How to remove an object/person from a photo

Question

I am working on some photos. I would like to keep the background image, but remove the people or an object in it. Is there a way to do that? If yes, how?
Also could someone tell me how to add a person to a different background (than the original picture). What are the steps or ways to do that?
Note: I have Photoshop Elements 6 for macs

Answer 1

Mary,
Actually, this was fairly easy to do.
1. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to roughly select the person, then use the arrow keys to move the selection to the left:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1mAX25OsXTIreIjGbi6jNTCJKFAawa0
2. Copy/Paste the selection to a new layer (Layer 1), and use the Move tool to move this to cover the person:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1psigwltAR2fAPTymGYwOOrj2CHjoK0
3. Since the right edge of the layer did not line up I had to slightly rotate the layer. You can use the Move tool to rotate but since it was a very fine adjustment I used the Free Transform and played around with the Rotate value in the toolbar. A value of -0.5 lined things up nicely, but I also had to use the arrow to nudge the layer up a bit.
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1XYwyI69U8zeW9NlH6qvKZE8FNV1Hq1
As you can see in this shot the border of the new layer was noticeable:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1qlLObbtSUIzi0AbDwSqDiAkvJpTmG1
To fix this I used the Clone tool to clone adjacent areas over the seams, as you will see in the final shot.
4. With the new layer, some of the morter between the bricks was missing and in some cases this was noticeable. Here's an example, a brick on the bottom row in the center:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1iqLEmGNSqhas7RTDguwzwOHRRsBn
I could have used the Clone tool to clone morter from elsewhere but I found it easier to use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select morter from another brick, Copy/Paste the selection to a new layer (Layer 2), and Move this layer over the missing morter.
Here's the result at this point:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1mGexOdSQzhanpw3fvDrPVa44gzXf0
5. The clockwork was corrupted from Layer 1, so I temporarily turned off the visibility of Layer 1 and selected on the Background layer a portion of the good clockwork:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1wX1ItQO89zlpBrIRydoYlAeRkBoe9
6. Copy/Pasted this selection to a new layer (Layer 3), moved this layer to the top of the stack and used the Move and Free Transform tools to fine-tune the position. I had to use the Eraser tool to remove some of Layer 3 which covered the "R", and also used the Clone to clean up a bit more.
Here's the final result:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1wSdbCrlRalhJWQNJq67kXHaVecd0
Hey, I took that same picture at Niagara Falls a few year ago!