This is a photo I took of a Renault 4 automobile parked near the church in Meusnes nearly 20 years ago. I took it, and I edited it in Photoshop to take out some distracting elements in the image. Look at the photo on the left below and you'll see the back of a STOP sign and also a mailbox next to the door of a house. I took the photo because I owned an R4 for a year in Paris 40 years ago. It was a 1973 model and it looked a lot like this one — except mine was light blue, not gray. I paid $300 for it in 1981. And I sold it for $300 when I left Paris to return to the U.S. in 2002.
Using Photoshop to take out the STOP sign and mailbox was an afterthought. I was learning about tricks you could do in Photoshop. On the right above is a photo that I took of the church in Meusnes that same day.
And here's the same photo with the parked cars erased, again in Photoshop. I don't think it took more than a few minutes to remove them from the image.____________________________________________________________________
Last week I was writing about the trouble I was having complying with the new French occupancy declaration (déclaration d'occupation) that anybody who owns developed real estate (biens immobiliers) in France is required to file on-line this year. The complication for Walt and me was that our house is actually owned by a corporation that we set up when we bought the house 20 years ago. It took me a while to realize that we had to set up a professional tax page on the web. We couldn't claim to own the house as individuals.
Well, on Friday I got a mandatory, secure "activation code" from the tax authorities in the form of a letter delivered by the post office. Yesterday I entered the code on the French taxes website and voilà ! — details about our house and garden shed popped up on the screen, including the number of square meters of each building and the names of the occupants (Walt and I). All I had to do was click on a button saying the information was accurate, and it was done.
Glad your where able to fill and file this occupancy business. I’m still waiting from the “percepteur’s” answer.
ReplyDeleteIt is a lot of fun to remove unwanted features from photos. I used to do that a lot.
Once, we, my friends Pierre and Marthe, were going to visit the “Musée du Parfum” in the chateau de Chamerolles, and I was going to take a photo of the chateau when a woman was going to pass in front of me. She kind of stopped, hesitant. I told her don’t worry Madame, I’ll remove you from the photo. She looked at me really puzzled!
It just goes to show that you can't believe all that you see. French paperwork would be my downfall!
ReplyDeleteThe joys of French inheritance laws
ReplyDeleteNow that we're married (in New York, anyway) I think we don't need the real estate holding company.
ReplyDeleteIt's still amazing to me how this can be done with pictures... I've never done a thing with Photoshop.
ReplyDeleteSo glad about the tax situation being settled! Woo hoo! (I, personally, would hang on to that real estate holding company... too many things that we thought were settled, are coming undone over here in the U.S.).
Isn’t that the truth. 😡
DeleteBettyAnn
We'll have to consult the notaire about the advantages and disadvantages of keeping the SCI (real estate holding company) going. Or closing it down. I can only assume that our New York marriage is recognized as legitimate in France. It's recognized for tax purposes (we file jointly) and for health care benefits, so I don't think there's a problem. As Judy said, though, things we thought were settled are suddenly being struck down.
DeleteSo happy the tax thingy is taken care of. I’m with Judy, I’ve never done anything with photoshop.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
Excellent photoshop editing. It might have only taken you a few minutes but how long did it take for you to read and understand the directions? I would have to add to your numbers, I'm sure!
ReplyDeleteWhat a deal to buy that Renault, use if for three years and then get 100% of your money back when you sold it!
Pretty amazing stuff! Add me to the list of the photoshop inexperienced!
ReplyDeleteWhen I bought Photoshop, I was totally inexperienced. I began by working on each pixel at a time. It took forever to do very little, until I found how to use the stamp tool. And there are other tools. Photoshop is a great app and a lot of fun to use.
DeleteThanks chm and Ken for your encouragement. I'll have to give it a spin one of these days.
DeleteI learned a lot about Photoshop from CHM. I was amazed at how easily he edited and improved photos. At the time, I didn't yet have a digital camera. I probably had a scanner. So I bought Photoshop in the late '90s and started learning it. I've gotten better at it over the years, I think, or at least more comfortable. All the images I put on the blog pass through Photoshop, if only to be resized, but usually cropped, brightened, sharpened, contrasted, etc. Cameras are great tools, and Photoshop is too.
ReplyDelete