This is an article that was basically made for me, since I tend to take pictures in my house with three kids. Even now, while we are trying to sell our house, there is never a lack of clutter around here.
So here are my 4 tips on removing clutter from photos:
1. Physically remove it.
Sometimes, it is just easier to pull a trash can and a few chairs out of the way or throw toys into a basket and slide it out of the frame.
2. Get close
Get close to your subject and open your aperture as much as possible to “blur” the clutter out.
Never underestimate the power of close-up shots with an aperture setting of between 1.8 and 4.0.
3. Remove it in post-processing.
I was taking some pictures of Henry on our bed the other day, but our ugly brass bathroom doorknobs made it into the background.
So I just cloned them out in Photoshop … there are many tutorials for this already posted here on IHF.
4. Embrace it.
Sometimes, it’s just not possible to remove the clutter, so embrace this as part of “lifestyle photography” and go with it.
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Keli Hoskins is a busy mom of 3 kids, 5 and under. She spends her days changing diapers and cleaning the house and playing Candy Land and making sure her kindergartener gets to school on time and doing laundry and snuggling babies and making supper and occasionally taking pictures. And that’s just the stuff she does for fun! You can follow her life and photos at Kidnapped by Suburbia.
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These are great tips but not seeing a tutorial on cloning out anywhere. Links just take me back to the same page.
Great tips! Sometimes I like to capture the ‘real life’ bc it contributes to the emotion I feel when I look at the picture. Other times I just want the focus on a face or task and the clutter takes away from the photo. Always depends. Helps me to think it through as I read this. Thanks!
Alicia Johnson @ Tampa wedding photographer recently posted..New Port Richey Family Photographer Martinez Family
Removing Clutter from Photos {Photography Tutorial} http://t.co/bLFGdcA4
Removing Clutter from Photos {Photography Tutorial} http://t.co/bLFGdcA4
Removing Clutter from Photos {Photography Tutorial} #photography http://t.co/mvzp4Gln
Adorable pictures!
Taking pictures of people can be both exciting and challenging. They are actually among the best subjects of photographers. People have the ability to show different expressions. Images of people are vibrant attractions in different scenes whether main point of interest or balancing element.
Very practical tips! I particularly like the embrace it one:).
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Great tips for simplifying your images! —>RT @iheartfaces: Removing Clutter from Photos {Photography Tutorial} http://t.co/zhiYNr2e
Since you’ve seen my house, you know this post was made for me
Ha ha!! Great job, Keli!
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Removing Clutter from Photos {Photography Tutorial} http://t.co/DGu2oSR2
Great article!
Sometimes I make a duplicate in Elements, Gaussian blur, make a mask, go back to copy and Command (Mac) G, back to mask and using soft brush blur out the items in background. I can control the amount with the amount of hardness. It looks like you’ve used a prime lens with good brokeh.
Or, like the last picture you did, I just make in high contrast black and white, and it looks very nice, you see all the details and shapes.
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