the patience)


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