Cellpic Sunday – Leaving Rio

Sail Away.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

We enjoyed our short visit to Rio and saw most of the iconic touristy places, but on Sail Away Day, we arrived at the pier before noon ready to board. After some disorganization in the process, we finally boarded the Norwegian Star. Soon it was time for the party on deck. Of course, I was more interested in the beautiful sunset appearing over the mountains in Brazil.

About the photo: When I loaded the image into Lightroom Classic, I noticed that my Samsung S23U captured too much of the deck and not enough of the sunset. Of course, I can’t blame the camera for my poor choice of composition. The deck was crowded with partiers and there were lots of heads at the bottom of the photo. In Lightroom Classic, I cropped the bottom and right side as much as I dared but there were still a few heads sticking up into the bottom of the image. I used Photoshop’s Generative Fill to remove the distractions. I am amazed at how well it determines what the background should be and makes intelligent attempts at replacement.

Once the removals were complete, I exported the image into Luminar Neo for final edits. There were some wires that were in the image above the cruise ship’s superstructure. Neo’s Powerline Removal tool made them go away. I added just a touch of Golden Hour enhancement and tweaked the structure in the sky to smooth the clouds a bit.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile deviceโ€ฆ If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, thatโ€™s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you donโ€™t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

46 comments

  1. Oh yes, todayโ€™s photo editors with AI make us redeem the shots beautifully that we might have otherwise discarded. I like the final result ๐Ÿ™‚. My entry here:

    Beneath

  2. John, what a great parting shot! I have seen the powers of Gen AI in Photoshop. I did an experiment with a selfie. I had the camera on a table that blocked the view of my right leg. Well, Gen AI deleted the table and got my leg with nearly 100% accuracy. It only missed the color of my shoes. A viewer, though, could not tell the difference.

    • Thanks, Egidio! By the way, your comment is one that recently appeared in my SPAM folder and I just discovered it this morning.
      AI replacement in both Photoshop and Luminar Neo can produce some amazing results that are more than acceptable. Sometimes, though, the result is, shall we say, less than desirable. >grin<

    • Thanks, Marsha! It’s especially hard when the venue is crowded for an event. I tried to get photos of the ceremony when we crossed the equator, but there were so many people that I rejected all of the images as not worth sharing. I couldn’t get close enough to the ceremony.

      • I can imagine. I have a Lightroom full of those kinds of images. What they show is the popularity of an event, so I still take them for some reason. When I took pictures for Kiwanis of our events, these kinds of pictures show the momentum of the events. Anymore I don’t know why I take them, but it’s a habit. ๐Ÿ™‚

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