Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: We Fix Pix

There are a number of people that specialize is searching out "bad MLS photos".

http://www.orlandorealestatephotography.com/bad_mls/bad_mls.html

http://www.reagentinct.com/category/bad-mls-photo-of-the-day/

http://activerain.com/blogsview/217901/BAD-PHOTO-Sinking

And I know there are many, many more examples out there.

Some of the photos are bad simply because no one asked the resident to remove his or her clutter-stuff before the photos were shot.  Some are bad because they were taken from a particularly bad perspective:  I.E., Nothing in the shot except one blank wall.  Some are technically bad:  Out-of-focus, underexposed, or over-exposed. 

Some are bad, but fixable.

And that's my proposal for all you Photoshop Gurus out there.  Find some bad but fixable photos, fix them, post the before and after, and the information about what you did to fix them.

Thanks to Kevin Tomlinson, I'm kicking off this series with a really easy fix.  A couple weeks ago Kevin posted this in his "Heinous MLS Photo of the Week" series.  And in Kevin's own words "This picture isn't that horrible, if you can keep from noticing dustpan IN THE CENTER OF THE PHOTO".

So, here goes, Let's Fix It:

This is the original photo:

Yeah, that DUSTPAN has got to go. 

In Photoshop, the Clone Stamp is the tool for the job.  I'm doing this in Photoshop Elements 5 -- I figure that's what most members probably have right now...

The Clone Stamp can be found here in the Elements toolbox

(I like the way the book "Photoshop Elements 5 The Missing Manual" describes the toolbox icons:

"Like any good toolbox, the Elements Toolbox has lots of hidden drawers tucked away in it.  Many Elements tools are actually groups of tools which are by tiny black triangles on the lower-right side of the tool icon".)

Go ahead and click on the Clone Stamp Tool.

First select a "donor" area by ALT clicking somewhere in the walkway.  Then click on the dustpan to "paint" the color from the donor area over the dustpan. 

I've said this before, but it bears repeating:  One secret to successful cloning is to keep reselecting the donor area.  Each time maybe from a slightly different position to pick up minor color variations.  Think of an artist dabbing his/her palette, then dabbing on his/her painting.  Then back to the palette-dab a little more, back to the painting-dab a little more.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Dab the palette, dab the painting.  That's the idea.

After wiping out the dustpan, switch to a smaller brush to cover the dustpan handle showing at the bottom of the doorframe.

Keep on with the dab-and-cover thing until you are satisifed with the result.  This is good enough for now:

This image has one other problem.  The wall on the left is leaning.  That's an easy fix, too.

Hit  Select -> All

At this point, I alway grab the lower right corner of the "canvas" and drag it outwards to create a little working room for the next step.

Hit Image -> Transform -> Skew  (In full version Photoshop this tool is under Edit -> Transform -> Skew).  Grab the left upper corner -- see the tiny square handles? Grab one of those -- and drag outwards.  Try the opposite corner.  Try the lower corners.  Work with it until the vertical lines appear straight, then hit Enter to "commit" to the transformation.

OK.  Good enough for now.

So, here's the gig.  If you spot a bad MLS photo (that might be fixable)  send it, post it, whatever, and let's see what the resident experts here can do with it.  <s>.  I do hope they're all reading this blog this morning.