I just though of an interesting way to make photography easier at really busy locations.

Let's say for instance that you want to make a poster featuring a really cool looking castle that you're currently visiting. The only problem is that there are way too many people in the way. The castle looks like it's at Disney World (with all the tourists) instead of the Middle ages. It's unlikely that you'll be able to take the photo at a time when no people will be in the shot, and editing all those people out in Photoshop would be difficult.

The solution is to get your tripod out and take the same photo mutiple times over a period of a minute or two. With any luck, people will be moving around enough that you'll be able to edit them all out of the scene without having to "make up" parts of the photo.

The editing is much easier than normal. Just put all the photos into Photoshop as separate layers. Make a selection around the person you want to remove and then and then just delete holes from the layers until the person is gone. You don't even have to be careful about selecting the people.

Does this sound like something you'd be interested in trying or is it somthing that's already widely in use?

I've heard of photographers using that technique before - and your correct - it's very easy to comp together in layers afterwards. Personally, I always find a couple of well placed stun grenades to clear the tourists does the trick with the added bonus of creating a nice atmospheric misty effect as well.

lol...that sounds like a good idea caedes. I've never heard of it before. I'll def have to try it sometime.

I use that sometimes when I manipulate a photo. Take for instance my image "she saw herself". This is exactly what I had to do. Layer upon layer and erasing the parts of the image that I didn't want (of the snake). It worked great and got the effect that I wanted with very little effort.

It sounds like it would work. heres another technique.
Apparently someone took a photo in Los Angeles at midday. No people or cars appeared in the picture. He used a 30-minute exposure so nothing except buildings stayed put long enough to show up. But I can’t for the life of me remember who did it.

The only probelm with long exposures like that is that the changing sunlight will become apparent. It sounds like the same idea though. The proceedure is so simple that I could easily make a program that would automatically remove the people (plus dogs, birds, etc).

The changing sunlight is probably why he took it at midday when the sun moves slowest. I can’t comment about layers because I haven’t used them yet. I usually learn about such things when there is a need. But you’ve got me thinking I might give the multi exposure a try when the opportunity arises.
Could you use a stacking program like the astronomers use to build up your image?

It would certianly be possible to use a stacking program to squeeze out a higher resolution image, however that's an almost totally unrelated problem. You'd still ned to do the people removal in Photoshop.

so that's a no to the stun grenade idea then? come on dont be squeamish - they're only tourists....

I tell you what. We can combine the two ideas. Take a bunch of photos and then if someone in the frame hasn't moved much THEN use the stun grenade. =)

I don't favour stun grenades myself - a diversionary mortar attack usually works wonders, combined with a well-emplaced heavy machine gun. Claymore mines would of course need to be placed and camouflaged beforehand so that when the panicking tourists are funnelled into the trap, one simple press of a switch would eliminate them.

Of course, you would still have to edit out any body parts left behind, so maybe we'll stick with the original plan.

I was thinking you would use the stacking program to put all the pieces together after you finished editing people and cars out.

Wait a minute, this person had a 30minute shutter opening? How did he do that? Why I take a picture on my camera for 15secs in the middle of the night, it looks like I took it in the middle of the day.

I got it.nice technic.It seem more simple.I will try.thank you Caedes

WN: This is a comment by Pierre from an old topic, I think it explains:

"Changing iso can modify the perception of the light by the camera.
100 iso (normal mode): you can take photos in the sun, under the clouds, maybe inside a lighted room.
800 iso: you can take pictures in dark rooms (or in the night) without flash.
Be careful: with 400 or 800 iso, you can have many "noise" in your pictures (grainy pictures) "

So, I am imagining if you are going to leave the shutter open for 30 seconds you would use a very low ISO (say, 5). But that's just a guess based on what Pierre said.

Yes I think that's accurate.

I like the idea of using a tripod and taking multiple images over time, then using the layering process to edit out undesireable elements. Wish I had thought to do that at Machu Pichu. Too many tourists. Used the eraser and clone tools to get rid of tourists but am not very experienced with this. Will keep working on it until it looks right. Great idea. Can't wait to go try it out!. Thanks

Thanks Sam, I'll remember that next time I try doing long shutter. Because I was thinking of doing some long shutter shots of different stuff, but when all of them turned out white or grainy I decided not to. Now I can...

About the first comments, i thought you were trying to get the castle to look like it was in the middle ages, not make it look like berlin after WWII.