Remove distracting text

Here is a quick tip to remind you about how distracting text can be. One of the very first things that our eyes are drawn to is text… and that is great if we are trying to communicate something with that text… however incidental text can be very distracting to the over all feel and impact of an image.

Here is a shot I took of one of my sons… and granted it is not the greatest picture… but that is what you get when trying not to drop your camera or yourself in the water.

Especially since you can’t interact with his face… the text becomes one of the main areas of focus… great for the kayak company, but probably not what you are intending for the scene.

The image itself isn’t what is important here, but what is is the impact that text has. You probably don’t even notice it until it is gone. Compare the visual impact of the image above with the one below. There is a peacefulness that comes from removing the text, since the eye isn’t bouncing around trying to read all the words.

After just a bit of work with the Spot removal tool, the text is gone and the scene is more about a boy on the water, instead of an ad for the kayak.

So one of the question you should always ask yourself with in the develop module is… “Is there any text in the image that can be removed in order to help the overall impact of the scene?”