Editing help??

[IsMiseJoe]

I'm wondering if anyone can help me. I'm trying to edit a photo I took a couple of weeks ago. The picture is of my son sitting under a cactus, I want to make the cactus smaller in the photo but everytime I try the color doesn't look right and I mess up the sky in the background.
I have attached the photo to the post. I want to cut out the middle part of the cactus from just above my son's head to where the branches of the cactus begin near the top.

Help would be very much appreciated, some guy tried to charge me $9 to do it

[iDad]

$9 thats a steal
tricky work there possible but tricky

[iDad]

why not just patch the bad spot?

[IsMiseJoe]

why not just patch the bad spot?

I've no idea what that means.... I'm kinda new to all this!

[jerryb]

hi,
for starters what version of photoshop do you have... the reason i ask it give better idea what tools you have ..... also new version of photoshop do have some nifty tools to use....

the patch tool is very similar to your clone just think of it as a light version of the clone too...

i have been working on it but i haven't been wanting to say any yet.. smiling.. until i got something that works...
just to give you an idea things i am trying... i am selecting the catus, ut it on it own layer... resizing it , using mask and also use the replace color tools to try to get rid of the blue tint on the catus ... and fill in the blank portions of the sky where the original catus was...

oh one more thing is this the orginal or has this one been edited???? because the catus sort of look strange,, the edges,,, the coloration......

[IsMiseJoe]

I have photoshop 5.5, I don't know how good that is... It looks pretty old!!
The pic is the original, it was taken with a 5MP camera phone so maybe that explains the quality.
Myself & my son were in Phoenix recently, we loved it!! We don't see any cactus in Ireland
Thanks for the help jerry

[jerryb]

hi,
ps 5.5 in it day was good but it is old and newer versions have more features to play with...

the 5mp should be fine... probably a llighting issue or haze issue....

but anyway... i'll see what i can come with on a workflow...

[iDad]

I fixed it like no bad spot was ever there

[jerryb]

hi,
i like it... i think it cute and it sort of fits your website....

[IsMiseJoe]

hi,
ps 5.5 in it day was good but it is old and newer versions have more features to play with...
the 5mp should be fine... probably a llighting issue or haze issue....
but anyway... i'll see what i can come with on a workflow...

I've been messing around with ps5.5 for the past few days, everything I do looks really bad, I cant seem to get it right... I think it's above my skill level!!