Making things vanish

A few days ago I mentioned how hard it can be to get a picture of some pavilions without people getting in the way. Sometimes you come across a vintage picture which is fine except the original photographer was intent on capturing a family member in the shot, or perhaps someone was walking through the scene just as the camera clicked. Happily many of these pictures can be cleaned up a bit in Photoshop or other editing packages.

Here's a shot of the IBM Pavilion at the 1964 NYWF, for example. Not a bad picture, but the eye can still be drawn to the woman near the bushes, or the partial woman on the bottom left.



Well, with some work these and other distractions can be removed. I always keep the unedited versions as well, but sometimes it's just better to have less in the shot.