Removing people from a landscape scene

When photographing landscapes or iconic locations during a vacation, you may encounter a beautiful scene where the presence of people detracts from the mood you are trying to capture. In this blog, I will describe two methods for removing people from a scene.  The first approach is to use a long exposure, typically 30 seconds or longer. When people are moving through the scene, their movement prevents them from being clearly recorded in the image, making them appear blurred or disappear entirely. This technique may require the use of a neutral density (ND) filter to reduce the amount of light reaching the camera sensor, allowing for a longer shutter speed. The second approach is to take several photographs using identical camera settings at regular intervals, such as 30 seconds apart. These images can then be blended together during post-processing by replacing areas containing people with the corresponding parts of the scene from other images where those areas are unobstructed. I used this technique at Peggy’s Cove, where many people were present in the scene. I captured three photographs approximately 30 seconds apart and then blended them in post-processing to replace the people with unobstructed portions of the landscape from the other images. Using this method, you can transform a busy tourist location into a clean and visually appealing landscape photograph.

This image was one of the three images taken with many people within the scene.