How to Improve overall composition

1 Set up the Crop tool

Open a problematic shot. In the Tools panel, select the Crop tool. In the Context toolbar, set Mode to Original Ratio, and Overlay to Thirds Grid. Drag across the pic to draw a crop overlay. A Rule of Thirds grid will appear.

2 Crop the shot

Drag the Crop overlay’s corner handles to lose unwanted objects at the edges of the frame. Drag inside the overlay to reposition it. We’ve placed the horses in the lower two rows, with sky and hills in the top row. Press Return.

3 Set up the Clone Brush

Pick Layer > New Layer. A new transparent layer appears in the Layers panel. Press S to select the Clone Brush. In the Context toolbar, set the source to Current Layer & Below, the original image is sampled.

4 Take a sample

In the Context toolbar, set Hardness to 18%. This soft tip will help the cloned pixels to blend in. Opt-click to sample a patch of grass. Place the brush over the tape and click to spray sampled grass pixels in its place.

5 Cloning techniques

Opt-click some grass beside the tape to sample it, then use the brush tip’s preview to place them in a position that will extend them naturally over the tape when you click. Take multiple samples to gradually hide the tape.

6 Intelligent cloning

Press J to select the Inpainting brush. In the Context toolbar, set the source to Current Layer & Below. Now brush over the unwanted object. The tool will sample adjacent pixels, placing them over the object to hide it.