You know how it is, you go on holiday with the love of your life, you spend stacks of cash getting the holiday snaps developed and she goes and dumps you for spotty kid in Radio Rentals. What do you do with the snaps? Burn them, trash them or do a bit of digital wizardry and remove said ex-girlfriend from the snaps all together. This tutorial is going to take the third option and show you how to remove an unwanted person from a picture. For this tutorial we will be using a scanner and Photo Shop 5 - although you can use almost any graphics software package.

Part 1: Scanning in your image
In the first part of this tutorial we will show you how to scan in an image using a scanner. If you've just brought a new PC, chances are that it came with a flat-bed scanner. If you've not plugged it in yet, do so now, as they are really good bits of kit. A scanner is mainly used for taking digital copies of images or text. These digital copies can then be manipulated in different software packages and then emailed to friends or family. And this is what we're going to do today.

Once you've plugged in the scanner, you will need to install the drivers and software. The software that comes with the scanner will normally work in conjunction with another package such as Adobe Photo Shop. After installing all the software and drivers, you will need to reboot your computer so that the scanner can be finally setup.

• Once you've rebooted your computer, load Photo Shop
• Find an image that you want to remove someone from and place it face down on the scanner plate.
• From the file menu in Photo Shop, select import > 'select TWAIN source'
  
  TWAIN is a cross-platform way of acquiring images from sources such as scanners, digital cameras and frame grabbers.
  
  Now to start scanning:
  
  
• In the select TWAIN source window, highlight your scanner and press OK
• From the File menu, select import > TWAIN 32
  
  This will now load up the scanning software that you installed earlier. Now, although all scanning software will look different, it will normally have the same options. These are resolution, scanning mode (colour / black & white), preview, brightness and contrast sliders.
  
  
• Press the preview button to see a preview of your image
• If the image is upside down, turn photograph around and do another preview
  
  In the scanning window, you should see a copy of your image. You can adjust the resolution at which the image is scanned to obtain different image qualities. Do remember that the higher the resolution - the better quality the scanned image will be. But with high quality comes a larger file size. So, if you're planning on sending your images to friends, do take file size into account.
  
  
• In the preview window, use the mouse to select the area you want to scan
• Press the scan button
  
  Once the image has been scanned into Photo Shop, save it before you start working on it.
  
  Topper's tip: Scan at a higher resolution and reduce it later
  
  Part 2: Using a rubber
  After you've scanner in your image, you're ready to start removing the person from the background. For this to work effectively, it's best to have a picture with a plain background, or a background that can be replicated easily. This is because we're going to use the 'rubber stamp' tool. The rubber stamp allows you to select a start point on the screen and then make a copy of it in another part of the screen. This may sound a bit confusing, but when you use the tool, it will be a lot clearer - a bit like the image will be.
  
  
• Select the rubber stamp tool from the tool palette
  
  Now to use the rubber stamp you will need a free hand because you have to select a start point using the 'ALT' key on your keyboard.
  
  
• Move the mouse over the image to the area of background you want to duplicate
  
  It's best to select a duplication point as far away from the area that you want to remove as you may start duplicating part of the image that you're trying to remove.
  
  
• Press the ALT key (the mouse pointer will change slightly)
• Select a medium sizes hard-edged brush
• Now, move the mouse pointer to the part of the image you want to remove
• If you press and hold the mouse button, you will see a cross hair where you selected the start point
• If you move the mouse while holding down the button, the cross hair will move in the same direction
• You can at any point, select a new starting point just by pressing down the ALT key
• While using the rubber stamp tool, carefully remove the unwanted person from your image
• In you need to, change the start point and brush size
  
  After a short while you should start to get an image with one less person. The rubber stamp is also very good for removing spots and blemishes from faces.
  
  In our example we removed a person from the back of a motorbike. Now, removing the top half was quite easy because he was against a brick wall, his legs however, are a different matter - they've got quite a lot of surrounding motor bike. To replicate small areas of the image, use the zoom tool and a very small brush. This will take quite a while to complete, but the finished results will be well worth it.
  
  Topper's tip: Use 'rubber stamp' to cover unwanted items
  
  Part 3: a special effect
  For the final part of this tutorial we're going to show you how to create a wizzo colouring special effect to really finish the image off. What we're going to do is select an area of the image (could be a shirt, or a hat) and add some colour to it. This special effect is really cool when it's been applied to a black and white image.
  
  
• From the layer menu, select new > new layer
• Select the lasso tool from the tool palette
• Using the lasso tool, draw round the part of the image you want to add colour too.
• Remember to join both ends of the selection together
• Next, from the colour palette, select a different colour (something nice and bright)
• Click on the fill tool and fill in the selected area
  
  This will give the selected area a really had edged and flat look. To correct this, adjust the opacity level of the new layer. Giving it a low level will make the image underneath show through.
  
  
• Finally from the select menu, select 'select none'
  
  Now you have a new image which looks totally different than it originally did.
  
  Topper's tip: Add colour effects to separate layers