glojo Loc: South Devon, England

I fear that some folks love to jump onto a post and justify themselves or their actions. I have no opinion either way and hopefully asked a question in a polite manner? 'Here we go again' Possibly but surely we can be constructive and mature over this point?

Hopefully we can all have a mature debate over this and my very first observations are that it is all down to the person that takes the shot.. Did they want that post in the image?

Did they want it removed?

Lamp post growing out of heads!! Been there, done it got the T-shirt and felt embarrassed over my own silliness at not noticing it in the viewfinder when taking the original shot. lesson hopefully learned, mistake filed into the relevant 'School of Knocks' area and 'eyes more open' when using the view finder.

My own thoughts on this topic are if I was going to mount an image then yes I would do my utmost to get something removed that might cause embarrassment to the main subject in that specific image as it might encourage certain types of people to criticise the mistake as opposed to celebrate the reasons why the picture was taken (someone being presented with some type of award) I do NOT dislike an image that has been altered and respect to those that do this but I personally and please note this is my very personal observation..

I enjoy looking at a photograph and looking at the content. On this very specific image I personally saw that post as being part of the river scenery it makes that specific area recognisable and no doubt some folks will be able to say, 'I have been to that exact spot' My own little World is not perfect and there will be ugly trees or bushes here there and everywhere, so be it in my World but each to their own.

I saw a beautiful picture of a very nice rural village here in Devon and what was strange about that image was that there were no parking restriction signs. The picture (not an image ;-) ) looked MUCH better for it and congratulations to whoever did it, BUT it then arguably 'spoilt' the image (but NOT the picture) as I was struggling to attempt to figure out what year the image might have been shot!! By that I mean I was asking myself when that image might have been shot and an easy way to do that is by looking at the overall picture and then applying local knowledge to what the eyes record. Time of day can be assessed by the shadows we can see, it is all the various small details that a sad person like me really enjoys taking in.

I guess the other argument might be that those who are removing items to improve the looks of an image will, or perhaps might be altering other aspects of the photograph, lighting, shadows, contrast etc etc.

The most IMPORTANT point I would like to make is I am NOT being critical of those that are skilful enough to carry out this type of manipulation. I cannot emphasis that enough, I am NOT being critical, I am asking questions which very sadly might be misunderstood, or read in a manner they were certainly not meant to be taken. Removing a post and making that river look like it did without the original obstruction is certainly not as easy as some folks might think. Respect to those that can do this type of thing and all I am asking is is it photography, or is it art? I am NOT being critical but to me a photograph is an image of what I see as opposed to what I might like to see. That is my personal interpretation and thankfully we all have differing thoughts regarding this topic? :thumbup:

I am NOT criticising anyone, I am asking what I view to be a sensible question and I look forward to constructive, informative replies :thumbup: :wink:

glojo Loc: South Devon, England

Good morning PNagy,
In answer to your question I will tactfully suggest.. Yes and no, and please accept that all I am doing is answering the question you have asked
:thumbup:

If I say look at this picture of two swans, then who cares what the background is but..

If I were to say look at this image of two swans in the pool on the Thames at Windsor, then I would very politely suggest it would be wrong to remove 'furniture' that is a specific part of the location. But it is obviously a very personal observation and those that enjoy making a picture look perfect will always disagree with my personal observation and all credit to them.

I certainly would never dream of attempting to force my opinion on anyone. some folks like, some folks dislike.... different strokes for different folks. :thumbup: :thumbup:

thegrover Loc: Yorba Linda, CA

Great shot, I like it better without the post. I prefer a little blur in the action. I like slightly offset pictures. Everything is not centered in real life. That said it would be nice to have a little more water to the right side of the frame. IMHO. Learned in the remarks about Left to right and will take that into consideration in my shots. Also the cut and paste instead of cloning would solve some problems I have had with tracking. Learned a lot from this. Thanks to all the posters.

Izza1967 Loc: Bristol, England

The original question was about lowering what I saw as noise and had nothing to do with composition or the technique of cloning. Funny how this thread developed.
I am still very new to photography but in the last month have learnt a lot about how to produce a far more widely acceptable picture from what I have read on here.
Thankyou to each and everyone of you that offered advice

Clicker2014 Loc: Canada

I agree with you Harvey.

Another thought, Izza1967, is the example below. (Sorry this was a very quick job and I hope you don't mind...it is quicker than explaining the process.) With the extended frame it changes the appearance some. You can do many things with frames that can make a good picture look even better.

Clicker2014 Loc: Canada

Sorry I had trouble uploading it.

And by the way....I liked your picture with the post. :-)

Have a great day!

thegrover Loc: Yorba Linda, CA

I really like this. However what is that between the wings?

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

That double picture-frame-effect is pretty neat. The first time I saw it was Tuesday at a camera club meeting. Can you do it in Picasa or GIMP or do you have to have an expensive PP program that I can't afford until I start my new job in August?

Clicker2014 Loc: Canada

I knew there was still stuff to clone out, but just wanted to show what the double frame would do :-) I used Photoshop Elements. I have never used Picasa or GIMP so not sure what they are capable of. I was going to download GIMP to try it out but was told it is a bit tricky to download. My computer has been running great for a long time and hate to do something to cause problems. :) You can get Elements 9 for about $70. Elements 10 is now available, but 9 works great and is cheaper than #10 ($150.) So far many who upgraded to #10 said it is not worth the upgrade. Perhaps by the time they get to #12 it may make a big difference. Elements 9 does almost everything CS5 and probably higher. Now if you were a Pro and needed to sell your pictures I am sure it would be worth while! But for amateurs and newbies #9 is great!
Hope this helps some.

Izza1967 Loc: Bristol, England

Another change of direction from my original question :)

I do like that double frame effect and may use that in future, thanks for showing it.

If I had posted this picture with my original question without the post all this may never have been said ;)

This pic has no post, it goes from left to right and has a little space to the right for the swan to move into :D

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

GIMP is complicated to use (as is Photoshop), but very capable. As for installing it, it should be a breeze. I've installed it in Linux, Mac OS X and Windows XP without any problem.

thegrover Loc: Yorba Linda, CA

Best version to date. Thanks, learned a lot from this post.

talk2thomas Loc: Chelmsford, England

A basic rule that I was told about to get your images noticed first is to crop them in Portrate mode.
To prove this go into your supermarket and try and see a packaging that is in landscape mode!!!!!!!!!
if you crop the swan in portrate mode as RMM sugesed IMHO you would have an award winning picture.

Izza1967 Loc: Bristol, England

Had to go back through posts to see RMM's advice about a potrait crop, I admit I did miss that so sorry RMM.

I hadn't even thought about it but will certainly give it a try

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

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