August 2023

Lincoln, Nebraska.

During the winter of 1930-31, an abandoned dump site was recycled as part of a Depression-era city program for unemployed workers. Originally called the “Rock Garden,” the fountains and structures were terraced on 1.5 acres of land donated by local families. By the spring of 1931, the Gardens were in full bloom and open to the public. I told the story of the gardens in an earlier post here.

About the photo: I like the composition of this photo, as it captures many of the beautiful garden plots in a single image. However, there was a significant flaw: a substantial light leak from the setting sun intruded at the left edge of the photo. I thought I’d share my workflow to remove the leak. Here’s the original image for comparison.

My Samsung S23U was used to capture the photograph, and when I first saw it, I decided it wasn’t good enough to use. Since the photo was taken, I’ve learned much about masking and making local edits. Most of that skill set was learned by creating the day-to-night images I’ve shared here occasionally.

Before using Lightroom Classic’s masking tools, I removed the people from the image. I could have done that in Lightroom, but I’ve found that Photoshop’s Remove Distractions AI often does a better job. I sent the photo to Photoshop 2025, using Remove Distractions to find and remove the people. I also removed the small blue sign in the bottom right corner of the picture.

I sent the image back to Lightroom Classic, started using the Mask tool to create a linear gradient mask in the upper right corner, and brought the mask down from the upper right, covering the hazy part of the light leak. The tools I used to bring out the detail were Dehaze and Clarity. I adjusted the sliders to reveal the detail stored in the image.

I then used a radial gradient to create an oval mask over the stairs. Again, I used the Clarity and Dehaze sliders to improve the detail and remove haze from the bright area just above the stairway. Then, I noticed that Photoshop hadn’t removed all the people in the image.

In the original photo, two boys were at the top of the stairs. One was standing at the top, and one was sitting on the rail. Photoshop highlighted and removed the boy at the top, but apparently failed to notice the boy sitting on the rail. By then, I was too far along to send it back to Photoshop (though I certainly could have). I experimented with Lightroom Classic’s removal tool, but it didn’t give me a clean removal, smearing the detail in the shrub behind the boy. I opted to leave well enough alone. Had I not mentioned the boy, I doubt anyone would notice him. The lesson is to scrutinize an AI tool’s edit before continuing your workflow. I’ve created a gallery on my Flickr site in 2K HD here for a more detailed look at the image edits.

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 device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. 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, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner