Clutter in indoor photos

[Quarterpounder]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

With my new Q2, I have documented a conference (think international summit, diplomats gathering etc) where I was an attendant and speaker. Working on the post-production revealed a lot of visual clutter - halogen downlights, emergency exit signs, power outlets, HVAC and so on. I am using Apple's Photo app for editing and removed a lot of these things with the Retouche function.

What are your experiences and opinions on this topic?

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[250swb]

Embrace the clutter, it's part of everyday life so make a point of it, if you can't avoid it in the composition make it a feature rather than an annoyance. If it's to stand as an historical and accurate set of photographs should they be edited to remove things, or to show how it really was? Removing a wire in the sky of a landscape could be an aesthetic consideration in a personal photograph, but dealing with clutter and still making the point is something photographers have always been able to do before the days when they could be cloned out. 

[LocalHero1953]

Three things come to mind when I see clutter in an image, in order of priority:

1. I should have seen it at the time and managed the composition to avoid it (or made it part of the composition). That's part of developing a photographer's eye (work in progress for me). Recognising your own failures in composition really does make you a better photographer over time. Photoshop them out routinely and you're missing an opportunity to improve.
2. It is part of the scene and should be retained for reasons of truth.
3. I will remove objects in photographs of stage performance: fire exit signs, a stage manager's hand, a wall clock, a power socket, a fire extinguisher in the wings, a spotlight. In these cases I am creating a picture analogous to a painter, who picks and chooses what should be in his frame - they can leave out power lines and no one will criticise them. 

 

[pgk]

4 hours ago, Quarterpounder said:

What are your experiences and opinions on this topic?

I used to cover events shooting film. If you didn't get a shot right in camera by avoiding or utilising 'clutter' as part of the composition, you might not get the next job. It was a steep learning curve which was not reliant on software later on.

[Tom R]

You’ll get lots of opinions on the question of “whether one should remove, edit, etc., an image post processing (as opposed to on-site/on-scene)." This type of question has been debated for nearly a century. I don’t think that you’ll have a “definitive” answer. In the end, it is a personal (or a business) decision. 

[Quarterpounder]

In the case of small clutter, like all the details on walls and ceilings of commercial buildings, only a tele lens can isolate the subject from its surroundings.

[jaapv]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

On 10/25/2024 at 5:32 PM, Quarterpounder said:

In the case of small clutter, like all the details on walls and ceilings of commercial buildings, only a tele lens can isolate the subject from its surroundings.

Or a crop 🤩