The Dangers of Urban Life, Part 2

Yesterday, I discussed (at length) obstructions that can ruin pictures, as well as what to do. Today, I'm going to elaborate with a few examples. I'll post some "befores" and some "afters". I want you to see that with some quick and careful thinking, you can really make the most of your pictures. I'll also post a few that I saw as a lost cause.

Exhibit 1:

What's funny about this picture is that the original had not one, but two cars in it. However, once compressed and uploaded to Flickr, they disappeared. I therefore didn't need to do anything. If I were to sell this, though, I'd clone out the cars, because they're very visible. The cloning process for this picture would take about five minutes in Photoshop Elements. Simply open the tool, sample the area, and then move the cursor over the offending objects (cars, in this case). There you go!

Exhibit 2:

Note the shadow in the bottom corner, as well as the front of the car on the side. Very easy to crop out, with this result:

Now, the focus is just on the beautiful tree. The extraneous is gone, without resorting to the time-consuming cloning process.

Exhibit 3:

Note the cars on the left. Cropping won't work, and cloning is a nightmare here, so find another angle. In this case, I went to the tree behind this one, faced it, grabbed my wide-angle lens, and got:

Much better! No cars, no distractions!
So, to summarize, clone as a last resort. Often, while you're out there, you can move closer or move around. Use your viewfinder to spot these issues early. Then, correct them. Cropping is your next best bet. Any tool will allow you to do it easily.

Some hopeless causes:

The first one (picture): Too many large and distracting signs. If this were a gorgeous shot, I'd clone out the big one on the left, but I decided it wasn't worth it.

The second one: Pretty, but not worth the effort to clone out the poles and signs. There were many pictures that look nicer than this.

The last one: For the record, this was taken for demonstration purposes. :) But cloning out this car would not be worth it. I took 100 other shots, and they were all serviceable. :)

To summarize this two-part post, move around, take your time, take many pictures and options, and post-process ONLY if you really feel it's worth it.

Till late tomorrow, everyone!