Taking Pictures at Popular Tourist Sites Minus the People

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://lifehacker.com/5549135/take-a-people+free-photo-in-a-crowded-place' target='_blank'>http://lifehacker.com/5549135/take-...a-crowded-place</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"You're at a popular location and you really would love a photo of the place without all the people in the way. Looks like you're out of luck and you should just buy a postcard, right? Not with this clever trick."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1274978901.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>The end result is pretty cool, but unfortunately the end result requires Photoshop, a very expensive tool that most people don't own. A comment in the Lifehacker thread mentions an interesting alternative: using an ND filter to allow long exposure times. The idea being that with a long enough exposure, most people will move in and out of the frame, essentially blurring away. You'll need to fix the clouds up after though, so make a snapshot of the clouds separately. Boy, seems like a lot of work, doesn't it? Maybe it's better to just yell "MOVE!" really loudly. ;-)</p>

[Gordo]

Another option is to use the free tourist remover (http://www.snapmania.com/info/en/trm/). You just take multiple images, with moving tourists, cars, bikes, etc. upoload them to the web site and it removes the unwanted objects.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

You need a 9-10 stop ND filter, and if someone tarries that's it. :P

And you can also combine exposures as mentioned. Set your camera to say, 10 stops underexposed and take 10 pictures. Make sure the elements in the scene aren't moving though, else you'll need software to compensate for that.