How to Remove People from Photos in Photoshop

Generative Fill is the newest and most effective way to take out a person from a shot. To use it, select the Lasso tool and draw a loose selection around the person you want to delete, including a bit of the surrounding area so the AI understands the context. Once selected, click 'Generative Fill' in the Contextual Task Bar, leave the prompt box empty, and hit 'Generate.'

The AI analyzes the lighting, perspective, and texture of the image to reconstruct what should be behind the subject. It usually provides three variations to choose from. The primary failure of this method is 'hallucination.' Sometimes the AI will replace a person with a weirdly shaped rock, a distorted bench, or a blurry object that doesn't belong. It can also struggle with very high-resolution files, sometimes resulting in a patch that looks slightly softer than the original pixels.

Before generative AI, Content-Aware Fill was the go-to. You select the person, go to Edit > Content-Aware Fill, and a dedicated workspace opens. Here, you can use the sampling brush to tell Photoshop exactly which parts of the image it should use to fill the gap. This is excellent for simple backgrounds like grass, sky, or sand.

The biggest failure of Content-Aware Fill is the 'tiling' effect. Because it is essentially copying and pasting existing pixels from elsewhere in the image, it often repeats recognizable patterns. If you are trying to get rid of someone standing in front of a brick wall, you might notice the exact same crack in the brick appearing three times in the filled area, making the edit obvious to the naked eye.

For tricky areas where AI fails, you have to go manual. The Clone Stamp tool (S) allows you to Alt-click a source point and 'paint' those pixels over the person. The Patch tool allows you to draw a selection and drag it to a clean area of the photo to swap the textures. These tools are essential for fixing edges or cleaning up shadows that the automated tools missed.

The failure here is human error and time. Manual cloning requires a deep understanding of perspective and light. If you aren't careful, you'll end up with 'smudging' or blurry textures that scream 'photoshopped.' It is also incredibly slow; removing a group of people from a complex city snap can take thirty minutes of meticulous clicking.

If you don't have the time to master the Lasso tool or the budget for a Creative Cloud subscription, there is a better way. Our AI tool allows you to remove people from photos online without any brushing, masking, or manual selection. You simply upload your image and type who you want to disappear—for example, 'the woman in the background' or 'everyone except the couple.'

Our model processes the request in memory and reconstructs the background in under 10 seconds. There is nothing to install; the entire process happens in your browser. While Photoshop requires you to be an editor, our tool only requires you to be able to describe what you see. You can even test it out on our homepage using our sample photos to see the quality for yourself before committing to a plan.