There is typically something in a vacation snapshot that keeps it from receiving thousands of social media likes, such as a photobombing bystander or an unattractive lamppost.
Or perhaps something you simply cannot stand to look at, such as an ex-partner.
However, Google provides a solution. Its Pixel 6 Pro includes a “Magic Eraser” feature that promises to eliminate “photobombers and undesirable objects” with “only a few taps.”
It’s not a new concept, but unlike specialized editing apps or Photoshop, the ‘Magic Eraser’ is integrated into the phone’s photo album, among filters and cropping.
Before boarding our train in London’s Paddington Station, we test out Magic Eraser; as people enter the frame of an image we’ve snapped outside the train, it proposes erasing them. One-click and they are gone, leaving behind their belongings.
We arrive at the Carbis Bay Hotel, which hosted the G7 Summit last year and is located along the coast from St. Ives, after one train ride. Sea views from the floor-to-ceiling windows of our beachfront suite are almost too magnificent to be true. Attempting to remove the suite’s coffee table from the image while capturing the vista with a mobile phone, which works but leaves a ghostly shadow behind.
We spend the afternoon at the hotel’s heated pool, which overlooks Carbis Bay, despite the beach’s allure. The scene is perfect for a holiday album, especially after erasing the other swimmers with an eraser to make it appear as though we have the lagoon to ourselves.
The following morning, we follow the coastal walk to St. Ives, erasing stray lampposts and traffic cones from our images as we go. A local informs us that the G7 Summit has brought more tourists to this area of Cornwall than ever before, and the conditions are ideal for photobombing as we make our way through the crowds to Porthmeor Beach.
The next destination on our holiday-snapshot tour is the eco-attraction Eden Project, where we observe the world’s largest indoor rainforest and a few soon-to-be-erased tourists.
While our images may pale in contrast to those of a genuine travel influencer – in part because I’m not particularly skilled at photography, to begin with – the Magic Eraser tool has substantially improved them. In direct sunshine, when items are positioned against a clear background such as a blue sky, the tool performs optimally. Anything with a pattern or three-dimensional surface behind it can be more difficult to remove and adds a tiny blur to the photograph, but generally, it makes for a much more memorable souvenir of a vacation.
The following day, on our way to the train station, we peek back at the breathtaking Cornish coastline. We have numerous picture-perfect images to help us recall it.
