Scripts Statistics { removing tourists }

Can't stand it when you want to take a picture of a cool landscape, monument or structure but the place is littered with tourists? I saw this trick on www.improvephotography.com. This technique uses Scripts to accomplish tourist elimination.

1. Set your camera on a tripod.
2. Take a picture about every 10 seconds until you have about 15 shots, depending on how fast people are walking around.
3. Open all the images in Photoshop by going to File > Scripts > Statistics.   Choose “median” and select the files you took. Note: if you shoot in RAW you will have to go through the Camera RAW screen first.
4. PS finds what is different in the photos and removes it.  Hopefully since the people are milling about, there should be gaps, and PS fills the area where someone was standing with part of another photo where no one was there.

Note: If you have PS Elements, the “statistics” script is not available; however, multiple posts commented, you can get a somewhat similar effect in recent versions of Photoshop Elements by going to Enhance > Photomerge > Scene Cleaner.

{ photo courtesy of Jim Harmer, ImprovePhotography.com }