Sorry for the delay - have been heavily involved with my own Birthday celebrations, secretly arranged parties on my behalf and family & friends BBQ's over this weekend ( hic )
Using Paint Shop Pro Version 7.00 I opened the Image file then used the "Freehand Selection tool" ( Looks like a lassoo on the toolbar left of screen ) to select all of the sky area. Once selected, from the top Menu bar, use the "Effects / Blur / Blur more" tool. ( If you take a bit more time you could drag around the mast of that little yacht that I chopped off and leave it untouched ! )
Then, from the "Edit / Repeat Blur More" menu, repeat the action until the spots have disappeared - it took about 12 repeats of the operation until I was happy with it.
To correct a few of the spots visible on the beach, you can use the "Clone Brush" tool - On the left of the screen it's the button with 2 paint brushes.
I love this tool
- Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and click on part of the image you want to clone ( copy ). The using the mouse move to the part of the image you want to copy over and click / drag the mouse - this will copy the part of the image you "Shift clicked" on before.
So to erase a spot on the beach just Shift and click on another part of the beach that looks the same but without any blemishses, then click on the spot and drag around that area to "clone" it from the unblemished part of the image !
The size of the area selected to be cloned, and other options including Shape, Size, hardness, Opacity, density etc. can be set in the Tool Options palette ( Top Menu - View / Toolbars / Tool Options Palette ). You need to play around with these to see the effects.
The following took only a few seconds to do !
Original pic :
Cloned pic :
Great tool for touching up portrait photo's too - gets rid of zit's far quicker than Clearasil
Lesson over for now
