ESSENTIAL TRICKS
W
hen shooting popular landmarks such as St
Paul’s Cathedral in London, seen here, you’re
faced with the challenge of getting a clean
photograph that’s not partially obscured by
passing tourists. You could try getting up early and heading
to the location before the crowds start to throng, but that
plan isn’t always practical – especially if you fancy a lie in.
Thanks to Photoshop Elements’ Photomerge Scene
Cleaner feature, you can create a people-free landmark
shot with a little preparation on location and some post-
production retouching. By photographing several versions
of the same scene over a short period of time, you should
be able to capture a series of images in which sections
of the landmark aren’t obscured by people. You can then
combine the clear sections of each photograph in Photoshop
Elements to create a composite landmark scene that’s free
from distracting tourists.
If you shoot multiple images with the camera mounted
on a tripod, then you could combine them in a layered
Photoshop document and use the Eraser tool to mix the
clear parts of each layer together. If you don’t have a tripod
and you shoot handheld, then Elements can align the shots
automatically using its Photomerge Scene Cleaner. You can
then erase people with a quick scribble, as you’ll see from
our walkthrough below.Remove elements
from a scene
Use the Scene Cleaner tool
to remove distracting people
from a busy location
2
Grab the Pencil
Click Open All. Photomerge colour codes the borders
of each shot and places the blue shot into the Source
window. Drag the yellow shot into the Final window. Now go
to the Panel on the right and click the Pencil tool icon. Drag
the Size slider right to a value of 50 or so.1
Open Photomerge
Open our two starting images – ty_elements27.jpg and
ty_elements28.jpg. In Elements 13, use the Expert edit-
ing mode and go to Enhance>Photomerge>Photomerge Scene
Cleaner. In Elements 1, you access the Photomerge options
from the Guided mode instead, where it has its own section.BEFORE
BEFORE
GET THE START FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/type-files