Comments on: Remove pesky tourists!

Remove pesky tourists!

ObscureReferenceMan — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:01:40 -0800

Tourist Remover. Sorry for the one-link post, but this is just too good an idea not to share. This clever (and free!) service removes extraneous stuff from pictures. Neat! Via.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:09:11 -0800

No need to apologize for a one-link post if it's good.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:23:42 -0800

I went on a family trip to Rome about seven years ago and half of the buildings there were being renovated and were obscured by scafolding. My dad and I decided that someone should design a "de-scafoldize" filter for Photoshop. That idea just popped back into my head while looking at this...

By: Mach5

Mach5 — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:27:49 -0800

Last time I was in Disney World, I made it a point to get in the background of other peoples pictures and look as weird as possible (yes, that's me, and yes, I'm an ass).

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:35:46 -0800

I took a picture of my cousin once removed, but it didn't turn out.

By: glenwood

glenwood — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:41:56 -0800

Good one-link posts are the best thing that ever happens here. And this is one.

By: numlok

numlok — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:43:40 -0800

Great app! Now I just need a stand-alone or Photoshop version for creating clean background plates for VFX work. (I wonder if the developers are even aware of this market base?) 2d3 was working on an impressive motion-capable version of a similar concept (called Pixeldust), but it seems that it never made it out of development.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:46:00 -0800

this is wonderful! thanks!

By: amberglow

amberglow — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:47:21 -0800

Mach5, you should make that into an animation (maybe with found text or something) : >

By: cmyk

cmyk — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:52:37 -0800

This is fantastic, thanks! (Mach5, you're my new MeFi crush for that.)

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:02:55 -0800

I try to be emotionally removed from the people in mylife. Will this program help?

By: triolus

triolus — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:03:04 -0800

Repeating what other have said.. one link posts are great if the content is good. On that note, this is awesome; it helps photoshop-challenged people like myself do some nice tricks. Got anymore? =)

By: gurple

gurple — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:15:05 -0800

I wonder how well it works if you keep a human subject in the picture. Would that person become blurred or otherwise distorted because of slight movements betwen the pics? Because really, if I want a picture of a famous building that's likely to have lots of tourists around it, I'll buy a postcard. Generally I want a picture of someone in FRONT of that building. Seems like, best case scenario, that'd require standing stock-still for five minutes while all the other tourists came and went. Great application of technology, but I can't see myself using it.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:33:59 -0800

Wowsers. That rules. And, because it bears repeating once more: never apologise for a one-link post, they are the life-blood of MetaFilter

By: ObscureReferenceMan

ObscureReferenceMan — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:49:05 -0800

Got anymore? =) No. But thanks for the feedback, one and all. In the past, I've held back from single links, and tried to create well thought out, researched posts. Must remember the key though; quality, not quantity.

By: bukharin

bukharin — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:54:03 -0800

By: TheGoldenOne

TheGoldenOne — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:58:42 -0800

Meh, what a silly thing. I'm with gurple on this one. Plus, I have no patience for people who haven't the patience to wait for the scene to clear. That's part of the zen of photography.

By: howa2396

howa2396 — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:22:59 -0800

Multi link posts piss me off.

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 16:21:59 -0800

I tend to wait for scenes to clear as well, but my best photos are usually where there are "unwanted" people in shot.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 16:34:39 -0800

Very clever idea, but only effective if you A) shoot with a tripod and B) manage to get a scene in which every spot is clear in at least one shot. This latter might be harder than it sounds. For example, you'd wait a long time to get an empty shot of Piazza San Marco or the Great Wall at Badaling this way.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 17:13:14 -0800

ObscureReferenceMan, Nice, thank you. It's Raining Florence Henderson , funny.

By: NewBornHippy

NewBornHippy — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 17:35:12 -0800

An extension should be offered to add the toursists you want after you have gotten rid of the unwanted ones. You could choose from a collection: that American clad in Hawaiian shirt and camera on belly, a smurf, some celebrities... I know its fairly trivial to do, but so is removing the unwanted ones.

By: arialblack

arialblack — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 18:59:07 -0800

The Interactive Digital Photomontage project from University of Washington's CS department has this feature, in addition to several more interesting capabilities for seamless combination. ( scroll down ). Also in video. You can download a demo (Win32/Linux, with source ) to try it out, although the interface takes some getting used to.

By: handee

handee — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 06:05:52 -0800

This reminds me of this video completion algorithm from Michal Irani. Her work is fantastic.

By: SteelyDuran

SteelyDuran — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 06:42:34 -0800

The Commissar Vanishes!

By: VulcanMike

VulcanMike — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 08:22:04 -0800

Microsoft Research's Group Shot.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 09:16:01 -0800

Microsoft has a free(beer) downloadable tool for WinXP that does something similiar called Group Shot. It lets you specify which parts of several images to include in a single composite. Because it is selective you could leave Aunt Molly and Uncle Bob or weird facial guy and exclude everyone else. ObscureReferenceMan writes "In the past, I've held back from single links, and tried to create well thought out, researched posts. Must remember the key though; quality, not quantity." The best FPPs are single links to something cool or "best" on the web. TheGoldenOne writes "Plus, I have no patience for people who haven't the patience to wait for the scene to clear." Lots of tourist destinations never clear.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 09:17:00 -0800

Apparently I need to preview more.

By: featherboa

featherboa — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 03:22:03 -0800

Living in a tourist-packed city, I've often wondered how many "our trip to London" photo albums I appear in. I kind of like that there are probably dozens of pictures of the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square with me in the background, because I happened to be walking past or waiting for a friend. Self obsessed? Me?

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 18:10:57 -0800

featherboa says: I've often wondered how many "our trip to London" photo albums I appear in. Well...you appear in all of mine, luv. I refuse, absolutely refuse to take pictures there *unless* you're in the background.