Most, if not all, digital cameras let you put the current date on photographs. This feature was also available on some conventional cameras like an old Pentax I owned. Anyway, if you want to clean a digital photograph with the date, you can do so in two ways.
Both these involve a photo editor utility of some sort. Nowadays, many image editors with decent functionality are available for free. In fact, you can even use online image editors for free which means there is no need to download and install additional software!
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The date added to the photograph by the camera is typically colored red in a small font size and found near the bottom right. Once a date watermark has been added to a photo, it becomes a part of it.The complexity of the photograph that is below the date watermark will determine how easy it is to remove it without leaving trace marks. Thus, if it’s a (seemingly) plain single color, you can delete the date by painting over it with the same color – read on for details.
How to remove the date from a photograph
The instructions below to remove date from photograph have been worked in Photoshop (probably the most famous image editor of all time) and a free online service pixelr.com. You can use either one because each will work well for our project.
As I mentioned above, there are two ways to delete dates from photographs. The easy and quick way is to select the date portion in the image and fill it with a solid color a gradient or a pattern. Results from this simple exercise are not very “exciting” as the selected area, where we had the date once, stands out unless it was a single underlying color. In fact, this will be regarded as unprofessional work and in most cases you are better off leaving the date on the photo.
The second method involves the usage of a clone tooland gives you way better results. Here we take a portion of the photograph that matches what lies behind the date. We then employ a cloning (duplicating, in layman’s terms) procedure to copy the selected part onto the date. Depending on how the date lies on the photograph, we might need to select the starting point for cloning a few times.
Deleting the date with Photoshop’s cloning stamp tool
The process for cleaning a photograph off the date is similar to removing a watermark from an image. Here is an image I took of a gargantuan caterpillar my son caught. Deleting the date stamp from this photo is easy because it stands on a green marble background that it is very complex.
- Click on the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop.
- Hold down the “Alt” key and use the left mouse button to select a starting point or area that you want to clone (duplicate) over the date.
- Set the different variables for the tool – brush size, opacity etc. or use mine – refer image below.
Please note, the Clone Stamp tool settings should be change depending on the image size. - Start painting over the date to delete or remove it from the photograph.
Using Pixlr.com free online image editor
Pixlr.com web site offers, in my opinion, a great free image editor. Load the web site and open your image. The clone tool works very similar to the one in Photoshop however, here you need to use the “Ctrl“-left click key combination to select the source or starting area for cloning.
Above is the final result – the photograph with the date removed. As I mentioned before, there would be times, when it is not so easy to get rid of the date. You might need to select the starting points several times during the process. Use your judgement for best results.