Use Find Distractions in Photoshop to Instantly Remove People from Photos

Download the PDF: Use Find Distractions to Remove People from Photos

Written by Steve Patterson.

Photoshop’s Remove Tool has received some big upgrades in the latest Photoshop beta. The main upgrade, which I covered in a previous tutorial, is that the Remove Tool now uses generative AI, powered by Adobe Firefly, to remove unwanted elements from your photos and replace them with new AI-generated content.

But along with generative AI, the Remove Tool also has a new Find Distractions option.

Find Distractions can be used to instantly remove two specific kinds of distractions from your photos. One kind (the one we’ll look at in this tutorial) is unwanted people in the background. Photoshop will detect your main subject and keep them safe while removing unwanted strangers and annoying photo bombers from the image.

The other kind of distraction that the Remove Tool can now instantly remove is wires and cables. I’ll cover that in a separate tutorial.

Which Photoshop version do I need?

For now, the Remove Tool’s new Find Distractions feature is only available in the Photoshop beta.

If you have an active Creative Cloud subscription, you can install the Photoshop beta using the Creative Cloud Desktop app.

Let’s get started!

Download this tutorial as a print-ready PDF!

Step 1: Open your image in the Photoshop beta

Start by opening your image in the Photoshop beta. The Find Distractions option is not yet available in the official Photoshop release.

With my image, we have the woman in the center as the main subject, along with a distracting person behind her and another distracting person on either side.

As we’ll see, the Find Distractions option will not remove our main subject. It will only detect and remove the distractions.

Opening the image in the Photoshop beta.

Step 2: Add a new blank layer above your image

To keep the original image safe and work non-destructively, add a new blank layer above your image. We’ll do the removal work on the new layer.

In the Layers panel, click the Add New Layer icon at the bottom.

Adding a new blank layer.

Photoshop adds a new layer named Layer 1 above the image on the Background layer.

The new layer is added.

Step 3: Select the Remove Tool

In the toolbar, select the Remove Tool.

By default, it’s nested behind the Spot Healing Brush so you may need to click and hold on the Spot Healing Brush icon and choose the Remove Tool from the list.

Choosing the Remove Tool.

Step 4: Choose Always use Generative AI

With the Remove Tool selected, go up to the Options Bar and set the Mode option to Always use generative AI, just to make sure that the Remove Tool will use Adobe Firefly to replace the unwanted people with new AI-generated content.

The Mode option.

Step 5: Turn on Sample all layers

Also in the Options Bar, make sure Sample all layers is checked so we can work on the blank layer we added earlier.

Don’t worry about the Remove after each stroke option next to it because it will be disabled when we select the Find Distractions option, as we’ll do next.

The Sample all layers option.

Step 6: Click Find Distractions and choose People

Still in the Options Bar, click the new Find distractions button. Then choose People from the menu.

Notice that above People, it says Editable. That’s because after the Remove Tool selects the unwanted people, Photoshop will give us a chance to edit the selection before accepting it.

Clicking Find distractions and choosing People.

Photoshop takes a moment to analyze the image looking for people to remove. Then it highlights those people in magenta.

Notice that it did not select the main subject. Wth my image, only the person behind the woman, as well as the person on either side of her, were highlighted.

The distracting people in the photo are highlighted in magenta.

Step 7: Inspect and edit the selection if needed

Before removing the people, take a moment to inspect the selection(s) looking for areas that Photoshop missed.

For example, I can see that Photoshop missed quite a few spots along the edges of the woman’s jacket and the strap for her backpack. I know they were missed because they are not highlighted in magenta.

Photoshop missed some areas along the edges.

To add those missing areas to the selection, all I need to do is paint with the Remove Tool along those edges. You can adjust the size of the Remove Tool’s brush from your keyboard using the left and right bracket keys ( [ and ] ).

There’s no need to be overly precise when painting with the Remove Tool. In fact, you want to be a bit messy and include some of the surrounding area as well so Photoshop can do a better job at blending the new AI-generated content with the surrounding content.

Painting over the missing areas with the Remove Tool to add them.

Step 8: Click the checkmark to remove the people

With the selection cleaned up, click the check mark in the Options Bar to accept it.

Clicking the check mark.

Since the Remove Tool is using generative AI, Photoshop needs to connect to the Adobe Firefly servers over your internet connection, which can take a few seconds. You’ll see a progress bar while you wait.

When it’s done, the selected people are instantly removed and replaced with new image detail generated by Adobe Firefly. Your main subject is still there, but the distractions are gone.

The selected people were replaced with new content generated by Adobe Firefly.

Back in the Layers panel, you can toggle the people on and off to compare the before and after results by clicking the eyeball icon for Layer 1.

Click the eyeball icon to toggle the people on and off.

And there we have it! That’s how to easily remove unwanted people from your photos using the Remove Tool’s new Find Distractions option in the latest Photoshop beta.

Related tutorials:

Don’t forget, all of my Photoshop tutorials are now available to download as PDFs!