May 06, 2007
Fun Photography Experiment
I forget where I read this idea, so I can't cite it, but it is out there somewhere. Someone wrote an article about how to get a good photo of a popular monument or location without having all the people show up. You've probably been there yourself. You get to a great spot and want to take a great picture of a the steps of Rome, but people keep getting in the way, it seems like they are ants crawling all over the place and you're mad because you can't get a decent picture of the steps and fountain themselves. That happened to us when we hike to Delicate Arch in Utah a few years ago. Anyway, the article said that if you used a tripod (the best thing since sliced bread) you can set it up and take several shots of the same scene (use your discretion as to how many shots to take) and then when you get home use photoshop to use layers and blend together several photos to get one photo where no people are in it. This assumes that people will move around and you will be able to erase them by going through the layers of your different shots. It is a simple yet brilliant idea. I decided to do the != experiment when we were in Yosemite. Timber and I wanted to get as high up and close to Glacier Point as we could so that we could keep Wookie cool but the road from highway 41 turning to head up to Glacier Point was closed. So we parked my truck and walked up Glacier Point Road a little more than a mile. Along the way I got the idea to set up my tripod in the middle of the road and take several pictures of Timber and Wookie walking up the road. Then when we got home I used the layering technique except this time I used it to make it look like the road was filled up with several Timbers and Wookies. The photo attached to this blog posting is the final result. I only spent about 15 minutes doing this because it was an experiment but I think the technique worked. Please kids, try this at home.