An Experiment (please humor me!)

[pnodrog]

Apart from skies the only other thing I often need to do is adjust perspective but the EXIF indicates you were using a focal length of 73mm which for this shot I doubt would have needed much correction. The verticals look fine.

[Val Mansfield]

What strikes me as odd is that there are no TV aerials. I will often clone them out on older buildings; or maybe everyone has cable TV?

[JPS]

Have you remove telephone / electricity overhead cables?

[Plumcrak]

I think John is on to something here...

[Lon Howard]

Val and John, share a virtual bowl of cherries on me! Yes, wires and poles and posts - the bane of so many pretty photos. And then what do do about them. Dinner getting cold now but soon I will post the original. What struck me after I zapped them was deciding whether or not I went too far. Of course having done it myself I was perhaps overly conscious of that? Does it look strange or not? Since it took a little while for most to be aware of it, I'm guessing not but in today's world maybe it does look somewhat weird. So that's what I'd like to get opinions on. Would many serious photography aficionados spot that right away and say, "Oh my, you shouldn't do that!"? OK back to dinner and will check back in later. Nice work, you two, and thanks to all!

Lon

[Graystar]

Does it look strange or not?

Not to me...but then again I grew up in Manhattan, so I'm used to not-seeing utility poles.

[Plumcrak]

I don't think it is out of place to clone out poles and cables...the buildings in this scene have an "old world" feel to them and poles and cables don't belong. IMO

I like it.

[Lon Howard]

Here is the 'original', after ACR as yet untouched in PS. I knew that it is more or less acceptable to erase wires and the like from photos but in some images - such as this one - when there is such a proliferation of them I have sometimes felt that erasing all of them might appear odd, especially in locations where you would expect them to be present. A similar example of this idea was pointed out to me in my camera club once when I showed an image in which shadows were lessened, prompting the critiquer to remark that it looked unnatural for shadows to be 'helped' when you would expect them to be prevalent. Anyway, going through this image I looked for stopping off points to stop erasing the 'distractions;' I just never found one though. It seems that the absence of the wires/poles, etc. didn't jump out so I'm inclined to not worry about erasing all of them in the future, unless I'm trying to tell a story that needs them. I really appreciate everyone's input!

Note to Paul because he's also in the Pacific Northwest: It's downtown Poulsbo - like Ballard also known as Little Norway, at least in Kitsap County.

[jeeperman]

I thought it looked familiar.

[chrisletts]

Apologies, but I don't see the point in cloning out poles and wires etc - the whole street is full of cars so it's never going to look 'olde-worlde' !!

[jordand]

Thinking globally, I’ll take a wild guess about what's missing here.
There’s not a single wire in this photo.
Apart from this, the upper edge of the white building, behind the watch and the blue lamp in the middle looks a bit weird to me.

[Melkus]

Well you did a good job cloning them out. Stuff like that when I'm out and about I always try to be conscious about it and try not to get them in my photo but sometimes you can help it and it's good to know how to clone.

[wmoore]

Didn't think of the power lines. I was going to say the guy carrying what looks like a gun on him. Strange to us outside the US.

[Inkanyezi]

It's funny. Of course we see different things, and being from very different parts of the world, we may notice such oddities as cars on the supposedly wrong side of the road. My own impression was that the scene is a Potemkin village, which to me is very odd. The mention of "little Norway", which is indicated by the flag behind the clock, is downright shocking. The town appearance does not in any way resemble Norway (no way), to me it belches out, loud and clear, this is a Potemkin village in the USA, where else? Those false fronts of buildings at the side of the street should be embarrassing to the city dwellers, it's downright tasteless, and it does not resemble Norway. If it was prepared once for a market, just as some kind of masquerade, but it seems kind of permanent. So that stood out loud and clear, cables and street lights aside, so much that it looks even more appropriate without those cables.

[CLK]

The man on the right with the motorcycle mirror on his stomach. I thought he had a hole in his shirt at first. What I noticed first and foremost and it is more composition and something I am sure I would do, it is that red clock seems to be smack in the middle and draws the eye without being the intended subject of the picture. If I had known originally that it was in the NW, I would say that the rain and clouds are missing.

[KCBrecks]

It does look so much cleaner without the poles and wires, in fact it is closer to what I think our brains would automatically do for us. I am sure we tune these irritations out when we look at a scene, then get really cross when they are glaring at us from a picture. Funny old things these brains of ours.

When I was sitting staring at your first post I would never have thought of the telephone wires. It is obviously not a UK scene so I wouldn't have sufficient knowledge of your local bye-laws on these matters. I checked some shots I have from Clermont, Florida and sure enough the town was festooned with them. Then I looked at Tarpon Springs and the ones of the harbour areas didn't have them, nor the seafront at Daytona or around the very expensive beachfront properties. Everywhere else does though.

I really like the picture though and the town looks like one which would be interesting to visit. There was one guy in the middle of it, by the woman with the pushchair (stroller?) who looks as though he might be doing something he could be arrested for, but perhaps I was just being suspicious.

Keith

[Mito]

I didn't know that there was TV and electricty there.

[Lon Howard]

Connie, thanks for pointing out that the clock is near the middle of the frame. It is actually less so in the final version (post #1) but could be moved even a little more to the left. I did intend it to be a resting spot for the eye.

For me anyway, the point of erasing wires and such is not to make something appear old world but to develop an image with more pretty things and less ugly things. I'm actually glad to see that there are some who feel it can look at least a little odd (more than a little, with some).

Jordan, the right portion of the upper edge of the white building actually is cut away somehow, as shown in the original. I'm sure you can pixel peep to find real anomalies along that edge, though.

The Norwegian flags around town are fairly ubiquitous ... there are also Viking sailing ships painted on the sides of buildings, etc. Most, if not all, of the town's founders were Scandinavian born so that legacy is authentic; mandating building codes to keep the appearance 'pure' was thought to be a step too far, I'm sure.

Maybe the town does bear watching, though; what with suspicious skies, ghost reflections, people walking around with who knows what tucked away. Can you spot the Stepford Wife?