Background
Shrine of Remembrance - Without People or Tourists
Whenever you travel to a popular destination, you want to get great shots of these location. Often the problem seems to be getting a clean shot of the subject without unwanted people or tourists walking into your photo. One of the easiest way is to get their very early or go very late when most people would have gone already, but that doesn’t always work. You might be with a tour guide and other tourists so you have to kind of stick with the schedule.
This is where applying this technique and some patience pays off nicely. I have successfully used this technique several times both hand held shooting and while using a tripod. Obviously using a tripod is always useful, as you don’t have any issues aligning all your images.
Method without Tripod
When you can’t use a tripod, make sure your camera settings are such that the shutter speed is fast ie. 1/250th of a second or higher.
Step 1
Setup your camera in Aperture Priority (Av Mode for Canon and A Mode for Nikon). Dial in an aperture of F8.0 or higher, works best for landscapes. However you can use wider aperture values in certain situations/light conditions (low light) if you know how to use them correctly.
Step 2
If your camera has multiple focus points (as most do), the little red dots that light up in the viewfinder when you focus, select one only so that it will be same for each photo.
Step 3
Hold your camera as close to your body as possible, tuck in your elbows. Align the focus point with an anchor point on what you are shooting, what you want to do is keep them lined up for each photo you take.
Step 4
Take your first photos, keeping track of what clear portions you have in the photos. Take the next photo when you get different clear portions and so on until you have photos giving you all the clear areas you need for post processing.
Method with Tripod
Its pretty much the same as above but you can read the exact steps below.
Step 1
Setup your camera in Aperture Priority (Av Mode for Canon and A Mode for Nikon). Dial in an aperture of F8.0 or higher, works best for landscapes. However you can use wider aperture values in certain situations/light conditions (low light) if you know how to use them correctly.
Step 2
Mount your camera on your tripod and setup your composition. If your camera has multiple focus points (as most do), the little red dots that light up in the viewfinder when you focus, select one only so that it will be same for each photo.
Step 3
Align the focus point with an anchor point on what you are shooting, this will remain the same for each photo you take. You can also change your lens from Auto Focus to Manual Focus after the first photo but be careful not to move the Camera or the Tripod.
Step 4
Take your first photos, keeping track of what clear portions you have in the photos. Take the next photo when you get different clear portions and so on until you have photos giving you all the clear areas you need for post processing.
Final Editing in Photoshop
After you have your photos downloaded on your computer, load the photos into Photoshop as Layers rather than individual photos. Inspect the photos to find the best ones that will give you the cleanest photos with least effort. Of course you can use every photo if you like but I find less is more and it’s faster.
Use Layer Masks to extract the clean sections from each photo, giving you the final image. Watch the video below for step by step instructions.
Finalised Results
Here are two photos showing the result of this technique.
The Shrine of Remembrance was shot without a Tripod where as Sculpture by the Sea was shot with a Tripod.
-
- Shrine of Remembrance – Without People or Tourists
-
- Sculptures by the Sea – Without People or Tourists
2 Comments
Submit a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
What about using an ND filter? I read that it can do the same with unwanted tourists in your picture.
thanx
Yes, if they are constantly moving for the entire exposure, you should get the same result. However, I suspect you will get a fair bit of ghosting if people move slowly or your shutter is open for short interval only. You could over expose but that would mean the main subject (landscape or building) might be blown out which may be difficult to recover.
Therefore, I find this as a more safe and secure option, so far.