How to Erase People & Objects from iPhone Photos with A.I.

This week Apple introduced several of it’s new “Apple Intelligence” A.I. features that were touted in June, but finally made it to phones at the tail end of October.

The most interesting, and the one that will take AI photo edits mainstream to the masses is “Clean up,” the ability to erase people and distracting objects from your photos, just like you would do with a pencil and paper.

The bottom photo used Apple’s “Clean Up” A.I. tool to remove the walker in Hermosa Beach. The process took less than a minute.

However, it’s only available to people who have updated their iOS 18 iPhone software and have the iPhone 15 Pro or 16 series phones. So even if you don’t have one of these phones, odds are that if you’re an iPhone user, you will be upgrading at some point and getting this feature and more in the coming years.

Similar tools have been available from Adobe, but at a monthly subscription cost that starts at $9.99 for Photoshop, or Google, via Android phones and the Google Photos app, which has had a confusing rollout. Plus, the Google tools aren’t as easy to use and as effective.

The volley ball nets were instantly erased with Apple's "Clean Up" feature

I’ve been vocal in my distaste for AI tools from Google that put things easily into photos that were never there in the first place. You could argue that the photo above where I ditched the volleyball net breaks the rule of bending reality into something that’s not photography, and you’d be right. But I’ve been removing distractions like power lines and garbage cans from photos for years, just as so many other photographers have.

But it used to be a time-consuming task, one made way easier by Adobe’s upgrade of “Generative Fill” in Photoshop in 2023. And now, thanks to Apple, it’s even simpler, more effective and available to the masses for free.

Clean Up isn't always perfect!

Reader beware: Sometimes you can get rid of the person in the shot, but not their pesky shadow!

How Apple Intelligence Clean Up works

Take the photo, open it up in Apple Photos on your phone, (late models iPad with the A17 chip, and M1 Macs with Sequoia installed) and click Edit. There you will see a new tab added to select the Clean Up feature. Put your finger over the objects you want to get rid of, and watch them disappear.

If you don’t get it right, try again until you do. Most times it works really well—but when I tried to get rid of a post-Halloween skeleton sitting on a beach chair, all those bones were too much for the A.I.

I didn’t undertake a complete Photoshop vs. Apple Intelligence test, but Petapixel, the online website that covers photography did, and the results favored the new player.

For Android fans, if you haven’t already, check out the Magic Eraser in Google Photos. When I said the rollout was confusing, here’s why. First it was only available for Android users, then it was brought to the iPhone as well, but only if you subscribed to Google One, Google’s backup subscription program. However, in April, 2024 it opened it up to everyone.

The process is similar: open photo, select tools, look for Magic Eraser and then erase the person or object with your finger.

Have fun playing around and let me know your thoughts.

New Macs

Apple also introduced several new, more powerful Mac computers this week. The headline was that they were equipped with “Apple Intelligence” those silly e-mail summaries, professional writing cleanup and more chatty and smarter (supposedly) Siri.

Forget about it! What I’m interested is the extra power! The revamped Mac Mini and new iMacs come with the M4 processing chip, which is a big boost from the M1 on the MacBook Pro I bought in 2021 for $2,000. The Mini even has a M4 Pro chip, which is said to be even faster.

I use my laptop even more than the phone, a good 10 hours daily, every day of the week, mostly processing photos and editing videos—as well as writing. And it’s showing signs of age.

So I’ll be buying a new one—interesting that the tiny Mini, which appears to be about half the size of the previous model is more powerful than the giant iMac with a 24 inch screen, so it looks like that will be the purchase for me, boosted with 1 Terabyte of storage. Plus a trackpad, keyboard and monitor.

ICYMI, here are the specs:

Apple’s new iMac starts at $1,299, but clocks in at $2,149 once I add the upgrades of extra RAM and storage, plus a Trackpad.

The Mini, which again has the M4 Pro chip, which Apple says is faster than the regular M4 chip, starts at $999 for this edition and creeps up to $1,600 with my extra storage, trackpad and keyboard add-ons. I also will need a monitor, which I haven’t bought in years, but per Best Buy is in the $100 to $200 range.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Readers, which, if any, excites you?

ChatGPT Search vs. Google.

This week, ChatGPT evolved again by offering a chatty A.I. search function that’s surprisingly competitive with Google. I did several tests, and most of what I saw was pretty great. But it’s not a Google killer, as I saw suggested by Tom’s Guide. Not by a mile.

For instance, let’s start with the link I just placed above. I typed “ChatGPT search vs. Google Tom’s Guide” into both, and only Google could provide the link.

I asked both what time Photowalks will air on Scripps News Saturday and both got it right, (thank you) at 8 p.m. ET. But only Google could tell me which episode is scheduled (Oregon Coast.)

When is that new Tom Hanks movie opening? (It already did, ChatGPT told me. Google didn’t seem to know.)

Is it playing near me? Here only Google could provide the actual theaters. ChatGPT gave me links to national movie chains and told me to look it up myself.

For tips on when to visit Death Valley, California, and where to stay, ChatGPT had lots of good info, vs. Google which offered sponsored links. However, Google’s Gemini, its ChatGPT AI competitor, stepped up, and offered relevant, non-sponsored links, with prices. But we know it won’t remain that way, as Google will need to monetize Gemini.

To try the search, you need to either pay for a ChatGPT subscription or add ChatGPT as a Chrome extension. Once you do that, ChatGPT replaces Google as your default search engine. That was good for a lark on a Friday afternoon, but trust me, I don’t think you’ll last a few hours with it, now. The chat is great, but the links we’re looking for are hard to come by. By the time I finish this sentence, I’m going to delete it.

Your thoughts?

Thank you Sam!

New paid sub Sam signed up this week, with a really nice note.

Readers: feel free to tell me what you’d like to see more and less of in the coming year. I have more photo, tech and travel tips, personal stories and on the road adventures in the works! In tomorrow’s edition, I’ll tell you all about exploring Big Sur, possibly the greatest road trip ever, despite the mudslides and road closures.

Thanks as always for taking the time to watch, read and listen!

Jeff