7 Tips for Taking Photos That Need Less Cleanup

BeforeAfter

AI editing can rescue a lot, but the easiest object to remove is the one that was never in the shot. These habits reduce how much cleanup your photos need – and make the edits you do make look more natural.

1. Scan the edges of the frame before you shoot. Most distractions – a bin, a cone, a stranger's elbow – sit at the edges, where you aren't looking.
2. Move your feet. A step to the side often hides a pole or sign behind your subject instead of having it "grow" out of their head.
3. Shoot a few frames in busy places. People move. Having several shots means you can pick the one where the crowd is smallest, and only remove what's left.
4. Leave some room around your subject. Inpainting needs surrounding background to work from. A subject cropped tight against an object is harder to clean.
5. Clean the lens. Smudges and dust create soft spots that are tedious to fix across many photos.
6. Use plain backgrounds for product photos. A wall or sheet behind the product makes background removal almost perfect.
7. Keep the original. Always download your edit as a new file, so you can go back if you want to try a different cleanup.

When something does sneak into the shot, here's how to remove it.