This advanced photo edit tutorial in Xara Xtreme shows an example of how to hide unwanted portions of a photograph for web graphics in custom web design. The process from start to finish took 5 minutes. In this case the web graphic needed to be revised to remove the toddler playing in the hallway. Here’s how the photo edit was done in a series of 6 illustrations marked A to E:

Photo A (below left) shows the original photo taken by the client which displays the toddler to be removed. Viewing the carpet, floor trim, and wall to the right of the baby, I selected a vertical portion taller than the person, and created a rectangular clipping mask as shown in photo B (below right).

Photo C (below left) shows the cropped vertical section of the carpet/trim/wall taken from a cloned duplicate of the photo. The original photo placed in the background has 65% transparency applied in preparation for the next step.

Photo D (below right) shows the carpet/trim/wall clipping stretched horizontally to cover the toddler and part of the background decor. To create a realistic graphic, solving the problem of the clipping covering the planter and leaves will be next.

Photo E (below left) shows less transparency on the background, and some transparency of the carpet/trim/wall for an enhanced view, and then the clipping mask drawn precisely over the planter and leaves without revealing any of the toddler. Select the mask and carpet/trim/wall graphic and use CTRL+2 to crop the masked portion.

Photo F (below right) shows the final web graphic after removing transparency of both pieces to digitally create the new photo. The carpet/trim/wall piece has feathering applied so it blends in better with the background, and now the photo is ready to insert in their custom web design.

Users of Xara Xtreme may use shortcut CTRL+K for cloning and CTRL+B and F to send pix front or back during the edit. Select the mask and photo then use CTRL+3 to crop. The only other feature needed in Xara is the feathering tool. For higher quality work for print rather than in a web design, use the steps in this photo edit tutorial to begin, and then zoom in for more precision.