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Photo Editing examples

With the right tools, experience and know-how, such problems are much smaller than first believed. Below you will find a collection of images that have been modified. If you find you need someone else's face on someone in the family photo (estranged loved ones) or "junior" couldn't be there for this great shot, or simply your 7 photo honneymoon sunset panoramic from your grass hut in Tahiti needs to be realistic in one image, Spyder can help.

Click on the photos for the larger versions (most images). Demonstration images used here are compressed and shrunk for web viewing. Original images are normally significantly larger and uncompressed retaining the highest image quality possible.

The photos below were created in 2005 or earlier. Thereafter all image work has been under contract and copyrighted.

 
  Diving OriginalDiving Modified - With tropical fish This photo was taken by Spyder while diving at the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately, while one of the brightest photos, had no fish. Integrating fish from other, less vivid photos made this photo the ultimate, though artificial, example of the diving vacation.
 
    Seattle OriginalAlien Invasion at Seattle Space Needle With all the movies and television shows depicting alien invasions and flying saucers, I thought it was about time we had a close encounter somewhere near here. Since Vancouver is just too nice to be invaded by alien craft, I chose Seattle as the first target.
 
    Grass aloneGrass edited with Dog and Parachuter Skydiving can be a memorable experience. However, when your friend takes an embarrasing photo of you landing on a bush, only digital editing can correct the blunder. While I was at it, I added a few seagulls fleeing the area, and the family pet admiring the new skills of his master.
 
    This is the Iysus house at Rock Lake Estates, Calgary. The developer needed a photograph of the completed house as soon as possible. Due to construction and weather, the best time for the photo was at the open house. A few minor unwanted items are in the photo including some toold on the stairs, a folding chair in front of the garage door (this is the demo home, so the proper garage door is not installed), an orange power cable running along the grass, and it was an overcast day. The goal was to clean the image so that it looked more presentable.
    Iysus House Blended, Calgary Alberta, Rock Lake Estates
The first step was to blend the three images into one and clean the image. At this stage, only the tools from the front steps were removed. Blending the photos is not as simple as cut-and-paste. All photographs have lens curve distortion; like fish-eye photos that are obvious, the curvature of a camera lens makes straight lines curve and this effect increases from the centre of the image. Lighting direction and strength also affect a photo, shading and contrast differs between photos, especially if you use the "auto" setting on a camera. This is especially noticable in the sky, these images the sky is darker on the left than right.
    Iysus House Final, Calgary Alberta, Rock Lake Estates


Blending the sky is not normally an issue, and was done well above. However, the desired effect was a blue sky.

Finally, the sky is converted to a beautiful cloudless summer day, the chair and orange extension cord are removed, and the image is ready for use.

 
    Panoramic room, Kits Vancouver It is difficult to take a photo of an entire room from the corner without a wide angle lens. Even then, the photo is too fish-eyed to look any good. Taking photos and stitching them together often makes straight lines look like ocean waves because of the lens curve of each photo. The trick is to stitch and stretch the separate images while blending colours to make it seamless such as this one which was three photos (originals not available).
 
    Cancun Mexico is a beautiful place, with blue water and nearly rain free skies. This photo set was taken from the west point of the hotel beach row. The top 4 photos are the originals, stitched, colour blended and lens curve adjusted to make this seamless panoramic. You may notice how the sky and sea is shaded on the left of each original photo, but is balanced in the final panoramic compilation.

Cancun 1/4Cancun 2/4Cancun 3/4Cancun 4/4

Cancun Panoramic