This is very, very important for getting clear or ’empty’ pictures of scenery and backgrounds.
Sometimes, I take pictures and discover that someone who I do not know had the wonderful thought to stand and admire some bit of architecture. It is quite an appealing goal, yes, and I will admit to doing it myself, but it often puts them in the way of what I want to photograph. I fully acknowledge that I probably have done the same in other people’s photographs when they travel.
Anyway, to remove tourists from the bridge or stray seagulls from the pier or whatnot, I need to remember:
- Snap a lot of photos of the same location. Ideally, this is done on a tripod and I should try to get 15 to 20 photos over two minutes.
- Open the many photos in Photoshop, pick File >Scripts > Statistics, and choose Median.
And there: Photo emptied of tourists! Usually.
The multiple pictures is to make sure the pixels chosen will be the background, assuming the tourists keep moving, and the pictures being taken over time is to help ensure that the tourists are actually moving.
Very, very simple photo edit to do… except then I forget to take 20 pictures of the same place at the exact same angle sometimes.
Note to self: I need to remember to actually install Photoshop on my laptop so that I can do this on the go rather than taking home so many extra GBs of photos.