5 Tips on how to Avoid Photobombers and Remove them if necessary

Photobombers are the like the common cold of the photography world. There are certain precautions you can take to steer clear of them but inevitably, you’re bound to end up with one or a few. Below, AirBrush has outlined the best ways you can avoid photobombers the next time you venture out to capture some memories with your camera. And if, as predicted, you still wind up with a few photobombers, we have the solution for that as well. 

We may pretend to turn our noses up at tourist traps but they are unavoidable on your trip to certain locales. A sort of “pics or it didn’t happen” mandate. Would you seriously consider visiting Paris and not going to the Eiffel Tower or touring Sydney without taking a shot at the Opera House? Of course not. So avoid photobombers as much as possible by visiting these sites during their off-peak hours. The crowds should be substantially less or nonexistent depending on the hour in the a.m. or the p.m. An added bonus is the golden hours you get at dawn and dusk – use them to your advantage!

The truth is, you’ll probably be pressed for time and will be visiting the “sights” at the same time as other visitors. If you find yourself surrounded, take a second and evaluate the angles available to you. A couple of examples would be to take an extreme upward angle at the subject you what to capture. This way all that should be filling your frame is the subject, sky, and possibly tree branches. Additionally, you can use an existing obstacle and capture the subject from behind this cover. The obstacle blocks out the photobombers and unique composition is created.

Even if you’re unable to skip the crowds, you can minimize the number of photobombers in your pic by exercising a little patience. Make sure you’ve got a bit of time to burn with this one because you may need it. When you get to your location, choose your backdrop and where you want the camera and then prime yourself for the opportunity. What you’re waiting for is an ebb in the flow of people through your shooting site. We mean, it’s pretty universal that 3 photobombers are preferable to 10 and if you’re very lucky and really patient, you might get a few precious seconds of a completely empty backdrop.

Similar to our angles point, you can avoid photobombers with a tight crop. Will it be as scenic as you’re envisioning? Perhaps not. And panoramic shot without photobombers is extremely rare. Instead, focus on dialling in on the subject you’re trying to capture. That means the subject takes up most of the frame in the shot. As well, consider capturing smaller but still iconic subjects that are unique to the area you’re visiting. A recommended merchant in the Marrakesh market, an eye-catching tchotchke at Van Gogh is Bi Polar or a famous street sign in Venice (LA or Italy).

If you’re not caught up with having to visit the most notable sites when visiting your destination, consider getting off the tourist circuit. This takes doing a bit of research to find out where the hidden gems of a hidden location are. Trawl the travel blogs and influencers to get the scoop on the surrounding environs that you can travel to. For example, did you know that the Greek islands are made up of more than Santorini and Mykonos? There are actually 227 inhabited islands, any one of which affords you a better chance to avoid photobombers.

But let’s say you’ve tried your best and you still end up with a few, really irritating, photobombers that spoil another great picture. We can correct this fateful error with a few tools, laying ever ready.

Eraser is a powerhouse tool that literally lets you rub out photobombers until nothing but your desired backdrop remains. 

Use Stamp to “cut and paste” a photobomb-free section of the photo over the offending photobombers you couldn’t avoid.

The Bokeh Tool can blow out your background enough to make photobombers unrecognisable.

As we’ve mentioned above, filling up your frame with the desired subject is effective if you want to avoid photobombers. But there’s always the Crop tool waiting to do it digitally for you.

Blur is a very precise tool. You decide who gets blurred and how blurry they’ll be. We recommend aiming for a natural blurred effect.

Now we know that nobody wants photobombers in their photos but as we said at the top of this post if you’re taking pictures in a public location, it’s?going?to?happen?. That’s why AirBrush, the easy photo editor, gives as many options as you need to find the one that works best for the composition of your photo. We want to see what you come up with so when you post, be sure to tag them with #AirBrushApp and don’t forget to follow us @AirBrushOfficial for our latest tips and hacks!