Improvement of images through editing

Above:  Original photo taken by Monica Meggait
Below:  Same photograph edited by Eric Svendsen

Rarely will I take a photograph and use it without any adjustments.  I find there is always something that can be improved.  This particular photograph (top image) was posted on Facebook by a friend.  What spurred me into action was a comment by another viewer who thought the wonderful shot would be improved if only the wires weren't in the way.  They are the bane of the photographer's existence and many a photo has been ruined by their ungraceful appearance.  "Not this time!", I thought.

Prodded by the injustice, I was determined to whisk the wicked wires away.  And so, with my trusty Photoshop application in hand and my dog by my side, I began the process of righting the wicked wrong.  

There are actually a number of editing programs that will allow you to alter a scene.  I use Photoshop CS for most of my work, although Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, and even Paint are occasionally used by me.  In this case, I used the program's Clone tool to remove the offending pixels,  I find there are numerous ways to achieve the same thing in Photoshop, the Healing tool comes to mind, but I like the control I have with the Clone tool.  You can see some of the tool's parameters I captured using the "print screen" button below.


After cleaning up the wires and poles I adjusted the colour (saturation and vibrance adjustment), contrast (applied a curve to the image), and finally removed artifacts using a noise filter.  Monica's friend was right.  It does look better without the wires.  

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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