“Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?”
(“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen)
This is my photograph of the Episcopal Church in Island Pond, Vermont, after removing electrical wires and poles and adding a watercolor filter in Photoshop. Click on the photo to see it in a larger size.
On a recent trip to Vermont, my fantasy was to find a quintessential New England church that was surrounded by trees glowing with brilliant Autumn colors. I found the tree in the Northern Kingdom of Vermont, but it was also surrounded by more than a dozen strings of electrical wires and one large utility pole.
As a long-time journalist, I hesitate to change reality in a photograph, even though the camera does lie somewhat with lens distortion, not capturing true color and other defects, but as an artist I didn’t hesitate one second to remove all of the electrical debris. Easier said than done, though. When you remove an element from a photograph, the deleted spots must be replaced by pixels that look natural. I used the clone brush to make the changes. I didn’t do it all at once, but in about half-hour increments over a series of weeks, because the work was incredibly tedious. I also straightened the photo a little to fix lens distortion.
After many hours, I’m happy with the result. Hope my fantasy looks real! And thanks to my husband Mike and friend Phil who were very patient while I wandered around Island Pond with my camera. There was a gorgeous shot everywhere I looked! I posted these photographs on a couple of websites.
Be sure to click on my post “Fauxtography” Altering reality in a photograph, linked below.
This is my original photograph of the Episcopal Church in Island Pond, Vermont, before I did any editing. Note all of the wires and the guardrail of the street in front of the church. I removed all of that with Photoshop.
“Fauxtography” Altering reality in a photograph.
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Catherine Sherman 