newly discovered trick

Hey there, a new trick I just discovered... as usual, out of necessity.

Any PS guru will tell you that layers are the most powerful tool in PS- especially adjustment layers. I think layers were first introduced in version 2.0???

Find adjustment layers by clicking the small half black, half white circle at the bottom of the layers pallet.

My problem: my assistant is in the way.... again!! just playin'. We only had the small diffusion panel at the time and I accidentally got him in the shot:). I didn't want to crop the image to get rid of him... not sure why! I have a tough time cropping an image- I crop in the camera exactly what I want in the frame so..... I might crop .001% of my images.

Beginning image:
I use the healing tool most often (press J) but I find that when I need to get rid of something that touches the edge of the image the healer doesn't work so great- you can never really get rid of traces of the intruding object... so I use the rubber stamp tool (S) to cover it up then heal it to smooth the sharp edge if there is one.

I did the stamping part and was trying to heal out the uneven lines and shapes.... wasn't working?? It was hard to see the areas that weren't smoothing so I created a levels adjustment layer (click the black and white circle thingy I spoke of earlier and choose levels from the drop down menu). As adjustment layers don't effect the underlying image, I can do whatever I want without jacking up the image I want. I slid the blacks triangle toward the middle and the whites triangle too. This increased contrast so I could see exactly what areas were not smooth (see the clumpiness on the right?).

I then selected my image layer and did the healing.... when done, trash the adj. layer and you're all set!!
Happy turkey killin'. Or are you going soft and plan on buying a pre-killed one? Argh, Argh, Argh!!