Unwanted strangers/strollers in pictures.

[barbaraann]

I take a lot of pictures when I visit both Disney World, and Disneyland. The crowds have gotten larger and larger since my very first visit back in 1997. I take all kinds of photos. Rides, people, attractions, signs, statues. You name it, and I probably have a picture of it somewhere. Lately, while editing some newer photos, I have been really challenged by all the strangers and strollers in my pictures. I know that realistically, I will never have many photos of an empty park. I want it to be "Visited by guests" However, lately, a great many of my pictures have strollers in them. By strollers, I mean parked strollers. Empty strollers. They are parked everywhere, and it makes it very challenging to get some of the shots that I would like. I have to do a whole lot of creative editing.

Then there are the Photopass shots. By that, I mean the spots where photopass photographers take pictures. You know the places. The Hub, The Castle, for instance. It takes some really quick action to get a picture without too many strangers in your picture.

I guess it's a sign of the times. I really noticed this in great amounts while editing my photos from the last few years worth of photos.

 

[dmaxphil]

Yep. I find myself waiting for strollers to clear before shooting. Not sure what it is, but for me it ruins a shot. Personal taste maybe?

 

[Shanti]

I don't worry about the other folks in our theme park pictures, as long as they're behaving properly. WDW is the world's #1 family tourist attraction, so of course there will be lots of people. I actually think a strangerless MK Main Street photo would look kind of fake and sterile.

The PhotoPass borders can help focus the picture more on the principals and less on passersby.

 

[mom2rtk]

There ***might*** have been a few strollers parked here before I took this photo. Someone ***might*** have moved them over, just out of the frame to get this shot.


IMG_8921 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

 

[cobright]

I end up burning through battery and SD cards but I always shoot a 3 frame burst (unless I need flash ... a burst shot flash would be nice but ... anyway...)

With a burst of 3+ shots I can take the perfect frame and composite it with the others and "erase" the strangers who may have walked into view.

There was a cel phone that had this feature built in but I can't remember what it was called. Kind of neat though to be able to poke a person and just erase them from the final pic.

Beyond that, there are software programs that erase people and objects and fill the hole with a "best guess" made up of other stuff nearby in the frame. I've seen this kind of edit come out really good, but usually it looks weird.

 

[klmall]

As cobright mentioned there are several different ways to deal with this problem such as choosing camera modes that take multiple pictures of the same scene and then using software to 'scene clean' unwanted objects. This process is similar to merging several shots into a panorama/collage. Photoshop Elements does this for example.

Another way is to use an editing feature in software to select an area and then fill it with a "content aware" replacement. If done in small sections for busy scenes (trees, bushes with a sign) it can look quite realistic. If the section with a problem is less busy (i.e. telephone wire in blue sky) it can often turn well.

Sometimes using the "spot healing" tool will remove unwanted glare, lens dirt etc. And don't forget the basic copying and pasting of a better part of the scene into a new 'layer' in the picture to hide the offender. I have seen this method misused the most i.e. selecting a nearby sky scene which doesn't really match at all.

Visiting Disney in the off-season has helped me avoid some of the worst distractions and since we have been so many times I now focus mostly on new attractions, details of current ones and the architecture. Hitting the parks early and very late can help as well.

 

[manning]

Adobe elements. Yo can photo shop them out.