Night Photos

[DeeDee]

Wanted to try again to take some night time photos untill my sister stole my camera and took this one, I told her it was just beginners luck. I wont tell you what her response was... Anyhow I cropped it and took out the light pole unfortunatley you can see where it was. (i have to work on that) There are spots on the lens I think its her finger prints. Any suggestions on making it better are ALWAYS welcome.

[Steve Foss]

Dee Dee, I think the spots are dust specks on the sensor. If she used a smaller aperture, say f11 to f22, those specks show up more easily. The more you stop down the aperature the plainer they become.

My pp on things like removing objects from sky is to use the cloning brush (with a fairly large brush selected), making sure I've got a feathered-edge brush instead of a sharp-edged one, and sample from the color immediately alongside the thing I'm trying to clone out so it's not easy to see. You can also decrease the opacity of the cloning to help mend edges that are still visible.

I use photoshop CS2 for this. Not sure what you're using. There are quite a few ways to remove objects, and mine is only one of them. Others have other ways that are just as good.

With the light towers gone, it's a gorgeous composition, begginer's luck or not.

[DeeDee]

I use Elements 6.0 I used the cloning brush but I am going to try again with your suggestions.

[Steve Foss]

Dee Dee, with a vertical tower like that, I'd grab a sample just to the right of the bottom of the tower and drag it all the way up the tower. It will keep duplicating what's just to the left of the tower, erasing the tower. Then go to the lower right side and do the same thing. I do this at 100 percent opacity and then go in and mend and blend with opacity around 50 percent.

It's just a matter of practice and experimentation. The more of both you do, the better the results.

[MN Shutterbug]

That sure is purty. All it needs is a flock of geese flying by.

Actually, fingerprints on a lens won't normally show up in a photo. Anything that close to the lens would be so out of focus, that it would be rendered invisible.

[DeeDee]

ok here it is again I used the spot heatling to remove the spec's of whatever and the clone stamp on the light pole. I think its stll alittle crappy but better?

[mmeyer]

DeeDee, I think that looks great. I know where the poles were and I really can't tell. If I didn't know where they were I'd never be able to tell. Very good job with the cloning.

[DeeDee]

Thanks guys!